Reservations

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Reservations

Luxury Travel

A day in the life of...

Phanice Omondi, a school liason officer with Pursue.

This is a feature from Issue 15 of Charitable Traveller. 

A typical day

As a school liaison officer, I’m based at the New Day Model School in Bulanda and my day starts with the reading intervention programme early in the morning once the learners have arrived in school. The programme aims to improve learners’ literacy skills and teaches the blending of sounds to help form words, which later leads to the formation of sentences and makes a learner able to read a storybook. The flashcards, storybooks and other reading resources used in the programme are provided by the organisation.

I then visit different classes where I model some lessons to teachers for them to observe, then give them time to teach the lesson. While they’re teaching, I observe individual teachers using the Pursue Teacher Framework Tool and give them feedback, where we discuss their strengths, challenges and areas of improvement. I also set targets with them to help them remain focused in their teaching process. Next, I usually teach an adult literacy class, which is highly attended by the elderly in the community. I teach them literacy and numeracy skills, paying attention to them individually because of their varied abilities. Because of their age, they need a lot of love and attention, and after the classes, I’ll listen to them discuss their projects and support them. They’re currently running a project making and selling liquid soap to make themselves more self-reliant, and the skills they learn in class help them to communicate with customers and give back the right change when selling. Later in the day, I meet the school’s young learners to support storybook reading sessions, where we read books and I’ll encourage them to tell stories to their peers so we can all listen and ask questions. I also meet the student council and guide them on leadership by ensuring positive discipline is implemented in the school, and supervise the teachers with their lesson planning.

the hardest thing...

…is when a 70-year-old student joins the adult literacy class and they don’t know how to hold a pencil, yet have to learn how to read and write. I really feel for them but pray and believe that they will learn in time.

The best thing...

…is the happiness I feel seeing children as young as five reading stories and explaining what they have read to their peers as a result of the reading intervention programmes. It’s nice when young children from a rural school express themselves in English, both at home and in school, and the programme has resulted in higher enrolment at the school. It’s also good to see that the teachers have improved their teaching skills as a result of the teacher development trainings on offer.

LET’S TEACH
We support teachers with development training and school leader training, plus run adult literacy classes.

charitable.travel/pursue

This is a feature from Issue 15 of Charitable Traveller.