New plates for everyone!

Last year thieves broke into our kitchen storeroom and stole our plates, mealie meal buckets and big storage bins that we use for storing dry foods. The plates that were stolen were 147 in all. The serving and dishing up of food was a bit of a problem because the school cook, Elizabeth, found it was extremely difficult to serve 160 students on 21 plates. The school then decided to have a staggered feeding schedule where the little ones would be the first to eat and the older kids would follow afterwards.

A massive thank you and our gratitude goes out to Jack and Janet who donated money to buy new plates and also to Nicki Davishi. The school bought 170 plates and spoons. Every child in school now has his or her own plate and dishing up lunch is no longer a problem for Elizabeth.

By Iness Chulu and Elizabeth Samba

Sports competitions

Tujatane runs a number of sporting activities throughout the year. For term 1 we concentrate on ball games, these include football, netball and volleyball. The school now has 162 students with the majority of them from pre-school to grade 4. However, mostly grade 4-7 are the students involved in the team events. This is so because they are the ones old enough to play competitively with other nearby schools.
In this year’s 2009 ballgames calendar, our school was scheduled to play 8 other local schools from the surrounding area. Unfortunately after playing in 3 tournaments the remaining games were called off due to some problems faced by the local organising committee. However in the 3 tournaments we played we won every netball and volleyball match but lost 2 football matches. A huge improvement on previous years! A wonderful achievement for our teams especially as we only have students up to grade 7 and the other primary schools go up to grade 9 so our teams are nearly always a lot younger.
The school is blessed with donations in as far as sporting kit is concerned but is lacking in protective sports shoes. We might have performed better and would certainly have incurred fewer injuries if our teams had them. We are happy to say that we receive overwhelming support from the school administration and the pupils are always enthusiastic to participate in sporting activities.

By Kenneth, Mable and Theresa.

Chess tournament against Acacia School

It was on the 23rd of February 2009 when we had a chess tournament between Acacia school and Tujatane. The tournament was organised by Mr. Oliver Mutambekwa and Miyanda Mweetwa. They had 14 pupils from their school and we had 14 pupils as well.

“The games started at around 14.00 hours. The venue was the grade 6 classroom. We played the first round and the results for both schools were good. After the second round we had a break. After break, we played the last round. Our school did better than they had done when they played Acacia school the last time. Tujatane School got the highest marks.” Spencer G4

By Oliver Mutambekwa

ICT lessons

Our ICT lessons are conducted in the three core subjects: English, Mathematics and Science. All Classes, right from grade 1, have at least one ICT lesson each day. We use a rotation system where each class is divided into three groups. When a class is doing a lesson, say in addition, a small group goes to do the same lesson on the computer. Whilst learning an academic lesson, they acquire computer skills as well. The pupils are so happy to be doing these ICT lesson, and are very eager to learn. The older ones are able to visit websites that can help them accomplish assignments and homework, and above all ‘learn how to learn.’
In addition to academic lessons, our pupils get to email each other, and sometimes their sponsors and pen pals.

From mid of last year, we had frequent power cuts that made it impossible to make full use of our computers. However, with the installation of a separate transformer to feed the school, and our special power back up system, the situation has come back to normal. The power back up system in our computer lab is capable of keeping us supplied with power for up to 6 hours, if there is a power cut from the main supply. This makes it possible for ICT lessons to go on in case of main power supplying going off.
Thanks to our funders who have made it possible for all these good things to be a reality.

By Bond Lichaha.

Nick and Marie come back!

Our wonderful friends Nick and Marie came to visit us again this term! We were all so excited to see them as the last time they came (exactly a year ago) they were on their honeymoon and donated their time to Tujatane for nearly a whole month. Once again, actress and drama teacher Marie, put on a brilliant play! This year it was the Greek myth of Persephone, goddess of the underworld. Marie chose to cast the play using students that were not from our performing arts group but rather children that would perhaps be considered a little too young or just not the most ‘obvious’ actors and actresses. Having set herself a challenge Marie had just four weeks of rehearsals before the performance. The team worked so incredibly hard after school and at weekends and the final show was brilliant! Parents, teachers and students were so impressed by the performance and one or two of our new found stars can now be seen in the performing arts group! Thank you so much Marie for your hard work and determination! What will it be next year?

Mr. Nick and Mr. Paul

Nick and Marie were joined this year by Marie's cousin Paul, a builder from the UK. Together, Nick and Paul spent 6 weeks helping our local team of builders with the latest building project at the school, a new teacher’s house! Combining Paul’s experience, Nick’s enthusiasm and a lot of hard physical labour from all the workers involved the team managed to nearly complete the house by the time our volunteers had to leave! A hugely impressive task, we are so grateful.

Not only did the lads manage to propel our project to near completion but they also found the time to design and build our new shade covering for the amphitheatre! The performers and audience can now utilise the amphitheatre stage and seating any time of the day or year without getting cooked by the scorching African sun. Thank you!

Peter, Lesley and Uncle Len

As if all the amazing help from our volunteers wasn’t enough, we also had Marie’s parents, Peter and Lesley as well as Paul’s Father Len (Marie’s Uncle); join us for the last two weeks of Nick, Marie and Pauls visit. We set them straight to work with Peter turning our dusty old broom cupboard behind the amphitheatre into a fabulous new dressing room for the performers! Lesley helped to whip our Library into shape and identify gaps specifically in our literature section. Lesley also taught English Literature to some of our older students and spent most of her time being a wonderful, kind and generous mother to us all!

 

As an artist, Len was behind the scenes infiltrating every grade’s art lessons whenever possible, making the whole school help him to create all the props for Marie’s play! It was an amazing collaboration that every child in the school was involved in and the props were fantastic.

 

David Fettes first visited Tongabezi back in 1999 while on holiday with his family. Since then he has fundraised money for numerous projects for the school including the grade 4 classroom and the computer room and helping Vanessa to set up the charitable trust in 2002. No easy task! He is one of the schools Trustees and a very special member of the Tujatane family. It was wonderful to have him here again!

One of David’s objectives during this trip was to take individual school photos of all the students and teachers as well as a full school photo so that we can update the information and images on the school website! Changes coming soon so look out for updates!

Beth comes back to join the team

Beth first visited us back in 2006 when she came to the school to volunteer for 3 months before graduating. She has been in contact with us ever since she left and we are pleased to report that with an opening in our administration/creative arts department she returned to our team in early February and will hopefully be staying with us for the foreseeable future!

“I was so sad to leave Tujatane in 2006. The school, pupils and teachers create an incredibly magic environment to work in. I’m so privileged to have the opportunity to not only come back but to stay for some years to come. Not many people are lucky enough to really love what they do everyday. It's wonderful to be back."

Caz and Paul come to drum!

This term we welcomed Paul and Caz from the UK to Tujatane. They had contacted the school prior to their African adventure, wishing to come and visit the students and teachers. Paul plays in a West African drumming group in the UK and joined our own drummers on the amphitheatre showing them new rhythms and beats. Before embarking on their trip, Paul and Caz had fundraised and donated money to the school music fund. Their kind donation helped us to buy traditional African drums for the music room which get used nearly every day! The children and teachers are delighted. Thank you Paul and Caz.

“Paul came to our school and played the drums with us. He said he normally plays a different type of drum from West Africa and showed us some rhythms. It was very good to learn new things about the different African drums.”
Innocent Grade 6