Greetings from Maria Fidelis

Greetings from Maria Fidelis School to all our friends at the UNRWA School in Abu Dis. Thank you for all your written messages, they are on display in both our staffrooms.

Thank you to all the staff and students I met during the day I spent in your school. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. I enjoyed the day very much and learnt a great deal from all, especially how important education is to all Palestinians.
A special greeting and thanks to Nader and his family for the wonderful welcome and hospitality shown to me when I visited his home for lunch and got to meet his beautiful children and new born baby. The photographs of them are much appreciated and enjoyed by my family.
Since returning back to Maria Fidelis I have shared with my colleagues and students all I heard and saw whilst in Palestine . I have shown my students photographs of the wonderful things to see in Jerusalem , your school and Abu Dis. What has shocked them are the photographs of the huge and ugly wall that surrounds Adu Dis and dominates all your lives. They were shocked to hear how the wall prevents you having access to your families, land and work, and how your travel is restricted and you can not get to the Holy Places in Jerusalem .
I hope you enjoy the photographs of my students preparing their greetings to the students of UNRWA School and of the UNRWA students who worked with me on sending their greetings back to the students of Maria Fidelis. At the moment a number of my colleagues and myself are looking at ways we can strengthen the links that have been established between our two schools. We are keen to work alongside South Camden School and hope this joint blog will help us make regular contact so that all three schools can learn from each other and share what is good in Camden and Abu Dis.
Looking forward to hearing from UNRWA school and especially Nader.

Mike

Ahmed Visits SCCS

A few weeks ago Ahmed from Abu Dis visited SCCS. He came to a School Council meeting where he talked to students about the forthcoming youth visit in July. Safiyyah, Zaynab and Maha are the students from SCCS who are taking part in the Youth Visit. There will also be other opportunities for people to get involved over the course of the week. The week is going to culminate with a performance in the theatre at SCCS on Friday evening.

Following the School Council meeting Ahmed went to meet with some Year 7 students who asked him lots of questions about life in Palestine. They wanted to know about education in Abu Dis and about the difficulties facing young people in their daily lives. Ms Gil and Ms Robinson showed them some photos from their recent visit. It was a really interesting and informative session and the students all asked whether Ahmed could teach them every week!!

CADFA Conference

Yesterday the annual CADFA conference was held at SOAS in Central London. One of the highlights of the day was the feedback from the recent teachers' visit to Abu Dis. We looked at photos and discussed what had been learnt from the visit. We also began to think about the next steps and how we can take things forward. We all agree that communication is the key and so I'm going to make a determined effort to keep this blog updated!

Back in Camden, missing Abu Dis!

Reme Gil and some of the UNRWA Girls

Spray painting on the separation wall to show how much we like the link between SCCS and the UNRWA School in Abu Dis!

Abu Dis to Camden...
So the SCCS teachers have been back at school this week and have been telling colleagues and students all about their time in Abu Dis! We have lots of very good photos and are preparing to create a display outside of the main hall. We also have the lovely messages that the UNRWA students recorded and we're looking forward to listening to them with our students.

We're beginning to think about our next steps and this week three local newspapers have agreed to publish a story and pictures about our visit to Palestine. The National Union of Teachers has also agreed to write an article and publish some photos in next month's edition of their magazine.

It is the CADFA Conference on Saturday which will be a good opportunity to report back to others in Camden and to think about our plans for the future. We'll let you know how it goes!

Teachers' Visit 2

The second teachers' visit from Camden has just arrived back in the UK. A fantastic week was had by all and we hope that we've managed to continue strengthening the links between SCCS, Maria Fidelis and the UNRWA School. Pictures to follow very very soon!!

Photos from the Camden teacher's last visit to UNRWA school October 2007

These photos were taken when Charlotte and Fiona were based in the UNRWA school for the Camden teachers' visit to Abu Dis. Sirat and all the teachers were so welcoming and hospitable- it was a pleasure to meet all the teachers and children and to begin to find out about the Palestinian education system in the UNRWA School and other Abu Dis schools.

I am hoping that you can get my powerpoint presentation by using the link in the title here. Please let me know if it works/does not work! Rather a large file- so will take a little time to download.