A slightly unusual August this year... As part of a team of ten British teachers, I worked with about fifty Malawian colleagues in two different locations in the country. Malawi is one of Africa's poorest nations, and we went over there as part of the 'skills share' programme set up by the Diocese of Birmingham. Our aim was to share practical, child-focused teaching ideas requiring nothing but the most basic resources.
Our team boasted a huge range of experience and skills - from a former Chief Inspector of schools to a lowly NQT (me!). Together we had spent weeks preparing sessions addressing the majority of the curriculum subjects as well as various other aspects of school life including pastoral care, rewards and behaviour management. We had also all organised various fundraising activities, including my Cotswold Way expedition, in order to raise enough money to cover all the expenses of our Malawian friends to allow as much access to our workshops as possible.
Our very first day over there started with a planned visit to a school. Expecting an empty building with just the head teacher showing us around, we were astonished to be welcomed by some 500 children, performing a wonderful traditional dance and song! As the week unfolded, we got to know our Malawian friends and the various challenges they face in the classroom – huge classes (one teacher, Ibu, taught a class of 209 children last year...); limited, if any, resources (and we’re not talking white boards or work schemes, or even calculators and dictionaries – we’re talking chairs, tables, chalk, pencils and paper); extreme government interference (sound familiar?) and lack of subject knowledge training.
We worked closely over the weeks, introducing practical ideas for different subjects. Some of the most memorable of our sessions included TALULAR (Teaching And Learning Using Locally Available Resources) such as counting sticks, string and bottle caps to effectively teach basic numeracy, place value, graphs and charts; using hotseating, freeze-frames and simple poetry to explore stories; air- and back-writing to develop handwriting and sound sentences to practise punctuation. During our science time, we shared ideas on how to approach abstract concepts such as electricity, circulation and the solar system using the simplest of resources. Did you know that if the sun was scaled down to the size of a ping-pong ball (or large pebble), the next nearest star would be 264 km away?!
Overall, this was a truly inspiring and profoundly moving experience. I can’t wait to return, hopefully in the not too distant future. For further information, including any requests for contact details for schools in Malawi, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at
teachmalawi2011@gmail.com.