Minutes:
TRUSTS FOR AFRICAN
SCHOOLS
MINUTES OF MEETING OF
TRUSTEES ON 22 April 2013 at 1 More London Place.
Present: Guy Cowley, Norma Empringham, Steve James,
Will Jones, Tom Marshall-Andrews,
Gill Marshall-Andrews, Ben Taylor
Apologies: Lissa Campbell, Heather Flint, Tim Flower, Ben
Howland, Luke Morris, Johnnie Morris,
Norma Empringham in the Chair.
1. Minutes of meeting on 11 February 2013 were agreed.
2. Update on schools and elections
The
presidential election took place on 4 March and, although the counting was
protracted, it all happened peacefully.
The schools were closed for some weeks, initially to train the teachers
as voting administrators and then to enable families and staff to return to
their home area to vote. The result was
finally declared on 30 March when a court ruled in favour of Uhurru Kenyatta as
the president. The tuition lost through
the election is a problem for those in exam classes and it is hoped that extra
teaching in the holidays can be provided to help them achieve their best
results.
There
is little to report on the schools since the last meeting because they’ve been
closed or disrupted for some weeks and are now on holiday.
3.
Exam results
The
KCPE and KCSE (Kenya Certificate of
Primary and Secondary Education) exams in November 2012 were disrupted by a 6 week
teachers strike. Results across the
country may have been affected by this. The
results for TAS supported schools have been generally good and significantly
more students – especially girls - are staying on to take the exams.
All
the primary schools have improved their mean scores. In Ikathima for instance the scores over the
last 3 years have been 197, 211, 242 and in Kalumu they have been 197,192,231.
The
picture in the secondary schools has been more mixed.
Eburru
and Usueni Secondary Schools have
increased their mean scores significantly.
Eburru
scores for last 5 years have been 2.9,
4.3, 4.8, 6.1 and 6.8.
Usueni
scores for the last 4 years have been 3.3,
3.8, 3.9, 4.7.
Mivukoni and Madogo
have both disappointingly dropped in 2012. In Madogo this is due to 4 students cheating
and their scores therefore being zero which brings the average down.
A
more detailed analysis is on the website – thanks to Tom and Johnnie for this.
School Partnerships
Kimphe
Langano Primary School (Ethiopia) / Heathfield Junior School
Hannah
Jones, one of the two teachers who recently visited Kimphe Langano over the
Easter holidays gave a presentation about their spectacularly successful visit. Prior to their arrival TAS funded solar power
in the classrooms and this meant that computers, cameras, recorders etc could be taken out for use in the classroom. There is a plan for two teachers and a
translator / fixer from Kimphe Langano to visit Heathfield later on this year.
Mivukoni
/ Hampton Academy
Peter
Edmead, Head of Science at Hampton Academy visited Mivukoni over Easter – at
his own expense. He spent a week there
and took 13 e – readers out. These had
been purchased by Hampton with funds raised by the students.
There
was a discussion about why the Mivukoni exam results were so poor. Peter’s view is that there is a problem with
the school management – the compound and classrooms are unkempt, attendance is
poor etc. His feeling is that some sort
of pastoral responsibility could be introduced for teachers so students had a
particular teacher to relate to. Gill
will discuss this with Harriet (the trust secretary) and Stephen.
Usueni / Norbury Manor
The partnership between Usueni School and Norbury Manor
Business and Entreprise College for Girls in Croydon is developing slowly. Letters have been exchanged and it is hoped
that good communication channels can be established soon. The first vists to
the UK are likely to be in December.
5. Finance
We have around £38k in the bank which will cover the
current proposals for funding. Ben will
pursue the Gift Aid claim – hopefully in
time for the next round of proposals. We
are still hoping for £10k from the Foyle Foundation.
6. Proposals for funding – it was agreed
that we send out around £31k as per the circulated list. There was a discussion
about resumption of funding for Asako and it was finally agreed to send funds
for 2 teachers. This is contingent on a
Memorandum of Understanding being agreed whereby the school and TAS make
certain commitments.
7. Next meeting was agreed for Monday 15 July
2013.
Post meeting notes.
i)
Luke has kindly agreed to host the next
meeting at his new office
Locke Lord, 201 Bishopsgate, EC2M 3AB
ii)
Norma
suggested that each trustee might take a particular interest in one
school. This will be discussed at the
next meeting.
