PAGEANT - "Education is the future"
Postings from Pageant blogs
The Pageant News Blog was launched in August 2006. It has been used by Pageant members to bring you news about Pageant's activities both in the UK and in The Gambia. For convenience, posts from most of these visits have been collected onto web pages. This is an index to these collections of posts and to other pages with links to blog posts.
2008
February 2008 - Live from The Gambia
Pageant members Frances, Lauren, Rosie and Sarah gave some lessons to children at KMJ and Campama schools. They were later joined by Chris, and visited schools at Bakalarr Jarreng and Jurunku. The girls then visited St Augustines and Sinchu Baliya schools and a number of family compounds.
February 2008 - Chris Robertson's Gambia Diary
Chris produced his own report on his part of the above trip. This is in PDF format, so the link allows choice of low or high definition pdf files. There are a lot of extra photos.
We welcomed five new members to our blog team. Gambians Lamin Jammeh, Sainey Darboe, Alhassan Darboe, Lamin Kebbah and Bakary Gitteh contributed posts during Pageant visits and kept us up to date between these.
October 2008 - News from the Gambia
Pippa and Ian Howard made their usual autumn trip to The Gambia, visiting Gunjur and Bakalarr, and distributing items from the container which arrived during their visit.
2009
Pippa, Tina, Frances and Claire visited lots of schools. Many were around Banjul, but they also went to the South, up-river and crossed to the North Bank. They visited some family compounds, organised a day out for sponsored children and visited NARI to see progress on the Artemisia Project.
October 2009 - News from the Gambia
Pippa and Ian Howard made another of their autumn trips to The Gambia, visiting schools around Banjul and all the way down to the south, as well as to the North Bank.
2010
February 2010 - Microscopy Workshops
Pippa and Ian Howard, Kathy, Andrew and Ian Groves, Anne Jackson, Peter and Katherine Evennett and Bob Skipper, gave Pageant's first microscopy workshops to Gambian student teachers. These were made possible with a grant from the Royal Microscopical Society. Kathy posted news about the workshops as well as about visits to schools and sponsored children.
2011
February 2011 - Practical Physics Workshops
These workshops followed on from the 2006 Physics Seminar and the 2010 Microscopy Workshops. The Pageant team was Joe Brock, Sheila Hill, Chris Robertson, Pippa Howard, Ian Howard and Anne Jackson. This page fully describes the workshops and there is a table of links to Blog Posts made by Chris Robertson. However, we have not copied the contents of these posts.
April 2011 - Creative Art & Science Lessons
Pippa, Tina and Frances visited King's Kid Academy, Brikamadina and Gunjur schools for some fun, messy and creative Art and Science lessons. They went up-country to Jarreng and looked for some goats to replace those stolen from a poor Gambian family.
June 2011 - Lauren & Dan teaching in The Gambia
Lauren Rickwood and Dan Langdon taught at Kings Kid Academy, Ndow Upper Basic School and KMJ Nursery as part of their Education Degree Course at the University of Chichester. Lauren and Dan told their story their own blog, and our page has put together some of their postings and reproduces a selection of their photos.
2012
February 2012 - Microscopy & Science Workshops
Pageant ran two workshops for Gambian trainee science teachers at Gambia College. The Microscopy Workshops gave teachers hands-on experience using a variety of microscopes, and the Practical Physics Workshops gave them skills and take-away teaching kits to add a practical aspect to science lessons in schools with no practical science facilities.
April 2012 - Fun Lesons & a Sports Day
Pippa, Tina, Frances, Page and Rachel were in The Gambia for two weeks. Frances and Rachel had raised around £600 from sponsorship, when they lived for a working week on £1 a day. They used this to buy materials for a programme of art and other 'fun' lessons at Humanity Nursery School. They also organised Pageant's first sports day at Shiekh Hatab Memorial Nursery. Other trips included Barra-Essau Upper Basic School on the North Bank and up-country to Jarreng.
2013
February 2013 - Microscopy Workshops and Christ's Hospital visit
Pippa, Ian, Kathy and Helen Groves visited schools, villages and sponsored children. There were two one-day Microscopy Workshops for student teachers at Gambia College. Four students from Christ's Hospital joined the Pageant team for an ambitious programme in a number of different schools - decorating classrooms, giving art, maths, drama and music lessons, football and rugby coaching, and running a sports day.
April 2013 - Village Visits and Fun Lessons
Pippa and Tina visited schools, villages and Pageant's sponsored children. They went to Siffoe set up a new loan scheme, to Jambanjelly to meet the new women's group, up-country to Jarreng to distribute mosquito nets and also bought a bicycle as an 18th birthday present from a students sponsor. Meanwhile Frances, Dan, Lauren and Rachel ran their usual 'fun' lessons at Humanity Nursery School and Kings Kid Academy.
2014
February 2014 - Village Visits and Science Workshops
The Pageant team were Pippa, Ian, Kathy, Andrew, David, Regina and Kasia. Some of the team visited schools, villages and Pageant's sponsored children, taking in Bakau, Wellingara, Abuko, Tallinding, Abuko, Brikama, Fajara, Cape Point, Kotu, Bakoteh, Banjul, Serrekunda, Kanifing, Jambanjelly, Brikama and Kanikunda. Others ran two Science Workshops for student teachers at Gambia College.
March 2014 - Richmond Spring Riverside Run
Frankie, Rachel, Ellie, Caroline, Georgina, Ruth, Alice and Charlotte took part in the Richmond Spring Riverside Run, raising over £2000 in sponsorship to buy items needed for their forthcoming visit to The Gambia. (see further details below.) Pippa posted news about the run on our Blog, which was subsequently copied to a news page.
April 2014 - Fun Lessons and a Sports Day
Frankie, Caroline, Ellie and Rachel were part of a team of eight Pageant Runners who took part in the Richmond Spring Riverside Run. (see above) The money raised was spent on all sorts of interesting items for creative lessons and lots of fun. They joined Pippa, Ian, Tina, Ann and Brian who were making their normal trip to The Gambia to visit schools, villages and sponsored children. Frankie's team gave their usual 'fun' lessons at King's Kid Academy, Presentation St Mary, Lutheran LBS and Humanity Nursery School, and they also organised a Sports Day at Jambanjelly BCS.
2015
February 2015 - Microscopy & Science Workshops and Other Visits
A Pageant team consisting of Pippa & Ian Howard, Kathy & Andrew Groves, Chris Robertson, Anne Jackson and Trudy Read went to The Gambia for the now regular Pageant Microscopy and Science Workshops. As well as the workshops, some of the team visited schools and villages to look at Pageant projects and also check on how Pageant's sponsored children were progressing.
2016
February 2016 - Microscopy & Science Workshops
A team consisting of Kathy, Andrew, Helen, Bob, Michal, Pippa and Ian from the UK, plus Gambians Abdoulie, Wandifa and Yankuba, delivered Pageant's eighth year of Microscopy and Science Workshops. The venues were Pirang, St Augustine's, Jambanjelly, St Joseph's and Presentation of Mary. As well as the workshops, some of the team visited schools and villages to look at Pageant projects and also check on how Pageant's sponsored children were progressing.
April 2016 - More Creative Lessons
Frances and her team of Tina, Rachel, Ellie and Caroline, were back in The Gambia for their usual creative lessons. They visited lots of places and did maths and sports sessions at Kotukala School, Lutheran LBS and Kings Kid Academy, as well as fun and games at family compounds. There also took a trip up country to an area previously not visited by Pageant.
November 2016 - Three Weeks of Visits
Pippa and Andrew travelled to The Gambia for their regular November visit. They visited schools, villages and sponsored children in many places in and around Banjul and all the way south. They crossed over to the North Bank and travelled up-country - too many places to list in the three weeks they were there!
2017
February 2017 - Visits & Microscopy Workshops
Pippa, Miriam and Richard travelled out on the first Thomas Cook flight to resume after the crisis following the change of president, with Andrew and Kathy following a week later. As usual, there were visits to schools and sponsored children, and towards the end of the trip, two days of Microscopy Workshops for student teachers.
November 2017 - Pageant's Autumn Visit
The Pageant team consisted of Pippa, Andrew, David, Regina, Carol, Ann and Brian, together with Tom, Isaac and Yun Shin from Christ's Hospital School. As well as the usual programme of visits to schools and villages in all parts of The Gambia, they supervised the unpacking and distribution of donated items sent out in a container from the UK.
2018
February 2018 - Visits & Microscopy Workshops
Pippa, Kathy and Andrew were in The Gambia for the usual visits to schools, villages and sponsored children. As well as visiting most parts of The Gambia, they gave two Microscopy Workshops for teachers at Gambia College.
November 2018 - Pageant's Autumn Visit
Pippa, David, Regina and Carole are making the usual November visit, with a programme of visits to schools and villages in all parts of The Gambia.
2019
February 2019 - Visits and Workshops
A Pageant team made their regular visit to The Gambia. Pippa, Kathy and Andrew together with Bob Skipper ran Microscopy and Chemistry Workshops for teachers and student teachers at Gambia College. Augmented by Carole and Alan, the team then visited schools, villages and sponsored children.
November 2019 - Pageant's Autumn Visit
Pippa and Andy are making Pageant's regular visit to The Gambia. Check out the latest posts on Pageant News Blog.
2020
February 2020 - Visits and Workshops
A Pageant team are visiting The Gambia. Pippa, Kathy and Andrew, plus physics teacher Joe Brock, and our agents Wandifa, Yankuba and Abdoulie. will be running microscopy and physics workshops. The team will also be visiting schools to look at progress on Pageant funded projects and consider new ones, as well as seeing our sponsored students.