This month we held the first Intensive Training Workshop for our new In-Service Teacher Training project, which will reach every government kindergarten teacher in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese district. We were thrilled with the high attendance of 98%, which included kindergarten teachers, head teachers and Ghana Education Service officers. Some of the training also took place at Asebu Model Kindergarten School, which was great opportunity to showcase best practice.

At the end of the four-day workshop every classroom received a resource starter pack containing a set of storybooks, week by week thematic guides (which include templates for making teaching and learning materials), a teacher reference book, and construction blocks. These items will help the teachers to setup their classrooms to begin implementing the activity and play-based pedagogy introduced to them during the workshop.

We had some great feedback from the four-day workshop, with teachers feeling excited and looking forward to using the skills they have learnt to improve teaching and learning in their classrooms.

Teachers enjoyed the thematic based approach to teaching and thought it would help children to enjoy their school experiences more. Teachers are taught to teach through different classroom themes which change every for weeks. Themes include All About Me, Plants, Weather and packed into these themes are activities that cover all areas of the curriculum including mathematics, literacy and creative skills.

Participants especially enjoyed the process of making teaching and learning materials using local materials and constantly requested to spend more time during training to make teaching and learning materials for their classrooms.

The Director of Education for the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese district, Madam Helpina Hawa Adams, expressed her satisfaction with the delivery of training and pledged her support to ensure that all children in the district have access to quality kindergarten education. She promised to provide all the support she can to ensure that the child centered approach introduced by Sabre Education is sustained in the district.

The Obaahemaa (Queen Mother) of Asebu Amantsindo, Nana Amantsimakese, and elders of the Asebu community, who were at the opening of the In-Service Teacher Training project, pledged their continued support to ensure that children receive the best kindergarten education. The Obaahemaa expressed her joy at the fact that her district will be the first to have all kindergarten teachers trained in the child centred methodology and that they will do their best to sustain the programme.

It was fantastic to get strong support from the Director of Education and the community Elders which is important to ensuring the sustainability of the project.

The training team will be conducting classroom observations to assess the progress of the work and to provide support through in-class coaching for all the teachers in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled to see the beginning of the transformation of these classrooms.