Mphandika School Link in Zambia
We are delighted to have been linked with Mphandika Primary School in Zambia since September 2021! We are very grateful to the Diocese for helping us to establish this link.
Ms Joskey, our Headteacher, and Mr Nyirenda, Mphandika's Headteacher have been exchanging greetings and information about out two schools. You can find out more by reading on...
Here are the some of the staff. Mr. Nyirenda is in the middle at the back.
Here are some of the classrooms at the school. The kitchen is the smartest building (the charity, Mary's Meals, has funded this)
Mphandika primary school is in Mambwe district of Eastern province in Zambia. The school is located in the Luangwa valley area near South Luangwa National park in Msoro chiefdom of the Kunda-speaking people. It was founded in 1945 and 13 headteachers have headed it from the year it was established to date. Mr Nyirenda is the thirteenth headteacher. He has 3 trained male teaching staff and 2 volunteer female staff. He told us...
The school enrollment is 342 total thus 144 boys and 198 girls . We have two sessions morning starting at 07:00 to 12:00 and afternoon starting 13:00 to 16:00. The school is under feeding program from Mary's Meals and this program has made the school enrollment increase from 245 learners by December 2020 to the current enrollment. It has also reduced absenteeism of learners and keeping them healthy. However the teaching and learning process has been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic due to premature closures of schools. .
We are looking forward to developing a friendship between our two schools and deepening our understanding of our communities and the things we have in common. Ms. Joskey sent Mr. Nyirenda some photographs of our Federation schools and some information about our area.
We are very excited about the possibility making links and developing friendship with your school in Zambia.
With very best wishes,
Sarah Joskey
How are you together with all the staff and the learners at your school? Here we are all fine and teaching and learning process has been quite good despite being affected by COVID-19 in some ways. Today 15 October 2021 all schools in Zambia have gone on a week break up to 26 October 2021, when we shall resume teaching. I will even send you some photos for feeding program
Mabvuto Nyirenda
In November, we were very lucky to be able to send the school a package of resources (balls, paper, crayons and books) from our federation which was kindly delivered to the school on a visit to the village by Mr Legge. He is a great friend of the village and has visited it a number of times. We chose the gifts carefully, thinking about what the children would enjoy most. They also had to be lightweight and not take up too much room in a suitcase.
2 light small soft balls
Beanbag
2 skipping ropes
A few child books including one showing the sea, one linked to traditional tales (rhyme) and a book about toys (dolls).
A small pencil case with a few pencils, pens etc.
Some rulers
A school tea towel
A couple of photos (including our fundraising for Mary’s Meals which support the school)
The children were so pleased to receive the resources and Mr. Nyirenda wrote to thank us for them.
How are you? We are all fine here. I acknowledge the receipt of the learning materials you sent through Tim. We really appreciate your gesture and it will help improve our learner's performance. Please continue with the same spirit. Thanks headteacher. Mabvuto Nyirenda
April 2022 Newsletter:
Here is the latest news from our link school, Mphandika Primary School, in Zambia. They have just received a gift of two maps in the first picture and they are standing in front of the school kitchen. In the second, they are enjoying food from the charity, ‘Mary’s Meals’. We are thankful to Father Edward, Parish Priest, and Mr Tim Legge from the Diocese of Salisbury, who sent us these lovely pictures.
Thank you so much for your email. It was lovely to hear from you.
This has been a very hard term with many staff and children off with Covid. It continues to disrupt schools all over the area. Do you still have much Covid in school?
We had our Easter services at the two schools yesterday and we had a collection for Mary’s Meals; I spoke to the parents about your school and our link of friendship between our schools. We are now about to have our Easter holiday for 2 weeks so we are looking forward to that. Easter greetings to you all!
Best wishes.
Sarah Joskey
Thanks for your reply. It was received and we are very sorry to hear that some staffs and pupils were affected with the covid-19. Here the covid-19 cases has reduced such that some restrictions have been uplifted. In Zambia, schools will close on 22 April just after the Easter holidays. We are happy to hear that you informed the church members about our relationship with your school and also not forgetting the Mary's Meals program. We are really grateful.
Mabvuto Nyirenda
What is it like to be a pupil at Mphandika Primary School?
Water pump Toilets
Enjoying daily porridge School Motto - Look and learn
May 2022
News from Mphandika School in Zambia:
Mr Legge has recently returned from a happy trip to Zambia, where he enjoyed another visit to Mphandika Primary School.
He had a surprise meeting with Mr Nyirenda in Katete on Easter Saturday, when they were both waiting for taxis to take us on the 2 hour bumpy journey to Msoro. He had come from attending a headteachers' meeting in the city of Chipata. Unfortunately Mr Nyirenda went down with malaria and was on sick leave when Mr Legge visited Mphandika
He met Mr Phiri, the Deputy Head, who told them the number of pupils had increased to 430 because the abolition of school fees had enabled some parents to send their children. The preschool teacher whom they met last year had left and had been replaced by another volunteer, The government is recruiting some 30,000 teachers and the school was expecting to be allocated two additional qualified teachers.
They didn't stay long because the school was having a day of tests and they did not want to delay the programme.
Challenge! Can you find Mphandika School on a map?