Extraordinary Leadership

Space to Lead

2010-03-01T00:57:00.000-08:00

Here is a space for you to comment on our leadership stories.
This February’s Blog features the 4th Extraordinary Leadership Journey and the following Extraordinary Teachers’ Journey. And we have also included a briefer round-up from last September's Journey. This month you will read:
· It’s late September – last Autumn’s leadership journey
· Extraordinary orphan leadership
· The Extraordinary Teacher’s Journey – a new Journey for teachers
· Old books make kids read – a library partnership
· With a little vision – the start of Summit Schools
· Workshops for all – a unique leadership contribution
· Art for art’s sake – Summit’s Art Club is kick-started
· Young students, new sports – new experiences
· When it don’t rain – what happens without water
You will see lots of ways to make a difference. In March we will feature articles on leadership work in the UK and more.

The Journey before the one we just had

2010-02-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

Let's take a moment to reflect upon the third Extraordinary Leadership Journey which ran back in September 2009. By then, the economic downturn had already reduced student numbers while the drought damaged the crops that supply the children's food.
We were greeted with "Aye, up chuck" - part of Phil Clothier's legacy - the kids variously asked after Miss Helen and Miss Lizzie, Mark and "Mr Collins". The pump Colin kindly donated has been pressed into service to clean out the well. Simon's sporting equipment sees regular action.
Anjuna, Jo, Louis, Lucille and Robert all journeyed extraordinarily. Jo and Louis travelled early, and all of the party stayed on in Kenya afterwards, Lucille heading toward Masai territory, and the rest of us heading to Nakuru in search of new extraordinary environments.
Karen Ngugi of Summit Schools introduced us to the Beran School, another low-fee private school and the Mugumo Primary, a public school run by the energetic John Irongo, where classes contain over 60 children.
Anjuna kindly hosted us at her home and introduced us to people with whom she has long standing relationships,in Nakuru. Our first was with Peter Odour, a surgeon, who showed us round the children's burns ward of the nearby provincial hospital. While the state funds the payroll, the rest of the funding is erratic, and individuals pay e.g. $30 for an operation, but when people cannot pay, the hospital has to waive the fee.
30 years ago, Mama Justine was invited to become head of a small orphanage, which has since been a home for 2,800 orphans. Each September a handful of Scandanavian social workers visit. We met a slightly disabled 20-year old helper, who nearly 20 years ago had been found in a sack on a road, before being carried to the orphanage.
In the afternoon we headed first to the energetically led Lions School, where we met Shalini Wason, and then to Engoshura, to meet the teachers, witness the children's singing and dancing, and provide a short workshop for the teachers at the Neighbourhood School. The following day, we went to the Ananda Marga Academy, where we sat with the remarkable Didi (sister) Chandra and Didi Roopa, who runs another orphanage and associated school.

Extraordinary orphan leadership

2010-02-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

Our friend Anjuna introduced us to several outstanding people and organisation in Nakuru and in February we had an opportunity to revisit some of them.
We saw Nakuru’s vibrant Lions movement form a new Leo movement for youngsters to participate in and make a difference.
We met with the amazing Mama Justine, who has been running the Arap Moi orphanage in Nakuru, for some 30 years, during which time she and her team have provided homes for thousands of orphaned Kenyans. They still do.
We visited with the Sisters – known by the Indian translation “Didi” – at the Ananda Margha Mission, an extraordinary orphanage, north of Nakuru in Njoro, which is also supported by the Lions, and which includes a pre-school primary for the youngest orphans. They have committed themselves to lives of self-realization and service, making life sound rather straightforward.

The first Extraordinary Teachers Journey

2010-02-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

Teach a man to teach and you feed him for a lifetime. Teach a teacher and indirectly you teach thousands of students. That thought lay behind the first Extraordinary Teaching Journey.
So what happened when senior British teachers find themselves in a resource-challenged Kenyan school?
Add in an opportunity to work with 25 local teachers for a weekend and the result was two days of inspirational workshops focused on their issues and challenges. Supplement it with several days of visiting local schools and deepening their understanding of how much is accomplished with so little, and the mutual professional regard skyrockets.
And so the first Extraordinary Teaching Journey was born in Nakuru, western central Kenya.
Senior teachers Vaughn and Elizabeth had decided to be the guinea pigs for the pilot.
By teaching teachers more modern teaching methods, the hope was to make a real difference to the quality of education received by hundreds of children, in a few days.
“Truly wonderful”, said one local teacher ...

“It was an amazing experience to work with Kenyan teachers” said Vaughn.

“This is going to make a powerful difference to the way teaching is conducted in Kenya and in the UK” said Elizabeth.

The training in Nakuru complete, the teachers had the opportunity to go and visit the Summit Schools in Maragua, where their offer to teach the local teachers was eagerly accepted. Every 40 minutes, Charles, the head of education, would bring another group of teachers in for a session.
The next Extraordinary Teaching Journey runs from Thursday 9th July until Wednesday 13th July, in Nakuru, Kenya. While there, you will visit schools, take classes perhaps, and do workshops with local teachers for certain. You will learn form each other, make a difference, which will transform the difference you can make in your own school.

Old books make kids read

2010-02-28T13:23:00.000-08:00

When we first asked to see the Summit Schools’ library, we were shown a cupboard behind a desk. Other schools we have visited simply have nothing at all.
Extraordinary Leadership Journeyers reflected on the shelves full of read and never to be read books on their shelves at home, and a project began. Since then, each Journey has been accompanied by several suitcases filled with books. Each Journeyer can check-in two cases but no-one needs that many clothes for a Journey. Spotting teachers in a tiny staffroom devouring a Times newspaper we happened to pick up on the plane, made us realise that old newspapers provide valuable reading practice, as well as news.
Now an old store room has been cleaned out and two of the walls are bedecked with wooden shelves: see the video. Each lunchtime the children of a school year change books, and a register of borrowings attests to the library’s popularity.
As the Summit Schools library has grown, we have started supplying books for other schools too. In fact, no school visit is complete without a selection of books. What books will do: Any not unsuitable for children. So what’s on your shelves? Mail eithne@xleadership.com and we will hand-deliver your books.

With a little vision

2010-02-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

Stepping out of the small farmhouse for our first tour of Summit Schools we asked James Ngugi where he had started. Expecting him to point towards one of the wooden classrooms, he simply said,

“With vision”.

Of course, where else would you start? Apparently, creating a school out of nothing starts with an act of the imagination. Vision precedes action.
Having recently retired, James and his wife Karen had wondered how they could best serve the community. His career as a teacher and as a pastor, and hers as a teacher and as an inspector of schools, strongly suggested an answer. They had the benefit of a small farm which they reasoned could provide food for students, and they thought they could take in local orphans. As James puts it, “Elderly Kikuyus like to hear the sound of grandchildren around them”. Well, they have ten grandchildren of their own but now some 170 children add their voices to the Ngugis surroundings.
A dream has come true. This dream is not without its challenges. They will always be present. But as James says, “We are not without hope”.

Workshops for all

2010-02-28T13:19:00.000-08:00

February’s Extraordinary Leadership Journey hit new heights when 5 workshops ran simultaneously.
Helen was running a Vision Commitment and Action workshop for the secondary school teachers, while Jeff ran an engagement workshop for primary school teachers.
Kate, a writer, was running a writing and self-expression workshop for would-be writers, and Charlotte was running her second art club. Earlier in the day she had run a highly energetic dance session, where they taught us traditional Kenyan dance moves, "and it sort of turned into a party
Keith, a Finance Director and part-time Scoutmaster, was working with the informal Scout group, and the following day Keith responded to a request by running a session on accounting for business studies students. 5 simultaneous workshops and 7 different workshops over two days is an extraordinary record.

And still, other kids didn't quite get in. Maybe next time!

Art for art’s sake

2010-02-28T13:16:00.000-08:00

Each participant in the Extraordinary Leadership Journey is set a challenge: what difference can you make?
A business executive with a passion for art and design had established that art was absent from the Summit Schools curriculum. Charlotte approached her old school to see what they would happily contribute.
Armed with hundreds of coloured pencils, papers and sundry materials Charlotte arrived on her Extraordinary Leadership Journey to survey the situation on the ground. Her conversations with the school management team confirmed the absence of art. The existence of one or two after school clubs in other fields provided a chink of daylight.
Her proposal to create an after-school Art Club was met with enthusiasm by the school’s principals and with even more obvious energy by the kids themselves, who were delighted.
Inaugural art lessons followed in a matter of hours, as the children learned about proportion and scale, and found new ways to express themselves. At the end of Journey school assembly, the teachers were presented with portraits of themselves drawn by the newly empowered children. Participants in June’s Extraordinary Leadership Journey with space in their second case are invited to squeeze the odd set of pencils, pens and brushes, into their bag. And the teachers were pleasantly surprised to be presented with their students first drawings of them. View the video.

Young students, new sports

2010-02-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

One of the Extraordinary Leadership Journey’s institutions is the Tuesday afternoon games session. A past participant instituted a Sports Day. This time around, two new sports were introduced.
Shirley introduced the school to netball. A few of the girls had played netball at primary school, and the others picked it up really fast, resulting a 4-4 tie between the teams.
Keith introduced the boys to rugby.
Many of them were initially sceptical, wondering why they could not play football, but by the end of the session they had become converts. Keith wonders whether some of them could become candidates for Kenya’s outstanding sevens rugby team. Meanwhile Charlotte took the younger kids through a range of games that kept them enjoyably occupied. Many of them had by now become amazing in the use of hula-hoops, introduced by Lucille, a participant in a previous Journey.
The Hula Hoops were put down briefly for an an "exhausting" game of Stuck in the Mud. Then Shirley, back from Netball, and had the brilliant idea of teaming up with Charlotte to teach some primary school pupils the Hokey Cokey, which rapidly grew in circumference and volume!

When it don’t rain

2010-02-28T12:41:00.000-08:00

The Summit Schools of Maragua, central Kenya, face an uncertain future. Last year’s semi-drought cut yields in the surrounding smallholding – or “Shamba” – reducing that provides the bulk of the children’s food. In good years, the Shamba has produced a surplus support the local community and provide supplemental school income.
The cost of bought-in food rose, increasing the Schools’ costs. Faced with higher food prices throughout the Kenyan economy, many parents found they were unable to pay even the subsidized fees Summit charges to non-orphans.
Many had to withdraw their children and settle for “public schools” with class sizes of 80-plus. This unplanned reduction in pupilage followed the school’s decision to make boarding at the secondary school available to girls only. The double whammy hit secondary school numbers hard.
While modest October rains arrived to stave off immediate disaster, the water table remains low. Higher food costs and lower school income continue to threaten the secondary schools’ survival. And now the rain is coming all at once creating new challenges.