Graduation time

Graduation is now starting to be in our minds – this is the huge show at the end of the year where pupils perform songs , poems and plays to parents and is seen as the big event of the year !

        This year I thought that I would be organised and rather than mess around with tapes, recording crackerly music, then I would use the wonderful collections of songs that our UN online volunteers had found for us ! Initially this all went well – the songs were on the CD, the words written out, the actions decided upon and costumes and masks starting to be prepared. However, there was one rather major problem – that we have only one CD player and when we put the CD into the machine it wouldn’t work ! – we spent a day trailing around the music shops in Nazret, trying to find somewhere that had a CD machine so we could record on tape – but no such technology exists in the town of Nazret !

                 We were worried but not excessively so since we were going up to Addis – however, forgot that in Adds there is the problem of power ( as with most years prior to the rainy season  they are now on scheduled power cuts – one day on and one day off ! ) so again didn’t manage to find a place with both power and technology !

                 This means that although my intentions were great – in fact I will have to go back again to the crackerly tapes ! – a frustration indeed ! 

Sponsor a student!

The end of the year is only 8 weeks away – and although that sounds a lot, we have only 4 more weeks teaching time – then  exam week, compulsory marking week ( not sure what we are really supposed to be doing then – it doesn’t take a week to mark exams and since we have continuous assessment, then it isn’t a huge deal ! ) graduation practise week ( again compulsory ! ) and then at long last after a bit of a protracted end of the school year- graduation on Saturday 7^thJuly !

            Wonderful to be completing the school year – but so scary at the same time ! – on the positive side we have achieved so very very much – the school really has been revolutionised through our being here full time – everyone has worked so hard and learnt so much that although it has been a struggle, it has been worth it !

  On the negative side – this means that once again, we are looking for child sponsorships ! – this year has seen the record number of pupils who started the year paying the minimal school fee and then problems have hit and they can’t afford to pay anything any longer – children who have parents die from Aids, kids whose families have lost their jobs and those families who have simply been hit with the rapidly rising food and living costs !

    However, at the same time as economics playing a huge part in our pupils lives, this is reflected in the rest of the world , thus people are finding it more and more difficult to afford a full sponsorship $ 227 / £ 140 ) or even a half sponsorship ( $ 113 / £ 70 )  - thus we have now set up a crowdfunder account – ( available for only the next 40 days or so )  for those who want to help pupils receive a sponsorship and thus a chance to break their cycle of poverty – a donation of a minimal £ 10 can be contributed –  for more details see

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/educate-poor-ethiopian-children-884

How fast the year has flown!

Exams are now over! – they have been a bit of a struggle for the staff due to staff shortages meaning that we were all overstretched however at long last they are over and the children as a whole have done extremely well ! Our only disappointment has been grade 4 maths – all pupils struggled with the exam which wasn’t particularly hard – but the good thing is that it has shown me that I need to make lesson plans for maths for everyone (currently only make plans for the KG and grade 1 since although I am quite good at maths I really really hate it!!) – So I suppose there is a silver lining in everything!        It is shocking to realise that it is almost May – which means almost June and the end of the school year! – This year has zoomed by so fast its shocking!  We really did want to get enough funds to start grade 5 this year but unless there is a last minute miracle then it looks as if yet again we will simply have to say goodbye to our current grade 4 pupils and send them out into the world! – their prospects aren’t that good for when they leave the school – some will give up education all together ( at the tender age of 12 ish ) and the best that they will get is a poor quality part time education at the local government school. So upsetting that money can control their future – a mere ( to some ) £ 4,000 ( $ 7,000 ) would enable us to rent somewhere and start and although  we have applied for grants to get us going, unfortunately none of them have come through !  Still – the year isn’t over yet and we haven’t said our teary goodbyes – so our spirit of hope is still alive and kicking!  All the best, Stephanie

HAPPY ETHIOPIAN EASTER from English Alive Academy – 15th April 2012

This first quarter has been an exciting one –

A fantastic 5,000 Euro grant for our new school ( only another 8,000 pounds needed and then we can get a huge 4,000 square metre piece of land which would be great not only for the proposed grade 5 – 8 but also for the kindergarten and grade 1 – 4

An exciting new music programme – including the making of our own CD in collaboration with a UK school choir

Our first ever art competition – with a 90 % entry rate from all classes, which will be developed through a fantastic art programme currently being made with our UN online volunteer working with a guest artist

     We look forward to continued success in this second quarter 
Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

www.englishaliveacademy.org

Happy Easter!

Two of the team of four grant donors from Belgium visiting our proposed land site.

It is amazing that there seems to be a never ending stream of visitors these days !   Last week we had a visit from the Belgium team who raised the money for our land. They were enthusiastic to see the areas that we were interested in and we are hoping that soon we will be able to finalise the deal and English Alive will at last be able to start building our own school !

            With growing enthusiasm regarding music due to the forthcoming CD recording ( the provisional date has now been set for May 5^th ) we are lucky enough to have been given a huge boost with the arrival of a fantastic parcel of music resources ! A mixture of photocopied sheets, pictures, CD’s and a complete set of music books , this wonderful package was compiled by one of our UN online volunteers – Sally.  Our weekly training sessions are thus sorted for the next few weeks as we explore and practise the lessons !

Music materials arrived this week!

    

Our only difficulty at the moment regarding music is the lack of CD players ! – we have a grant to purchase two of them, however, they mysteriously seem to have vanished from Ethiopia being replaced with a strange contraption which takes only flash ! – so may have to wait until volunteers arrive !

   May we take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Ethiopian Easter ( Fasika ) on April 15^th ( we like to be different and have our own calendar ! ) 

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

Great Luck shining down on English Alive Academy!

This week has been very very busy – but for all good reasons ! Fiker – our latest volunteer from the UK arrived with fantastic news – that she has already managed to raise £ 300 for the recording and publishing of the CD ! This means that we can zoom forward with the project and Fiker spent a busy time assessing pupils singing ability, eventually coming up with a master list of 12 children confident and tuneful enough to make a great CD !

       The pupils are incredibly excited about the whole idea – with the thrill of going to Addis Ababa to make the recording placing the event on an even higher excitement level !  

Our good luck this week continued, with a visit from a team of four US volunteers. It was great to have the school full of additional teachers and the pupils really learnt a lot through the different learning techniques from the visitors. In addition, since we had so many teachers in the school, we reorganised things so that all English Alive teachers could be free to attend a computer workshop. With the arrival of our three new computers from the airlines grant, this meant that teachers could for the first time have access to an individual computer and thus really got going with the practical aspects, learning how to make and use files, with this great start being developed through our weekly teacher training sessions.

             However, although school went really went this week, we had problems with bureaucracy ! Previously the MOT  in Nazret was the epitome of basic – there was a requirement that the van would start and stop only !  ( a man would stand in front and raise his hand and this would be the brake test ) – nothing else was required – so when it was time for the MOT we simply made sure that the brakes worked and thought no more about it. It was thus a huge shock when we went and found that they had a new machine ! This all in one miracle machine tests exhaust fumes, wheel alignment, headlight angles as well as brakes without the need to risk life and limb !

       With the new super machine, the van passed almost all these technical requirements ( we were 5 degrees out on the headlights ! ) – however, we failed the MOT on 16 points including:

➢  Having no curtains

➢  An absence of no smoking signs ( we tried to explain that the maximum age of pupils is 12 and thus they are highly unlikely to even know what smoking is ! )

➢  No red and white sticker on the back ( no idea what these are needed for – they were unable to explain the reasons why ) 

This abyss between the previous and current MOT is amazing ! – without warning they have made these new requirements and it will be pretty impossible for at least 99 % of the vehicles on the road to ever pass!

        Not content with changing regulations on vehicles, Nazret town have now decided that bicycles also need to have an MOT and a license plate ! – can’t wait to take my old bike along and get my first ever license plate ! – hope that I don’t need curtains 

!

UK Three Peaks Challenge: Fund Raising for English Alive Academy

This past week has been a hive of activity, getting ready for the first parents morning of the year. We really wanted to make an impression since we introduced so many new things this year that we were concerned that parents may have felt overwhelmed and not really understood where we were heading to – simple things such as having an introduction to a lesson, dramatically reducing the amount of copying and introducing active learning in the grade school are huge deviances to the norm, so worried that parents would take the parents morning opportunity to express their disapproval of some of these seemingly                 “ bizarre “ educational practices.

      As a result, we were incredibly pleased to discover that in fact, the pupil’s progress has been proof enough that we are all on the right track !  Parents admitted that they too were learning alongside their children, being introduced to new aspects such as how to phonetically read, learning about science experiments and parts of the world that they previously hadn’t known about ! This was excellent news for us and really has boosted the confidence of everyone – students and staff – giving us a new lease of life to try even more “ outrageous ” educational practises !

DON’T FORGET ! – THE UK  3 PEAKS CHALLENGE We are currently in the process of getting together a team for the 3 peaks challenge taking place in the Peak District in the UK. The aim is to raise funds for English Alive Academy. This is an exciting opportunity to climb 3 peaks within 24 hours, with full equipment and supervision.  Provisional dates are either 25th / 27th May or                  1 st / 3rd June If interested, please contact Claire on : clare.ambrose@gmail.com