Our Ghana team was delighted to host two of our trustees, Helen Varma and Ian Bauckham, who visited Ghana last month to see the progress and impact of the Brighter Futures programme and to attend the opening ceremony of Holy Child Kindergarten Centre of Excellence in the Western Region.

As well as attending the opening ceremony, Helen and Ian visited a number of schools that are part of our Transformational Teacher Training programme, both traditional schools and Sabre built kindergartens. The trustees were also able to see our Building Better Schools programme in action and witness the huge contrast between the existing kindergarten facilities and the schools Sabre is building.

Ian Bauckham, Chair of Trustees said;

“These classrooms are superbly designed for the needs of kindergarten aged children, and compare very favourably with facilities seen in Europe and elsewhere. The classroom environment is visually stimulating, spacious and conducive to good teaching and learning. Teachers are very skillful and have control over the activities they are running and they are making good usage of the trainee teachers. I can see both teachers and children are genuinely enjoying the activities and the learning. There is an excellent balance of teacher led and child initiated activities, skilfully designed to enable teachers to lead children forward in their learning in all the main domains.

The opening of the Holy Child Kindergarten Centre of Excellence was an inspirational occasion. Teachers, children, their families and the local community are rightly proud of what is being achieved here. The accommodation is first rate, and the presence of a strong teacher training facility on site means that children can be assured of cutting edge teaching, and teachers have a wonderful training and practice opportunity under the experienced guidance of the best practitioners regionally and nationally.

Time and again, Sabre trained teachers in Ghana are being recognised for their outstanding work. The foundation of education is the early years, and the foundation of a nation’s success is the education of its young people. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that this work is directly contributing to progress and development in Ghana and will help assure a great future for its people.”

Trustee, Helen Varma also shared;

The classrooms look so beautiful and well organised, I would be happy to enroll my children in these classrooms. The children are very calm, disciplined, very supported and engaged.

It was very affirming to see the effectiveness of the Sabre teacher training programme and the commitment of the newly trained teachers to this more child-centred approach.  I was really impressed with the Sabre built kindergarten classrooms and can testify as to how much cooler and better lit they are compared to the more traditional kindergarten design. The kindergarten design really supports activity based learning, with plenty of space inside and shaded outside teaching areas.”

Here are some photos from their visit: