Heads learn from Africa challenge

Head teachers from the UK have been sharing their knowledge with colleagues in African countries, in a scheme organised by the National College for School Leadership in collaboration with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas).

Three heads who have just returned from different countries describe the professional and personal benefits of their time abroad.

RWANDA: LYNNE BARR, DEPUTY HEAD, DISS HIGH SCHOOL, NORFOLK

Lynne Barr helped in schools with 80 pupils in a class

Since the genocide of 1994 there has been a huge amount of rehabilitation going on in Rwanda and the people are really keen to embrace change and develop.

They were incredibly positive about the advice and support I was able to give.

I worked as an education management consultant based in one school but also working with a number of other schools in the region.

Things are still very different out there - there are classes of up to 80 and mixed age classes, with nine year olds sat next to 16 year olds.

The schools also have no electricity or technology.

But it's changing fast. I worked with them on three-year strategic plans and budgets and wrote a proposal for new sports facilities.

Diss High donated a laptop and I helped the school set up new financial and administration systems and organise their timetabling.

I also did a training session for 65 Rwandan heads.

One of the biggest challenges for Rwanda's schools is the recent move to teaching in English rather than French from Year 4.

This is very difficult as the teachers only speak a little English or none at all.

There is only one copy of each subject's textbook in English for the teacher to use.

The teachers have to attend English lessons every Saturday morning but I gave them additional help by preparing and teaching model lessons in English for English, maths and science classes.

There were frequent torrential downpours as it was just coming into the rainy season.

There was no water and only occasional electricity in my accommodation and I also had to become very relaxed about cockroaches and hornets sharing my space.

And I had to try to grasp the basics of the local language Kinyarwandan.

But it was great to live in a community so isolated from the rest of the world, a really different feeling.

The villagers had never seen a white woman before and were a little suspicious of me at first but then they welcomed me wholeheartedly. I was struck by the generosity of people who have so little but want to share so much.

The children at Diss High School have been exchanging letters with the children in Rwanda and they are going to continue writing to each other and sharing ideas.

They have also developed a training programme to help the older children in Rwanda give sports coaching to the younger pupils.

There are few ethnic minorities in Norfolk so learning about Rwanda's problems has helped them understand more about prejudice and what it feels like to be discriminated against.

GHANA: MADELEINE PARKER, HEAD TEACHER, OLD OAK PRIMARY, HAMMERSMITH

Teaching is still very formal in Ghana, with very few resources, so there is a lot of copying from the blackboard.

I worked with teachers to help pupils learn more creatively and independently.

So at the start of a lesson I'd get the children brainstorming a topic and I'd write their ideas on the board.

It is important that heads have the chance to experience this kind of sabbatical and renew their enthusiasm for the job Madeleine Parker

Then they'd write a piece of their own taking inspiration from the ideas.

While I was out there pupils back home wrote me letters asking about life in Ghana and I sent back a weekly newsletter with answers to their questions and photos.

They wanted to know about the food, transport and even the toilets.

They were also asking about malaria. I really felt like some of them went on the journey with me.

It has certainly increased their global awareness and helped all of us understand more about the background of the African pupils in the school.

Life is tough in Ghana - there's often no easy access to water and electricity, malaria is common and the temperatures are around 40 degrees - yet children take on a lot of responsibility and are also very keen to learn.

In this country we really protect our children and I wonder if we have taken too much responsibility away from them?

It was great to do something completely different which is still linked to teaching and it was a privilege to work in such a different community.

Being a head teacher can be stressful and with the current recruitment and retention issues it is important that heads have the chance to experience this kind of sabbatical and renew their enthusiasm for the job.

NAMIBIA: SHAY BRENNAN, HEAD TEACHER, ST MARY'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL, BATH

Classes at the Rwandan school were mixed age

Nearly 30 years after first undertaking a VSO project, I decided to do it again, this time supporting and advising head teachers at a number of schools in Namibia.

I acted as a school management adviser and supported five primary schools to tackle a range of management and administration issues.

I have been a head teacher for more than 14 years and I needed a new challenge.

Work is a gift that can so easily become a chore and although I continued to enjoy my work, I felt I was beginning to lose some of the spark that I had 10 years ago.

Much of the teaching I observed resembled teaching styles prevalent in the UK 40 years ago.

In some cases, the teachers talked to the pupils for the whole lesson, so I directed training at getting teachers to provide activity for pupils.

Year 6 pupils who read my blog of the trip discovered that so many of the people here are affected by the HIV and Aids, for example.

I can think of no better way of bringing to life a very different culture for pupils, other than the highly impractical notion of a school trip to Namibia.