A privilege to teach at Happy House

Teaching at our school in Kenya is vastly different from teaching in London, but volunteer Amanda Bunbury has loved every minute and is looking forward to coming back again.

I can hardly believe that that it is almost six months since I first came to Happy House.  My initial impression was one of happy, smiley welcoming children (and staff) and this has only grown during my time here. I have felt really privileged to have been able to be a part of the school.

 It has obviously been a big change from teaching 30 children in a highly equipped school in London but no less challenging!  Whereas in England, we are well resourced with interactive whiteboards in every classroom  and lessons can be saved, adapted and used again, here I was forced to use a piece of chalk and a blackboard - quite a strain on my handwriting.  However, teaching is teaching wherever you are.  My days have been full helping children from PP1 to Standard 4 in 1:1, small groups and whole class and I have loved every minute of it.  

The children are so responsive as well as curious; they are constantly asking questions about the UK.

Teaching in Kenya is much more formal than in the UK and there is much more testing rather than teacher assessment to check the children’s progress and achievement.

The children seem perfectly okay with this which is interesting considering all the cries in the UK that testing can be detrimental.

 I have had some fascinating conversations with teachers about how we teach certain concepts in the UK.  For example, we are not meant to introduce column addition in the UK until the end of Standard 3.  Instead we teach an empty number line method and I enjoyed explaining this to Mr Mramba and helping Madame Naomi teach suffixes to Standard 3. 

When I first had to teach the empty number line, I thought it was rubbish!  However I have to admit that I am now a convert and it has definitely improved my mental maths.

In England the children are encouraged to discuss what they are doing and we talk a lot about patterns in times tables .  This can obviously lead to a pretty noisy classroom and I have to say that our children’s actual knowledge of the times table is not nearly as good as here. 

What is clear is that no one method is better than another but I hope having a few new ideas might have helped the teachers.

 I am sad to be leaving but at least I know that I will be returning in September and am already counting the days to when I will be back to see my friends and the children’s warm and smiley faces.  Thank you for a truly special experience.