Views Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
Education near the equator V
SO education volunteer Elizabeth Barnes talks about preparing for her VSO placement in Rwanda. “I had known about VSO for a while, but kept putting off the option of volunteering. Now, with six years of teaching in primary schools behind me, I felt it was the right time to go for it. The training provided by VSO in the UK was fantastic – it gets you really fired up and ready to go. The facilitation training in particular is hugely beneficial, giving volunteers the skills to work with the community to address their concerns, rather than imposing solutions from ‘outside’.
The training has a range of applications beyond teaching. I’ve only just started my placement, but I’m already thinking about what I will be able to do when I get back. It could be teaching, other kinds of coaching, or maybe working in development!
My main concern when I set out was not feeling safe, but I shouldn’t have worried. The area I am based in is very friendly and I have no problems walking to the market by myself. Being the only white person, everyone recognises me and rushes to help me if I need anything. When I arrived I had a welcome dinner with other volunteers in Rwanda. I’ve found that the volunteer community in the country is very strong. Rwanda is quite small so it’s easy to visit each other, and VSO are good with providing you with contact details of the other volunteers, so there is always someone to turn to for advice.
I will be working as a Methodology Tutor at a college for trainee teachers. The students here are used to ‘chalk and talk’ teaching, so they were a little confused when I took out my flash cards! However, they have a strong desire to learn, and the other tutors at the college are beginning to see the value of these new methods.
There’s been progress in increasing school enrolment in Rwanda, but there are still real concerns about the quality of education that students receive. The VSO programme that I’m part of aims to improve teacher training and so ultimately reach more children with better teaching. For example, the trainees don’t get enough time to practice teaching, so I’m hoping to introduce peer teaching and get them comfortable with being up at the front by the time they start work.
You can be assigned a VSO mentor on placement to help you with the local language, although the English of the student teachers is very good and you only have to be careful sometimes. When I said, “off you go”, I had to explain that it meant “start” rather than “leave”! I spent some of the time before I set out designing a curriculum around my placement for use in schools in the UK. The pack includes lesson-plans and assemblies, which can fulfil the distant locality learning and intercultural understanding requirements for KS2. The catalyst for doing this was to try and change perspectives on Africa and development. You can get on board by visiting my website and blog:
www.life-near-the-equator.co.uk.
I’m really looking forward to developing this resource alongside my work training student teachers in Rwanda. Once you’re out here all your nerves are pushed aside by the possibilities in front of you, and I feel like I have everything I need to get started.”
uwww.vso.org.uk March 2013
Curriculum changes and sharing views at The Education Show
C
aroline Wright, Director of BESA, tells Education Today readers of the great opportunity offered to teachers at the Education Show 2013.
“Since January 2011, schools have been waiting to hear the results of the Government’s primary curriculum review. During this time everything has been on hold, with publishers having delayed the release of new study material until they were given a clearer idea of what the new curriculum would look like.
Although the Secretary of State has declared his decision to retain all of the existing subjects in the National Curriculum at the same key stages as now, the core subjects and the new computer science curriculum have attracted particular attention. In addition, he confirmed his intention to add the teaching of languages at Key Stage 2. A final version of the new National Curriculum will be available in autumn 2013 for first teaching in schools from September 2014. However, before this decision is made, on 7 February, the Department for Education (DfE) announced a public consultation on the draft National Curriculum confirming its invitation to educators to contribute their views on the new curriculum; this must be done before 16 April. At the current time teachers are keen to understand more about the Government’s thoughts for the new curriculum and to have the opportunity to share their thoughts. The Education Show 2013 provided more details of the major changes planned for the core subjects and Computer Science. An initial overview session offered visitors an outline of the new curriculum, an explanation of the areas of the curriculum that have been evaluated and the opportunity to contribute to the consultation process.
Following this initial overview session, individual sessions covered a selection of curriculum areas, namely English, Maths, Science and Computer Science, which were presented by representatives from the DfE who worked directly on the Programmes of Study for these subjects. Graham Pepper from the Department for Education commented: “As schools are aware, the Government launched a review of the National Curriculum in January 2011 and the consultation documents, including the draft programmes of study, are now available for response via the DfE website. ”
There is still time to vist the DfE’s website:
www.education.gov.uk and share your views on the drafted version of the National Curriculum. You can read the first part of Education Today’s reviewof The Education Show 2013 on p12.
uwww.besa.org.uk www.education-today.co.uk 7
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