Sunrise joined 54 countries across the world celebrating Commonwealth Day on 14th March.

Everyone at Sunrise enjoys dressing up on special days!

We were happy to see some regular visitors, Rudy and Yolanda Nachtegaal from The Netherlands in Sunrise this month. Here they are showing Helen some of the many useful gifts they brought for Sunrise. 

One of our Lower Basic teachers, Omar Gaye, is a keen gardener and as well as helping the students to learn about plants and growing them in the Sunrise garden, he makes sure the flower troughs in the hall are looked after too.

 The chairs we have at Sunrise were donated by a school in Wales in 2011 and considering that they were second hand at that time most of them have lasted very well. However we have now had to buy replacements for several of them. Chairs like these are very expensive in The Gambia, if you can even find them, so these have also had to come via a container from UK.

Once they were unloaded from the van they were taken to the different areas needing them and labelled with their new home!

Skills students have enthusiastically taken to their newly learnt skill of crocheting, so here are a few examples of their work.

The annual NAT (National Assessment Test) taken in all schools in The Gambia will be soon, so here are Grade 3 doing a mock exam to help them to be ready for the test. Schools are closed on the day of the exam and invigilators have to be teachers from another school.

Every class has their own end of term exams to do with the results of each student shown in the end of term report they take home. The first picture shows some of our Lower Basic Grade 6 students doing this exam. These students only have one more term left at Sunrise before they move on to an Upper Basic or Junior Secondary School. 

Below are some Skills 1 students doing an end of term exam. Skills students are with us for 3 years before they graduate and get a certificate recognised  by NAQAA (National Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority),  a regulatory body for tertiary and higher education.

Schools all choose their own date for an Ebbeh Day when they can buy food and drink and dance - usually quite a noisy day!Staff and helpers prepare the food and drink in large quantities and any profits from the sales go to a school fund.

Wonjo and Baobab juice are sold to the thirsty students!

This photo must have been near the beginning of the event, when all the friends and neighbours arrive it gets very busy!

Another end of term event this month was the annual trip for Lower Basic Grades 1, 2 and 3.

The teachers checked the excited students onto a coach.

Riding in a big coach like this is a new experience for many of the children so the teachers make sure that they all have a seat and sit down. The nursery children had told everyone at Sunrise how much they enjoyed their visit to Katchically so these Lower Basic classes have asked to go there too.

They saw the crocodiles basking in the sun and swimming in their pool.

The for many would be the highlight of the day - the trip to the beach for food and games.

We had some visitors this month. Ron and Sandon from The Netherlands came to see a Nursery 1 girl they knew, bringing some pencils for her class. 

Dawn and Paul came with their daughter, Gabi, and Gabi's daughter, Emma. Gabi and Emma were in Gambia for a week's holiday and came to Sunrise every school day that week. They helped wherever they could and spent a lot time teaching the game of bench ball to various classes in Lower Basic.

Mr Saidy joined in enthusiastically with his class!

LB2 here below, changed for PE and practising dribbling the ball with Gabi and Emma.

Our school team used the strip they were given earlier this year when they took part in an inter school competition.

Two of our Skills 1 students are using our new gas cooker to cook sausages. 

They also used it to make this banana bread.

 Skills 2 were making spaghetti bolognese.

Skills 3 are out on work experience all this term, they will be back in term 3 to do the final practical and theoretical exams they need to pass before they get their graduation certificate.

Nursery 3 are playing a favourite game -

Lower Basic 4 are busy completing a task-

The nursery had their annual outing this month. All three classes went to Kachikally pool and museum in Bakau, ending as usual with a meal on the beach.

The transport arrives -

Excited children line up to get on the minibuses.

The food and drink  prepared for their meal on the beach at the end of the day now has to be loaded into the buses.

Thebuses set off and then they arrive at Kachikally-

They wait in their groups wondering what they will see next.

Then they see the crocodiles!

After looking around the pool and grounds it is time to get back on the buses and set off for the beach where they play games

Then they sit down to have their food and a drink before going back to Sunrise.

We have a new Cookery and Pastry teacher in our skills training centre, Mr Abdoulie Jallow.

Some of Skills 2 students are studying their notes here, they have to prepare for exams in theory as well as in practical work.

We also have a new nursery assistant, Sainabou Hydara. The Gambian ministry of education like every primary class to have the date written in full at the top of the blackboard each day. Sainabou is using lines to show the correct placing of the letters.

Lower Basic classes are lining up ready for assembly here, they are standing not sitting  on the floor like children in the UK because the wind blows the sand everywhere and makes the floor too dirty for them to sit on it.

The nursery children are also all lined up in their classes here, ready for assembly. Nursery 1 are in the front row and display a great difference in size between some of the children in this class of 3-4 year olds!

If you or someone you know is going to Gambia, our nursery are desperately short of coloured pencils for crayoning in the worksheets they use in maths and phonics. They have plenty of wax crayons but they are too thick for this work.

Lower Basic 3 students were in the bantaba learning about the different sources of energy that could be used for cooking.

 There has been a great shortage of gas bottles for some time in Gambia but we finally managed to get a full bottle of gas and the connector needed to fit it to the new gas stove in the bantaba, ready to use in cookery and pastry lessons.

Lower Basic 6 have been experimenting with the power of magnetic attraction.

These Nursery 1 children were all busy in their classroom when suddenly the fire alarm klaxon sounded the warning for a fire drill.

All Sunrise had to go quickly to the assembly point at the gate