I have had many defining moments in my life but in my career as a teacher the one that stands out is from 2006. I had a year 11 group of girls who were studying GCSE RE. It was Charity week and I’d suggested we could raise the £60 that the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue said was needed to provide a school pack for a girl. I had no idea that this group of girls would change the lives of literally hundreds of children in Uganda. There was one girl in the group who had been flicking through the catalogue and calmly announced ‘No that’s not right – it says here on the back page if we raise £7,000 we can get a whole classroom built.’ I must admit to being really scared that by allowing them to do this I could be setting them up to fail. Lesson learnt – never underestimate young people!

I have never been as proud of a single group of pupils. They literally rode roughshod over every single problem – my GAP (girls against poverty). Could we use GAP without upsetting the clothing company? They simply rang them and asked for permission! They rang, they wrote, they sang, they organised…I still have the T shirt.

All was going well until Moses came into school. He was running a charity in Uganda and I’d met him the previous year when I’d gone over with a group of Teachers.

Moses was upset as he’d found the land for the school he wanted to build but he needed £600 and there was no way he could get this money. I was so conflicted I knew the girls had £1,000 at this stage.. I asked Moses to wait outside and explained the situation, saying I would leave whilst they discussed it as it was their money. The fiesty one said ‘Sit down you are going nowhere, you are part of this group’. So many tears and emotions but so incredibly proud of them. They asked Moses to come back into the room and calmly said ‘We will buy your land’ – more tears but what a magical moment’ (extract from The Working Class Book)

Fast forward to this week when I received an e mail from Matthew Milburn (The Headteacher at Kingstone, an amazing man, a friend and the driving force along with Moses Nyanzi from the Kingstone Uganda Project) attaching details of an initiative that he and Moses had been working on.

Im literally going to copy and paste Moses’ words

Hello and I Hope this message finds you well.

This is Moses Nyanzi on behalf of Kingstone Uganda Project. It has been a long time since 2006 when we started to build our school in Uganda, made possible by a collaboration between the great Kingstone School in Barnsley and the Ugandan dance and singing team led by myself. Since then, we have had some difficult times but with support, we have developed the School in Uganda and today more than one hundred pupils are attending.

Now we wish to launch an opportunity for visitors to come to the school and see how it has developed and how it continues to support children. Visitors will have the chance to see the school in action, speak with the children and, for those who wish to, teach. There will be performances, tours around Ugandan jungles, a trip to the local fishing village of Busagazi Island and/or game parks. There will be interaction with local communities, mountain walks and recreation. Visitors will be accompanied at all times and will stay in individual rooms at Kingstone House. This has recently been refurbished as a guest house and is a short walk from the school.

We shall be flying to Uganda as a group with Emirates on October 25^th and we return to the UK on November 2^nd 2024. The all-inclusive cost for this amazing opportunity is £1,749. I should stress that all funds raised from the trip will go towards supporting the school and those who work there. I’ve attached a draft 7-day itinerary. If you have any questions or want to get in touch then please use the contact details below. We would be delighted to welcome you to Uganda.

kingstoneuganda@gmail.com

I can honestly say that my visit to Uganda in 2006 really opened my eyes. I’m just going to upload a few photographs from 2006 so that you can see from the images above exactly how much work has happened and the change that Matthew and Moses have made. Jane x