Barrow CE Blog

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Our year 5 & 6 children have entered four movies into the Create IT Awards. They worked in groups of three over a number of weeks and produced some stunning results. One of the entries has been nominated to go forward to the final results ceremony at Albrighton Hall Hotel on Monday 14th April 2008 - congratulations to Millie, Georgia and Rhys!

Please watch them all and leave your comments.

Here are the entries:

Life at Barrow by Millie, Georgia & Rhys
click here

A Barrowful of Fun by Jasmine, Maisie & Dan
click here

My Cool School by Jimmy, Gemma & Lauren
click here

Barrow, a Special Place by Daniel, Jack & Ciaran
click here

Barrow School Council invited Ruth Walmsley, a resident of Broseley and a member of the Friends of Conakry Refugee School, to come and talk to Class 2 about the school and her fund-raising work. The School Council would like to support Ruth’s work and sponsor one of the school’s students. Read more about the school and the work of the friend’s below and by following the links.

The civil war in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 1990s caused a huge influx of refugees into Conakry, the capital of Guinea in West Africa. They literally ran for their lives leaving their homes and everything they owned behind. Many lost their families in the confusion and chaos to escape. Most suffered terrible human rights atrocities at the hands of the rebels and also, as they tried to enter Guinea, by the Guinean military. At present there are over half a million refugees living in Guinea.

A school for the many refugee children was initially founded in 1993 by parents, and subsequently a new school was built and paid for by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) and the IRC (International Rescue Committee) in 1995. In 2000 all support was withdrawn due to Guinean government pressure after further rebel uprisings and the School was taken away from them.

Subsequently, teachers and parents managed to re-open a school on a self-sponsored basis, renting classrooms from the Guinean school. Students pay a monthly tuition fee of £1 to help cover the rent, teachers’ stipends and instructional materials. As time has gone by enrolment has dropped from 1600 to 480 due to increased living costs. Many live on a pittance anyway so they cannot afford to pay this meagre amount. This presents huge problems in finding sufficient income to meet the School’s running costs and the teachers often receive no pay at all.

In order to augment their tiny income the School runs social functions and ‘Bob-a-Job’ days to keep the School open. Although constantly requesting financial help from non-government organisations within and without Guinea non has been forthcoming.

Links:

Friends of Conakry Refugee School Newsletter

Philip Dunne MP, the member for Ludlow, and his fellow Shropshire MPs have been active in supporting the campaign to save our rural schools. Philip visited us today to meet with Governors, Headteacher and Parents. Mrs Barton has received this letter from Philip together with an article to the Shropshire Star jointly written by all of the Shropshire MPs. The letter and article clearly state their belief that the closure threat has been removed and that the status quo should resume.