Princess Diana Bilingual School

Kenema

Sierra Leone

PRINCESS DIANA BILINGUAL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Issue 1             Sep-Dec 2008

Hello friends and welcome to our newsletter,

Princess Diana Bilingual School , Kenema is proud to present their first ever newsletter. This newsletter is intended to keep Shapinsay Community Primary School in Orkney , Scotland updated on our activities here in Kenema town, Sierra Leone .

In this newsletter we introduce the classes and teachers, as well as some of the parents, to you. We also have a small interview with the head teacher, Mr Karim, asking him about the pleasures and challenges of being the head teacher and founder of the small primary school. Finally, to get in the festive mood, we ask some of the teachers and pupils how they are planning to celebrate Christmas day.

We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter on the island of Shapinsay !

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

MEET THE FOUNDER AND HEAD TEACHER

Name: Mr Michael Karim (pictured by the schools vegetable garden)

Occupational background: “I use to work as the PRO in the military. I decided to leave this job and set up Princess Diana instead as I wanted to contribute to global development.”

What do you like most about your job: “I enjoy seeing children learn.”

What are the major challenges of the job: “Getting a permanent structure for the school.”

MEET THE CLASSES OF 2008/09

Class 1 – Teacher Mabinity Turay with her pupils

 Class 2 and 3 – Teacher Margaret Turay with her pupils

Class 4 – Teacher Immanuel Songa with his pupils

Class 6 – Teacher Philip Boima with his pupils

MEET SOME OF THE PARENTS OF PRINCESS DIANA PUPILS!

The parents are also very excited about the school link with Shapinsay community school! In fact, they are hoping that they too can link up with Shapinsay by forming friendships with parents from their partner school!

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS SIERRA LEONE STYLE!

 We ask the pupils and teachers of Princess Diana what they will be doing to celebrate Christmas this year…

 MR KARIM: “I will be celebrating Christmas by going to church.”

MABINTY TURAY: “I will be spending Christmas in my village. I will go to church and worship god.”

PHILIP BOIMA: “I hope to celebrate Christmas with my pupils by going on a picnic.”

ABDUL, CLASS 6: “Even though I am not a Christian I still celebrate the season! I will celebrate Christmas by going to a party. I will dance and drink soft drinks.”

OTHER NEWS…

SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP NEWS

In October we made some drama, songs and dances and recorded it for you in Shapinsay. We sent it in November so we hope you receive it soon!

We also sent you letters and traditional stories in October. Did you enjoy them?

COMPUTER STUDIES

We are the only school in Kenema to learn how to use computers. Even though we do not have electricity at our school we still use the computers, learning how to type and what the names of the different computer parts are. We have a few computers at our school including a new one we have just bought (See picture below). Below are also pictures of some pupils using the computer at GRM-SL's office.