Zambian teachers spend week at Dinnington school

Gregor Chipisha and Precious Banda were visitors to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School on Lidgett Lane.

They came to visit the area from St Joseph’s School in Kalulushi in the southern African Republic of Zambia.

Two teachers from the Dinnington school – Cath Schofield and Jody Powell – visited the partner school in Africa last July as part of an educational exchange programme. 

Katie West, teaching assistant at St Joseph’s, said the children had enjoyed the visit by the teachers from Africa to their school.

She said: “It has been wonderful.

“The African teachers have been involved in lessons and teaching us songs.

“All the children have done work about Zambia and Africa.”

Over the week, the children worked on projects covering local history, traditional dance, music, stereotyping, the environment, animals, printing, drawing and comparing cultures.

They presented their work in a special farewell assembly.

Children even got the opportunity to sample delicious African food during the week-long visit.

Miss Banda and Mr Chipisha took some of this work done by the St Joseph’s children back to share with the pupils in their school in Kalulushi. 

Mrs West added: “Some of the children have been trying to show traditional English things to the visitors, such as country dancing.”

She said that the children at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary always look forward to receiving African visitors each year.

Mrs West said that a number of schools in Rotherham have links with educational establishments in Zambia and each year teachers from the town travel to the country to experience teaching over there, as well as learning about life in general.

Kalulushi is a town in the Copperbelt Province in north central Zambia and has a population of around 75,000.

It was set up in 1953 as a company town to house workers from the nearby Chibuluma copper and cobalt mine.