This morning began with a visit to St Columba’s school. Some pupils and staff from the other two Diocesan schools, St James’ and the Cyrene School had come to St Columba’s to join in the service. Here was our chance to see the size of church that St Clare, Nkulumane, was proposing to build. I guess the best way to help you to get a sense of the size is to say that it is almost impossible to see the back of the church when you stand at the front. It seats around 500 people and Bishop Cleophas’ consecration took place there because it seats so many more people than the Cathedral.
During the service the members of the Kingston Team were again introduced and they gave gifts to the head teachers of the school and the pupils. The Head boys and girls from each school were asked to come forward and each were given some ‘Kingston Episcopal Area’ pencils and a tube of tennis balls which had been used at the Wimbledon Tournament. Once again we were treated to some wonderful singing from each of the schools, who took it in turn to lead part of the singing in the service.
After the service, members of the Link Team meet with representatives of classes from the school to discuss the link between St Columba’s and St Cecilia’s school in Wandsworth. The Revd Annie Kurk presented the Headteacher of the school with a book of various photographs of the school and the classrooms and activities. She also gave the Headteacher a framed photograph of the building to be put on display and then went on to tell the students something of life at St Cecilia’s.
The students asked questions about the school and how the link might work before we went onto a tour of the school. It is very different from the two other Diocesan schools that we have seen for a number of reasons. The site upon which it is set is much smaller than that of St James or Cyrene School. This may be that this is in part due to St Columba’s being the only day school that we have seen and possibly because of this it is also co-educational. In a sense it would be true to say that St Columba’s is more like schools which we are used to seeing in Southwark Diocese and elsewhere in the UK, but whatever the reason it was more familiar to us as a building and seemed to be in extremely good condition. Unlike the other schools St Columba’s also has broadband internet connexion (probably because the site is so much smaller and more urban and thus easier to set up with broadband) and that means that the link between St Cecilia’s and St Columba’s will be easier to get going.
There are about 800 pupils at St Columba’s with approximately 40 pupils in each class. There are less than 30 teachers. St Cecilia’s has nearly 900 pupils with around 125 teachers! Whilst we were meeting with the students concerning the link we were fortunate to meet one pupil who had achieved the highest number of a passes at ‘O’ last year – 10. We saw science labs and technical drawing rooms which were well equipped, even if the equipment was quite old.
We have now seen all three Diocesan schools in the Matabeleland Diocese and have been impressed in all of them by the commitment and enthusiasm of staff and pupils alike and by the results that they achieve. Education is incredibly important to the young people that we have seen. Education has to be paid for here in Zimbabwe and families make sacrifices to ensure that their children get the education that will help them to achieve in the future.
It was a privilege to see the school and to meet the Headteacher there who runs the school with great authority and good humour. The discipline at the school is obviously very good and the pupils – as in all the schools that we have seen – are polite and respectful. They are also full of energy and enthusiasm and joy, as far as we have seen. Their singing, as I have said repeatedly, is without parallel in any school that I have heard in schools in the Southwark Diocese or elsewhere.
After St Columba’s, we went to the Mother’s Union Centre for lunch and from there back to the Cathedral where the Link Committees from Matabeleland and the Kingston Area met together. These meetings of both Link Committees (such as the one that Croydon also had with the members of the Committee from the Diocese of Central Zimbabwe) are an important part of Link visits as it gives the Committees the only chances that they have to meet together in person. Unlike the Croydon Link Group, which met first without the two Bishops and then subsequently with them, the Kingston meeting was with the Bishops and (again unlike the Croydon Team visit) included members of the visit team who are not members of the Link Committee.
The meeting over we went to Said Evensong in the Cathedral after which I interviewed the Diocesan Projects Officer, Ronald Lumbiwa, who has been helping us to show us around the Diocese and then it was off home to our respective hosts.
Tomorrow is my last full day here and I am looking forward to worship at the Mother’s Union Centre (and one last chance to hear some wonderful singing) and St Aidan’s Farm - one of the Diocesan projects which Ronald, who is trained as an agriculturalist, is helping to manage.
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