Character Education Workshop
Our UK-based Development Director, Nick Gandon, recently spent a week in Nairobi during which he facilitated a three-day Character Education workshop, working with our local team of cricket coaches. Nick was joined in this by N’ganga Kibandi of the Africa Educational Trust, our Evaluation Partner. The workshop was a great success, superbly presented and providing a great platform for the coaches to develop further their delivery of the Character Education component of our Programme. As a result, we now have a very enthused and motivated group of coaches who all enjoy employing their new skills. Nick has obviously done a fine job in drawing them out of their natural reserve and getting them fully involved in thinking about KIPP principles, understanding each element and the potential for applying them.
On the evening of the final day, a presentation of the charity’s work was given at a cocktail party held in the cricket pavilion at Nairobi Club. All the Head Teachers and point-of-contact teachers of the schools in the programme were invited along with members of the local business, cricket and educational communities. They heard important details of the scientific background to the principles we aim to apply, how they fit in with developing cricket skills and how the coaches plan to apply them. Three of the coaches gave presentations and a slide show of photographs of the programme being delivered rolled silently in the background throughout the evening. We were especially honoured by the presence of Professor Mike Boit of Jomo Kenyatta University, a former Commissioner of Sports and a Commonwealth 800m Gold Medalist, who also spoke in support of what we are doing and seeking to achieve. It was heartwarming to see the enthusiastic reaction of those present. A couple of the Head Teachers have asked whether we can also train their staff and one asked our Programme Director, David Waters, to bring along the coaches who work at their school to address school assemblies.
We may have started something!!
