Background

The King's Kid Academy (KKA) is located in Temasu, near Lamin, to the south west of Banjul. [Map showing where Kings Kid Academy is] It was founded in about 1996 by a Nigerian missionary to provide nursery education. There is no state provision for nursery education in The Gambia, so the school relied entirely on private funding. The school has expanded year by year, with the first batch of children moving up a grade each year and into primary grades. Children remain at KKA until they complete their primary education in Grade 6.

Plymouth-Banjul Challenge 2008 - Transplant Titans Visit

Team Transplant Titans in the 2008 Challenge consisted of Hany Riad and Titus Augustine, both transplant surgeons at Manchester Royal Infirmary. They left Manchester on 11 January 2008, arriving in Banjul on 28 January. The money they have raised through sponsorship is being split evenly between transplant research projects in Manchester and the Kings Kid Academy. On 29 January, they visited Kings Kid to meet the staff and children.

The headmaster, Mr Jacob Amadi, took them around the different classes, which all put on welcome performances and songs. The visit culminated with an assembly at which the headmaster and the children gave thanks to Pageant and to Transplant Titans for their support. They then said a prayer of thanks for Titus and Hany's safe journey from the UK, and sang both the Kings Kid Anthem and the Gambian National Anthem. Read more about Transplant Titans

Toilets and textbooks

A group of students from Oakham School and Copenhagen International School raised funds for Kings Kid Academy. Their objectives were:

• Distribute Textbooks to improve educational resources.
• Build and refurbish toilets to improve sanitation facilities and make them more hygienic

Long Term Aims

1. Make a sustainable contribution to the community
2. Provide long term solutions to the community
3. Create a link between Oakham School and King's Kid Academy, providing future opportunities for other students at Oakham School

[more about Toilets and Textbooks project]

The above photos show the toilets before the project. See below for photos of the toilets after completion of the project.

Progress of building work - June 2008

Update April 2009 - Building progress & Pageant visit

King's Kid Academy has received funding via Pageant over several years, and the management team has used this money extremely well. They have completed a large new classroom block (single storey at present but with foundations capable of extending to two storeys in the future), a new toilet block and they have acquired classroom and office furniture, textbooks, science and art equipment. All the work has been carried out to a high standard, as seen in the photos below.

As well as inspecting the progress of the new buildings, the visiting Pageant team of Tina, Pippa, Frances and Claire ran an Art & English morning for the top two classes. This was greeted with great enthusiasm by the children - and the staff.

June 2011 - Lauren and Dan teaching at KKA

Lauren Rickwood and Dan Langdon were studying to be teachers at the University of Chichester. As part of their Education Degree Course, they visited The Gambia for three weeks at the end of June 2011, and taught in three schools there, including Kings Kid Academy. Their full account is on this page but we have summarised their visit to KKA below:

Lauren and Dan taught all three nursery classes over three days. They began with letters and sounds of the alphabet with Nursery 3. Next was maths with Nursery 2, and then letters and sounds with Nursery 1. They also observed various lessons with Grades 5 and 7, and finished their visit with some creative 'art lessons' and some games.

February 2015 - New Library and Office Building

During 2014, Pageant gave Kings Kid Academy £2,000 towards the costs of a new library and office building. The photos below were taken in October 2014 while the building work was in progress.

In February 2015 some of the Pageant team visited KKA to see the new building and the now completed interior - library and computer room (with Bishop Dennis showing us round), a small staff-room and the Headmaster's new office. The latter has freed up space for an enlarged school main office and store-room for school resources.

We have also bought the school a very large (3.5 metres long) awning, which will be attached to the new building and extended across the school compound when needed to provide shade for school prize-giving ceremonies, nursery graduation ceremonies and PTA meetings. The awning has been shipped to The Gambia from UK and we will wait for some photos from Bishop Dennis to see it in use.