St James Primary School
St James primary school is situated at the end of the mission, furthest from the main entrance. Like all of St James you arrive along on a dusty, sand filled road demarcated by painted stones and rocks, interrupted at times by the gum poles which accomodate a small light bulb to illuminate the darkness after 6pm. The primary school consists of a group of buildings including the original St James church and two rows of low rendered and white washed brick built schoolrooms. The pre-school is more centralised to the main area of the mission and closer to the newer church.
Mrs Mpofu is the headmistress of the 203 children attending school between Grade 1 and Grade 7. In recent years FSJMS and personal donations of friends of FSJMS have enabled the primary school to become electrified and joined into the mains power supply for the mission; itself only electrified in the 2000’s.
This has enabled better illumination in the classrooms as well as being able to use the TV and DVD which was purchased by another friend of FSJMS in 2018. The TV is locked into a secure cupboard in the staff room at the end of one of the buildings.
The school rooms are rustic, and basic but the teaching staff do their best with the limited resources they have. All the children live locally in relative terms and so virtually all of them have parents who live subsistence farming lives with very limited employment and opportunity. Education is certainly linked to better opportunity and a better life.
Stanley Sibanda is the deputy head teacher and also an old boy of the school. His wife Margaret, another school alumni graduated at the end of 2019 with a degree in early years learning and she heads up the preschool as well as doing some teaching in the lower years of the school.
Gabriel Mpofu (no relation to Mrs Mpofu) teaches grades 6 and 7 and is a dedicated teacher in trying to improve technology in the school. From 2021 all primary schools will need to teach technology and computing which will be a challenge. However, FSJMS continues to support the primary school utilising the secondary school computer room as a means of facilitating the primary curriculum.
The old church was cleared out from its storage use and chapel was reintroduced. It is used for occasional services and its use for a hall has been encouraged.
Mrs Mpofu is the headmistress of the 203 children attending school between Grade 1 and Grade 7. In recent years FSJMS and personal donations of friends of FSJMS have enabled the primary school to become electrified and joined into the mains power supply for the mission; itself only electrified in the 2000’s.
This has enabled better illumination in the classrooms as well as being able to use the TV and DVD which was purchased by another friend of FSJMS in 2018. The TV is locked into a secure cupboard in the staff room at the end of one of the buildings.
The school rooms are rustic, and basic but the teaching staff do their best with the limited resources they have. All the children live locally in relative terms and so virtually all of them have parents who live subsistence farming lives with very limited employment and opportunity. Education is certainly linked to better opportunity and a better life.
Stanley Sibanda is the deputy head teacher and also an old boy of the school. His wife Margaret, another school alumni graduated at the end of 2019 with a degree in early years learning and she heads up the preschool as well as doing some teaching in the lower years of the school.
Gabriel Mpofu (no relation to Mrs Mpofu) teaches grades 6 and 7 and is a dedicated teacher in trying to improve technology in the school. From 2021 all primary schools will need to teach technology and computing which will be a challenge. However, FSJMS continues to support the primary school utilising the secondary school computer room as a means of facilitating the primary curriculum.
The old church was cleared out from its storage use and chapel was reintroduced. It is used for occasional services and its use for a hall has been encouraged.
Primary School Lunches
It is worth noting that day schools in Zimbabwe do not provide lunch for their children, but for over 10 years St James has and it has had a significant impact on the general health of the children. Cases of beriberi are now rare rather than common and attendance in school is much great than it once was. Parents ability to contribute to equipment let alone food is very limited.
At one end of the two rows of buildings there is a renewed shelter with low walls and a tin roof that is the school kitchen! Two mums on a rota cook the school lunch everyday during term time. The food is paid for by FSJMS and supplies are usually organised by Stanley Sibanda and delivered termly to school. The children sit down under the trees to eat. The preschool children have their plates and cups provided but older ones bring their own plates or boxes.
Most lunches consist of sadza (thick maize meal porridge) with either beans or soya bean chunks and a knorr packet relish/soup to add some salt and flavour to the meal. The cost of this is now considerable at £8,370.53 to the end of 2019 but when worked out as 190 teaching days and 203 children a day this is 22p a meal per child, or just over £1 per child per week. Could you support a child’s lunch? A takeaway coffee is the cost of lunch for two weeks for a child.
At one end of the two rows of buildings there is a renewed shelter with low walls and a tin roof that is the school kitchen! Two mums on a rota cook the school lunch everyday during term time. The food is paid for by FSJMS and supplies are usually organised by Stanley Sibanda and delivered termly to school. The children sit down under the trees to eat. The preschool children have their plates and cups provided but older ones bring their own plates or boxes.
Most lunches consist of sadza (thick maize meal porridge) with either beans or soya bean chunks and a knorr packet relish/soup to add some salt and flavour to the meal. The cost of this is now considerable at £8,370.53 to the end of 2019 but when worked out as 190 teaching days and 203 children a day this is 22p a meal per child, or just over £1 per child per week. Could you support a child’s lunch? A takeaway coffee is the cost of lunch for two weeks for a child.
