'Children are accomplished sand writers, before moving on to pencils and paper'

The Jesuit Companionship Programme, established for over seven years, has allowed my school, Barlborough Hall, to form a wonderfully enriching link with Makumbi Primary School in Zimbabwe.

Its two very clear aims are:

• To develop a mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship between the nine Jesuit schools in the UK and their corresponding school, or mission, in the developing world.

• To promote and demonstrate Jesuit education whilst deepening pupils’ understanding of justice at home and overseas.

Through a sharing of everything from development planning to artefacts, a new awareness throughout the school has grown and has made questions such as 'Are you going to Makumbi Land?' asked by one of the nursery pupils a common occurrence.

After five years of contact both schools agreed the time had come for an exchange visit. Using resources from the British Council Reciprocal Visit Fund, David Wilson, deputy headmaster from Barlborough Hall was able to visit Makumbi on a fact-finding mission. He returned with a very clear aim of raising enough money to construct a water tower for the school. This fundraising was used as a springboard to teach the children about the necessity for clean water and through the use of both video and recorded interviews from Makumbi we were able to truly impress upon them the reality of the situation.

On the exchange trip Mr Mwendezi and Mr Shambare observed lessons across all age ranges and subjects including extracurricular activities such as our family camp night. They took back a wealth of ideas on strategies of differentiation and developing strong team links for planning.

‘Stories give a fascinating insight into a country’

Keen to build upon these two successful visits it was arranged that Mr Wilson would return with me to enable succession planning across the staff team.

My personal interest was in Makumbi’s handwriting and storytelling skills. I had noticed from the video clips of the school that their pupils had fantastic pencil control and beautiful handwriting. Three years of developing writing skills in the early years setting at Barlborough has produced mixed results and I’ve always felt that there was more to be done for the reluctant writer. Perhaps Makumbi could offer some answers?

The traditional stories of both cultures were another area I was keen to explore. Stories offer a fascinating insight into a country’s culture and seemed like the most accessible way for our schools to enter discussions regarding more sophisticated topics. Both schools asked the children to think of their favourite story and many of the Barlborough children donated their books along with a letter justifying their choice. I packed everything into a suitcase and set off for Makumbi.

My first morning was spent in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) setting. Here approximately 50 children, from three to five years old, were taught by one teacher who translated into Shona as I read Barlborough's offerings.

The pupils were captivated by the colourful pictures and a book with hand puppets was a favourite. The teacher then recited one of their favourite stories about a Hare and a Baboon who outwit each other to get food at a party and another called the Dove and the Ant, again two creatures but this time helping each other. The actions, varying voices and audience participation had the children far more engaged in a physical way than Barlborough's printed texts. The imagination was freed as they excitedly responded to the cues and, despite having heard it many times, delighted in the final joke. The difference ino the two types of story was clearly noticeable. The printed text engaged the eyes and ears but had a physically passive reaction. The oral story telling engaged the whole child.

The next day I wanted to focus more on the writing from the earliest stages. I discovered that there were three very distinct stages to teaching the children writing. The first stage was usually from three to seven years old and begins outside in the sand areas around the classrooms.


'Children use sticks in the sand, like a chunky pencil'

Here the children use their index fingers to mark in the sand; first lines and circles then more complex patterns. When they are competent at this they move on to marking letter shapes and their name with sticks about the length and thickness of a chunky pencil. They practise these freely in the sand mixing letters with patterns and designs around their name. Only when they are accomplished sand writers do they begin with pencils and paper.

The children have to supply their own pencils and paper and so many of the children could not participate and remained outside. Any writing the children produced on paper was greatly valued. The children also do lots of activities with small hand tools and sticks such as digging, model making, cleaning and sewing. These all contributed to the good fine motor skill development with strong hands and good control. The teachers are trained in writing on blackboards in a definite handwriting style and format. They are assessed in board work as part of the teacher training and take great pride in the neatness of their writing. All around the classroom the displays are handwritten again in a similar style.

The children are not exposed to the many different forms of media and font that children at Barlborough are. Good handwriting is rewarded with pencils and paper bought by the parents, often at great financial sacrifice, again adding value to good presentation.

I witnessed no difference between the boys’ and the girls’ attitudes to writing. The boys were just as keen to achieve good marks with writing and were very keen to draw and copy designs of patterns. The recently formed art club using donated art materials was proving very popular and produced some beautiful work. I reflected on what value we place on good handwriting as a skill. Had I moved my focus too much to the content of a child’s writing to the detriment of noticing the presentation and giving that equal value?

‘Many children walk 5km a day to nursery’

My last day was spent making general observations about how the ECD was organized. They have a very structured morning starting at seven thirty and finishing at one in the afternoon. The day was divided into identifiable sessions and allowed for differentiation. They have very few physical resources so many of the activities involve singing, dance and games.

The children were incredibly independent, many walking alone or with siblings over five kilometres along roadsides to get to the nursery. They were great at organising themselves into games with others at playtime using what was available; sand, stones, sticks to play games. I had to keep reminding myself that these children were three or four years old.

When we walked around the mission and saw the children at home it was clearer to see how they had developed such independence. They’re encouraged to help with all manner of tasks and chores using tools, making decisions and solving problems from the earliest ages. Many of these tasks are made into a game or a song and dance allowing the children to see this time as play not work. The children seemed happy and engaged with the day-to-day family life. I reflected on my own children and thought about how I had used playtime as a bribe to get a chore done at home.

As my time at Makumbi came to an end I was overwhelmed by the richness of what I had experienced in comparative poverty. The stories, the ideas for developing writing and the equality enjoyed in their homes and school was a breath of fresh air and gave me much food for thought on my return to Barlborough.

Five points of development 

• To exchange the stories from Makumbi in an oral tradition and engage the children in a response that we could capture and send to Makumbi as a 'thank you'.
• To orally tell a story at least once a week and encourage imaginative physical response.

• To extend sand and soil mark making areas outside and in with sticks/hand tools and a selection of "copy me" captions displayed.

• To use hand written captions on display around the setting more.
• To display and acknowledge good handwriting with rewards.

I am now in the process of implementing these action points and I am looking forward to evaluating progress and reporting back to Makumbi.