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Special Avocados

Last Saturday, our Agriculture teacher, Mr Sichinga, took all our Grade 8 learners on a special study trip to Mr Special Lungu’s famous avocado farm.

We’ve just bought twenty young avocado trees from Mr Special for our orchard, and this was a chance for our Grade 8s to learn how to plant and care for them.

If these Grade 8s look after the trees properly for the next few years, by the time they are in Grade 12, they will be picking fresh avocados for everyone to enjoy with their school meals.

Our new toilets are open!

After over a year’s hard work, our amazing new toilets & showers are finally open.

Our learners are now using twenty new toilets, four long urinals, four long sinks, four drinking fountains and eleven showers. There are special sections for primary boys, primary girls, secondary boys, secondary girls and for our learners who use wheelchairs.

The amazing roof harvests all the rainwater and uses it to flush the toilets. It also means there are no dark corners, no bad smells and no need for any electricity.

Special Friday

Once a month on a Friday, there’s a special activity for the whole school.

We often invite guests to come and tell everyone about their work and career – so all our learners know the possibilities open to them if they work hard.

This month we had invited a special visitor from the police.

You should have seen the look in some of the children’s eyes when they heard that someone could go to prison for two years for stealing something as small a pen.

Reading to the community

Each term. a different group of our learners visit the local community to read with the children who are unable to attend school.

This term, it was the turn of our Grade 8 girls to go with Ms Sikamikami & Mr Hara. They took our new Africa Storybooks to read – translating the stories into the children’s local languages as they did. They left a black and white copy of the story they read with every child they met.

Our learners enjoy this activity with a passion. It is especially valuable for those from more affluent homes who don’t have many opportunities to visit the poorer parts of our community.

Congratulations

to Warren Hambache – the first learner to have started in the Mukwashi Early Years’ class, and then to have progressed through Reception, then right through our twelve Primary and Secondary grades, and finally to have gained his National Certificate at the end of Grade 12.

After fourteen years in the Mukwashi classrooms, Warren is now hoping to become a businessman.

He says, ‘I want to be trading in and outside the country. Business is the most interesting occupation I have seen, because it helps us to explore the world’.

We’re going bananas

This term, in their Agricultural Science lessons, our Grade 12s have been learning about growing bananas.

They’ve just planted 100 banana suckers in our garden, and will nurture them right through the year. Hopefully, they’ll have harvested the fruit before they start their G12 exams.

Here’s Miyoba Mulenga planting one of her suckers very carefully, with Mr Sichinga watching to make sure she does it perfectly.

Our horticultural officer, Mr Simakwama, has also recently planted 73 fruit trees (oranges, guavas, tangelos, nectarines, melons and mangos) so that all our secondary Agricultural Science pupils can learn both practically and academically.

In a few years’ time, there should be fresh fruit for all our learners almost every day of the year.

Judah Sikamikami scholarships

Following their excellent performance in the Grade 7 & 9 examinations, six learners have been awarded the 2022 Judah Sikamikami scholarships.

Scholarships for G8 & G9

Harrison Miller (highest score by a boy); Patience Dowati (highest score by a girl); Prosper Sinyinza (most improvement during 2021).

Scholarships for G10, G11 & G12

Yvonne Yamba (highest score by a girl); Luka Mbulo (highest score by a boy); Lydia Mulundika (most improvement during 2021).

Just before mid-term break, Mr Sikamikami re-visited the school to award the scholarships in person.

(Judah Sikamikami was Mukwashi’s first head teacher, and the directors award six scholarships each year in his name for hard work and academic attainment. Each scholarship provides the recipient with a free place at the school for the next stage of their learning.)

Excellent exam results – yet again

Congratulations to last year’s Grade 7 & 9 learners (and their teachers), who achieved an excellent set of results in the 2021 national examinations.

Nationally, across every government, private and community school, 44% of Grade 7 learners achieved Division One or Two. However, our Grade 7s did twice as well: 88% of our Grade 7 learners achieved the top two Divisions.

Again, nationally, 38% of learners were placed in the lowest Division; whereas, only 3% of our learners were given Division Four. This is particularly encouraging, and shows how Mukwashi teachers help all children achieve to their maximum potential.

Our Grade 9 learners also considerably out-performed their counterparts at other schools across the country.

Nationally, only 54% of learners at private, community & government schools were awarded a School Certificate and qualified for Upper Secondary. However, 75% of our Grade 9 learners gained their certificate and can move on to Grade 10.

These excellent results are the result of much hard work by both our teachers and our learners – and also of much encouragement and support by parents, grandparents and carers. Thank you.

Starting back to school

The 2022 school year will start on Monday 24th January. We look forward to welcoming all our learners back to their new classes on that Monday with all their fees for the whole term!

Please remember, the uniform transition year is over: the old school uniform has come to the end of its long life. All learners must now wear the official uniform at school.

This year, we welcome three new members of staff to Mukwashi.

Ms Agness Phiri has joined us an extra teacher for the Upper Primary grades, and she will teach Social Studies in the mornings and the Catch Up Class in the afternoons.

Mr Nice Sichinga has replaced Mr Mwachiyaba, and he will teach Science and Agriculture for the Secondary grades.

We also welcome Mr Gift Chinyama, who has taken over from Mr Kaminda as our school bus driver and maintenance officer.