A letter from Nigeria: 2021 Summer Report

January

School resumed on 18th January 2021 for the second term of the academic year and the first week was spent revising the material from the previous term to refresh the pupils' minds.

February

 February was devoted to academic work as school events and large gatherings were not allowed and the term was only 6 weeks long due to Corona.

March

March kicked off with preparations for the second term examinations. We held revision sessions for the pupils from 8th til 12th March. Exams started on 15th March and continued through to 19th March. The exam transcripts were marked and graded and results were collected by the parents on 26th March, the last day of the school term and, after this, all the children went on school holidays.

April

Third term resumed and on 12th April we held revision classes for the first week back and then the full academic timetable began again during the second week.

Careers Day: the school held Careers Day on Friday 30th April and pupils came to school dressed up in various costumes indicating what they wanted to be when they grow up. It was a very colourful event and the pupils made presentations of their respective "careers", including the armed forces, chefs, engineers, bankers, teachers, health workers and lots more. The Careers Day finished early as the teaching staff felt this was a good opportunity to encourage the pupils to work hard in order to achieve their career dreams in the future.

April - May

The third term resumed in April and academic activities were in full swing. The school borehole was repaired with the help of the

Greenfinity Foundation and now we have clean, running water for the children to drink and wash their hands with - more important than ever before in light of Corona. We had several of the walls outside and inside the school decorated with popular children's television and book characters. We felt this would make the school a brighter and jollier place to be and it covered up the damage caused by the heavy rainfall last year.

Children's Day

Children's Day was celebrated at school and, to do this, we bought snacks and sweets for the children and set out chairs and a canopy. We received the new text books the children have loved using these as they make learning far more fun and interesting. A big thank you goes out to the Child & Family Foundation! The day kicked off at 9AM on Thursday morning and all the children came to school dressed up in ceremonial outfits. One pupil was nominated to be Head Teacher for the day.The following talks and activities were organised:

Life Skills: How to save money & the environment

• How to save water by not leaving the tap running when we're not using it
• Turning off lights when we're not in the room
• How to make clothes last longer: repairing them, wearing them with care and giving handmedowns to brothers and sisters

Personal Hygiene

• How to take care of our teeth, nails and the rest of our body properly

Kindness

• How to communicate with others to avoid disagreement

Activities

• A band played, we held a dancing competition and the children could have their face painted and play games. Sadly, the sun was too strong for the children to play outdoors, so instead we handed out the drinks, snacks and sweeties. The children enjoyed themselves so much that they didn't want to go home. The celebrations reluctantly came to a close at 1pm.

Very sadly, Nigeria has been hit by high inflation at the moment, meaning the price of everything has increased by roughly 45%. As such, there a few items which the children badly need which we haven't been able to purchase, such as:

Exercise books

ID cards

Report booklets

The children's graduation ceremony

20 extra tables and chairs