A group of eight British student teachers recently spent a week in The Gambia as part of their training course at Leeds Trinity and All Saints University.

Their time was spent mainly at Bijilo LBS, to fill the international awareness part of their course, whilst at Bijilo, they visited the classrooms during lesson time, then set to and painted the walls of two Grade 1 classrooms.

Besides making the classrooms brighter, they also transformed the walls into “teaching aids”, painting upon them the days of the week, months of the year, a one hundred square to help with maths, the alphabet and last but not least, the complete Phonic Alphabet, to help the children with their reading and learning of English.

As schools in The Gambia are now using the Jolly Phonics system of teaching, this project will help the pupils considerably.

The project was funded by Friends of Gambian Schools (FROGS) and while the students were working inside the classrooms, members of FROGS living here in The Gambia, helped out by refurbishing the exterior of the classroom block, by painting the walls, windows and doors.

At an assembly on Friday 8th May, the school turned out to thank the students for their valuable work. A link will now continue between the school and Leeds Trinity and All Saints students.

FROGS is also currently assisting the teaching of Phonics at Nursery and Lower Basic Schools in Regions 1 and 2. The training is being funded by FROGS and run by FROGS members Barbara and David Jordan.