An Introduction to the Namibia Journey

Next Friday, our Namibia Team will be starting their journey to Africa. Joyce Chick, our school nurse, Amy Smith, one of our TAs and Laura Whitehead our Training Manager will be going to Namibia in Southern Africa. Laura will be writing this blog while the team are in Namibia so that our staff and students can track their progress and see what exciting things they are experiencing and can share with our students.

The trip has come about as part of our International Schools work. Margaret made links with our partner school when she visited for 3 months and their English teacher Mr Hafeni came to visit us last year. Our Namibia team will fly into Windhoek, the capital city and will travel North up to Oshakati to work at our partner school 'Onamutai'.

When they have finished their exploration of Namibia, they will return with Mr Hafeni and another teacher from 'Onamutai' and they will work at our school during the whole of May.

This trip is a fantastic opportunity for our students to learn about other countries and cultures. As a result we will be able to deliver a multi-sensory exploration of Africa for our students when we return.

This will all form part of Africa Week and will be something really exciting for our students to look forward to.

Joyce and Laura have already delivered assemblies to Key Stage 1, 3 and 4 students and Key Stage 2 students will see the assembly next week. During the assembly students learnt about the animals and insects in Namibia and got a real multi-sensory flavour of the trip. Students got to smell the suncream we'll be taking, see through the binoculars we'll be using to spot the animals, listen to the noises some of the animals make including the buzzing mosquitos! Some students got to experience what it feels like to be inside a mosquito net. Laura then brought in Mealie Pap, one of the staple foods in Namibia. Students got to see how it looks when it starts out, feel the grains of Maizemeal and then taste the finished product of 'Mealie Pap'. A few students liked the taste, but lots didn't. They noticed how bland and boring it is in comparison to food in the UK.

This trip will bring about a whole range of multi-sensory learning that will greatly enhance our students' education. The project has been entirely funded through the Namibia Team's fundraising efforts in and out of school and not from school funds. This means that it really is an addition to the fantastic experience we can offer students at Milestone Academy and not at the expense of anything else. We hope you enjoy reading this blog and are very excited about the prospect of coming back to Milestone Academy with a wealth of new experiences, pictures, videos and resources to share with our students.