St. Chad’s School, Pattingham – Partnership with Mwiyenga ACK Primary School, Kenya.

There have always been very strong links between the school and church in Pattingham and these links continue to be as strong today as they were 100 years ago. Teams of volunteers from the church family go into school every fortnight to deliver bible stories in a lively and entertaining way as part of the Bible Society’s ‘Open the Book’ initiative. School services take place in church for Harvest, Easter, Christmas, Leavers’ service as well as a shortened communion service for St Chad’s Day. Children from the school join in with Holiday Club, Messy Church and Experience Christmas and Easter events and teachers bring classes over to church as part of the RE curriculum. Children from school have also helped Mrs Yeomans, the Headteacher, to deliver Family Services. As well as the Vicar, two other members of the church serve as Foundation Governors for the school, further developing the links between school and church.

Children from Mwiyenga excited to read books donated by St Chad's School — Children from Mwiyenga excited to read books donated by St Chad’s School

St. Chad’s School has been linked with Mwiyenga ACK Primary School in Kenya for several years now. The school first became involved through the project ‘Connecting Classrooms’ and the work of Rosemary Woodward (Schools’ Advisor for Lichfield Diocese). Alison (one of the foundation Governors) and Milly Colin-Stokes (who was a pupil at St. Chad’s School until moving onto Perton Middle) have recently visited Mwiyenga to represent St Chad’s School and to continue the partnership.

Background to the Partnership.

Milly's first meeting with the children at Mwiyenga on her first day at the school. — Milly’s first meeting with the children at Mwiyenga on her first day at the school.

Two teachers from St. Chad’s (Miss Jenni Scarrott and Miss Claire Marshall) first visited the school in February 2012 and then returned in 2013 and 2014 developing collaborative projects, re-developing the EDCE (Reception) classroom, painting walls and developing a role-play area. St. Chad’s School community raised money for desks, teaching resources and equipment and donated over 1,000 pencils.

Two Headteachers from Kenya and another teacher, Mr. Muchoe, have visited St. Chad’s as part of the project and in October 2015 John and Jo Morgan (St. Chad’s Chair of Governors) visited Mwiyenga School during their visit to Kenya, developing the reading project and teaching lessons.

Alison working on painting the new library

In February 2017 Alison Colin-Stokes (as St. Chad’s Foundation Governor) and her daughter, Milly, spent nearly two weeks in Kenya visiting Mwiyenga School in order to continue the partnership between the two schools. Milly has ‘grown up’ with the partnership as she was in Reception taught by Miss Marshall on their first visit to Kenya. They were both delighted to have the opportunity to take part in the 2017 partnership visit.

What is Mwiyenga ACK School like?

Mwiyenga School is in Myanga, Western Kenya not far from the Ugandan border. It is a rural school with around 800 pupils. In Kenya all children attend primary school until the age of 13. Children aged 5-13 attend the school in classes ECDE (reception) through to Standard 8. In some classes there are up to 123 children in each class.

What they did?

'Milly attending church service with children from Dreamland School — Milly attending church service with children from Dreamland School

Alison and Milly spent a week in Mwiyenga School meeting children, staff and the school council.
Observed lessons – taught lessons based on seasons and farming and cultural stories.
Oversaw the building of bookshelves and the development and painting of library area (funds raised by St Chad’s School).
Took resources, letters from classes at St. Chad’s, book reviews and 800 pencils (donated by school) and books for the library.
Met with Governors in Kenya.
Visited Dreamland School and Hospital (both supported by IcFem charity).
Joined in church service at Dreamland.

Where they stayed?

IcFem (InterChristian Fellowships’ Evangelical Mission) is an organisation based in Kimilili (approx. an hour and twenty minutes drive from the school) which aims at building people practically and spiritually to become self- supporting. Alison and Milly stayed at the IcFem Mission House along with the 15 other teachers and Governors on the trip, who had come from other schools in our diocese and were visiting their partner schools. If you would like to find out more about IcFem there is a very informative web site .

Continuing the Partnership….

In a recent article for The Parish Magazine Mrs Yeomans wrote, ‘It is incredible to see just how much our children have grown through the project. Through it, we are able to uphold our vision of preparing our pupils for their place in a global society. Our children show empathy and understanding beyond their years in many cases….I look forward to seeing where the adventure takes us.’

Alison and Milly delivered the Pause for Thought at the April Youth Service based on their trip to Kenya. They described their experience as ‘powerful’ and ‘humbling’. Alison spoke of her hopes that the church and school will work together to continue to help the partnership to grow and develop in the future. If you would like to know more, they would both be more than happy to chat with you.

Photography by Alison Colin-Stokes