June at the campus

Here's what June looked like at the campus. Sixty-three kids finished the month at Hope Bridge Primary — 23 boys and 40 girls. Nine teachers, three non-teaching staff, and Simon's team on the ground running the whole thing. This is the headteacher's report.

What went well

English speaking got noticeably better. The teachers put a lot of weight on it this term and started organizing debates in class. Kids are showing up to talk. This matters more than it sounds — a kid who can read and write but can't speak English gets stuck when exams are in English.

Primary Five picked up tailoring. The school ran a skills training this month, and most of the class grabbed it fast. Kids in the region don't have many concrete post-school skills to fall back on if they don't finish. Picking up tailoring gives them something in their hands.

A handwriting and ethics training happened for teachers and students. Chalkboards were ruled for cleaner writing. Charts went up on the walls in Nursery and Primary — the kind of incidental learning where kids pick up letters and numbers from what's on the walls.

Assessments came back stronger. Reading and writing of simple words moved in both Nursery and Primary. Not dramatic, but the kind of quiet compounding progress that shows the teaching is working.

A PTA committee was formed. Parents at the table, sub-committees running, more shared ownership of how the school operates day to day.

Health held. No serious sickness across the school despite the Ebola outbreak in the country. The campus is running strict handwashing for every learner, teacher, and visitor. The nurse resigned mid-month to run off with a man she'd been seeing, and the school is looking for a replacement.

What's hard right now

Some parents aren't sending scholastic materials or paying school fees on time. This is the biggest ongoing drag on the school running smoothly, and it's why sponsorship and shirt sales matter — they fund the operation when the local household economy can't.

The Nursery classroom faces direct afternoon sun. Kids sitting through lessons with sunlight in their eyes. Real physical thing to fix — window treatment or a shade addition.

The school is short on readers and story books. Reading skills are moving but there aren't enough books to keep the momentum going. Specific thing money can fix.

Some teachers need more training on how to prepare teaching materials and handle their tools. Simon's team is planning capacity-building sessions.

What every shirt and every $25 month is buying right now

School meals for the kids eating from school. Salaries for the 9 teachers and 3 non-teaching staff. The teacher training that made this month's handwriting workshop happen. The nurse replacement search. Books, when we can order them. The physical school itself — a Nursery through Primary campus that ran through June with 63 kids showing up to learn something.

If you're already sponsoring one of these kids, this is what your $25 covered in June. If you bought a shirt and haven't sponsored yet, this is where a monthly would land — not into an account somewhere in the US, but into the meals, the salaries, the books, the teacher training. On the ground in Omoro.

Thanks for being part of it,

Kevin

One more thing

A lot of the kids' profiles just got refreshed — new details, sharper stories, better photos in places. If it's been a while since you clicked around, pull up a few kid pages and see what's new. We keep sharpening the site so this connection feels closer. My Campus at beanumber.org/me is the newest piece of that — a home base for exploring the campus, not just checking in on your kid.