17 July 2005 - Meet Mr Gitteh Day

On 17th July, Pippa and Ian Howard held a 'Meet Mr Gitteh Day' day at their home, which was attended by about fifty Pageant members. Bakary was very pleased to meet so many Pageant members and commented particularly on how friendly everyone was and how welcome they made him feel. He said that it was a very good mixture of a busy yet relaxing day. A watercolour 'Banjul fishing boats at sunrise' and a picture by ex Bakalarr student Ousman F Sowe, were raffled, and the winners were William Eve and Catherine Andrews. Pageant made a total of £317.50 on the day, from contributions towards lunch, the raffle and sales of Gambian artefacts.

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18 July 2005 - visits to Warnham, Trafalgar and Millais schools

Warnham Village School is near Horsahm in West Sussex (further info: Warnham School website), Bakary addressed assembly and answered some very interesting questions. He was shown round the school by a group of senior pupils.

Bakary addresses the assembly guided tour (2)

Bakary on his guided tour (1) guided tour (3)

We next went to Trafalgar School in Horsham (further info: Trafalgar School website) where we attended another assembly and once again Bakary was asked several searching question about schools and life in The Gambia. The school has voiced interest in linking with a Gambian school.

In the afternoon we visited a very quiet Millais School, also in Horsham. (further info: Millais website) One year had left already, two years were on visits, and one year was on the sports field leaving just one year in class. We were shown round by the headmaster Mr Nettley. After Bakary's visit Mr Nettley addressed a school assembly, telling the children who had been away about the visit. He said how much he had valued the discussion between himself and Bakary Gitteh and that Mr Gitteh had requested help, not so much with books and materials, but with building a new classroom. Mr Nettley said that he hoped that Millais would be able to assist Bakalarr school with such a project in the near future. Mr Gitteh has suggested that a suitable project is a classroom for teaching woodwork and metalwork.

Visiting one primary one infant and one senior school in the same day left Bakary somewhat overwhelmed by the resources that all schools have in UK.

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19 July 2005 - visits to Southwater Schools

We started with a visit to Southwater Junior School (further info: Southwater Junior website) where we  were shown round by two very impressive students in their final week at the school. We were escorted to every corner and and given an interesting insight to the students' views.

Bakary with staff and pupils	Bakary with his guides

Mid morning and we walked to Southwater Infant School on the adjacent site. (further info: Southwater Infant website) Mrs Winn showed us round the modern school and explained how the areas were used. In several classes Mr Gitteh was asked questions about The Gambia. The school visits were very interesting and hopefully Mr Gitteh will be able to take back some new ideas.

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20 July 2005 - Woodberry Down Community Primary School

Woodberry Down Community Primary School is situated in the London Borough of Hackney (further info: Woodberry Down website)  It is a multi-ethnic school, and takes in children from a very wide range of backgrounds and abilities, most of whom do not have English as their first language. The headteacher, Greg Wallace, was kind enough to organise a very interesting morning for us, with a tour of the school in the company of two delightful pupils and ending with watching the full dress rehearsal of the end of term musical play. Pageant member Linda Murgatroyd is one of the school governors and it was she who had suggested the visit, as she felt that it would be a very different experience from the majority of the schools that Bakary had visited. Unfortunately no photographs were permitted in this school.

Dame Tipping School

This was followed by a fish'n chip lunch 'on the hoof' so to speak, as we drove to visit Dame Tipping CE Primary School in Havering-Atte-Bower, near Romford in Essex (further info: Dame Tipping website) Here we took part in a school assembly and Bakary answered a number of questions put to him by the very enthusiastic pupils. They were keen to show him their 'Gambia' board, where they display the photographs and letters from the two young Gambian boys who are sponsored by the school, as well as the fund-raising activities that they have carried out during the past year. We left some Gambian goodies with them for fund-raising at their Christmas fair and the visit ended with the children singing an African song that they had learnt, to the accompaniment of a guitar played by their music teacher - all in all it was a lovely way to end what had been a marathon 2 weeks of school visits.

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Between 21 and 28 July, Bakary visited an old Gambian friend in Liverpool. He went by coach (long, boring journey, he said) and also managed to fit in a trip to Yorkshire.

29 July 2005 - Pageant lunchtime presentation at ERA