Rawdon St. Peter's C of E Primary School

Diary extract from Rev Lambert and her family - Day 5 Wednesday 10^th July

Today is our visit to Christchurch Primary School. As soon as we arrive, we are aware that something big is happening, though the Brass Band was apparently not for us! The whole school, 645 students and more, plus all the Senior staff, PTA and school staff are out to meet us. There are smiles and cheers and they are so genuinely delighted to see us. We are ushered into one of the classrooms for introductions. Following the formal welcomes, we are the taken to the top table in the courtyard and there is a series of speeches from the Headteacher ad dignitaries. We are able to thank our hosts, Janine and Craig and also the senior staff for this overwhelmingly friendly welcome. They appreciate the few words in Acholi, even though teaching is exclusively in English. There follows a set of performances from a number of the different class groups. A particularly poignant moment comes when Joan, a 10-11 year-old sings a solo. She is so overwhelmed with emotion during the song that she weeps. As she leaves the arena after her incredible performance, Polly runs from her position at the top table, in front of all the assembled throng to go and comfort and hug the distraught. This is greeted with some laughter – to me a sign of young people being touched by the sight and not sure how to react.

Helen offers a series of games for the children and the staff were invited up for a highly amusing game of musical chairs! I manage a few tunes on the ‘pipes and then we are treated to a sumptuous feast with all the senior staff and PTA members, including meat, millet, posho, cassava, rice, beans and so on. We are joined by Mama Evelyn, whose four children are being sponsored through Ordinary Hero and her youngest, still a babe in arms.

The day finishes about 4.00 and then, following a brief return home, we were off to the skateboard park (not far from the school). There seem to be hundreds of kids enjoying the event. I travel about 2 metres no a skateboard myself and decide that this is enough. Evelyn’s eldest son, Gerrard is there, but I hardly recognise him – he looks a lot more grown-up when not in uniform!

We are very proud to be linked with Christchurch School in Gulu, Uganda. 

With support from Rev.  Helen Lambert from Trinity Church in Rawdon, we are able to engage with the children at the school and in the community.  

Below we have an extract from their diary of the visit.

The children in school have been learning about how we can support and help children in Uganda, and are excited to be able to share experiences.

Books, pens and games donated by parents and children have been taken over to Gulu and were very much appreciated by the children who were given resources to make their stay at a hospital a happier time.

Rev Helen has visited children in school to tell them all about her exciting adventures.

We look forward to our topic work during the spring term to learn about different aspects of Uganda across the whole school.

Sponsoring a child

Rawdon St Peter's School is sponsoring a child to have an opportunity to access education in Uganda.