Maths is bringing cultures together
Schoolchildren at Todholm Primary School welcomed two new additions to their school as they celebrated Maths Week.
The two special guests flew all the way from Malawi as they joined the pupils for a day of fun-filled activities centred around sums.
Obek Likwemba, a headteacher in Malawi, and education official Patrick Chapola, visited the school as part of Malawi Leaders of Learning 2018 project.
The programme, kick started by Glasgow City Council, encourages Scottish primaries to forge ties with schools in Malawi in order to share resources and improve learning.
Pupils from across Todholm came together to welcome their Malawi visitors, showing them the apps and equipment they use in their maths classes.
Obek and Patrick even joined in an exciting game of Sum Dogs and sat in on a Skoobmobile session.
Later that day the nursery children gave the guests a tour of the chicken pen, explaining to their visitors how they feed and care for their chickens.
Headteacher Lynne McGinn said she was delighted to further Todholm’s internationals links by welcoming the teachers from Malawi.
She said:“The children were so excited to have them here.
“In the lead up to their visit, and as part of Maths week, we tasked children with walk to Malawi. Each day every pupil in the school has walked a mile with their teacher and we tally it up to explain to them how many miles it will take them to get there.
“To then have Patrick and Obek here to tell them more about Malawi and their culture was really special.”
The Malawi visitors were equally impressed by the Lochfield Road school and all the resources that were available to the children.
“They loved seeing how we do things in Scotland and how we taught maths, as well as how we approached encouraging kids to read,”explained Ms McGinn.
“In particular they were really impressed by all the technology and how well the children could use laptops and iPads.”
Ms McGinn added that the real highlight of the day was seeing how much the Malawi visitors wanted to learn from Todholm.
She said:“It’s great because they can take back what they saw and hopefully apply it to their school.
“A huge part of the programme is to observe how we teach and hopefully take those skills and lessons back to their own school.
“It was fabulous to have them and we really hope they enjoyed themselves.”
Next week Malawi will be returning the favour, by hosting 11 teachers from Renfrewshire and Glasgow in their schools.
Two members of staff from Todholm, Ms McGinn and P1 teacher Gillian Struthers, will be flying out to Malawi as part of a group of educators for a month-long teaching project.