Amano Christian School has just completed the first term of a new school year and it has been an eventful and quite satisfying term. I cannot mention everything that has happened during the last few months but I will include a number of highlights. Of course, the focus of the school has continued to be on providing a good quality education for the more than ninety students who attend the school, along with Bible teaching and Christian worship. We were encouraged, in January, to receive news of the generally very good results which the students had achieved following last November’s I.G.C.S.E. exams. This term has also been the first with Mr. Andrew Kirk as the Secondary head, much to the relief of Miss Hilary Millard who had been acting Secondary head for a number of years. She has found it a great help to be able to share the workload with him as she focuses on her role as Primary head.
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS
There have been a number of sporting events which both the secondary and primary departments have taken part in. The primary football team has participated in two tournaments, at Kalalushi and Simba, with other schools from the Copperbelt province, and they really enjoyed these despite being up against players often much bigger than themselves. An U-13 team could include eight players who are twelve or thirteen; at Amano, because of the current size of the school, many of our players are two or three years younger than this! One of the primary highlights was when Lechwe school brought players to Amano for what was the football team’s first ever home matches. We enjoyed welcoming another school to Amano and also managed to win!
The netball team has also played in the tournaments and have made good progress, coming second at Simba. We also took a team earlier in the term to a swimming gala at Simba, again with a number of other schools. We currently have a number of excellent swimmers in the Primary school and they put in a great effort to win many of the races they took part in, sometimes swimming against students older than themselves in order to attempt to collect as many points for Amano as possible. The event was also well-organised and enjoyable.
One Friday afternoon, just after half term, most of the students and many parents, staff and visitors gathered together in the dorm for the Miss Valentine & Captain Pirate competition in which some of the primary students demonstrated their talents and dressed up in a variety of costumes. There were three judges watching their every move, while some of the secondary students did a great job of organising and hosting the event. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the event came to a thrilling conclusion with the announcement of Choolwe as Captain Pirate and Arushi as Miss Valentine.
SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS
The Secondary students have participated in a number of sporting events which they have enjoyed, although perhaps not with the same success as in previous years. Girls and boys teams represented Amano at the ISAZ tournament at Chengelo, playing football, volleyball and basketball and managing somehow to switch quickly between the different sports. They have also played hockey during the term and competed in a swimming gala.
One of the recent sporting highlights was when Amano hosted our first cross-country race which a number of other schools attended. It went very well and the Amano team put up a very strong performance. We have also hosted a chess match, taking on a team from Kalalushi, so it really has been a term where other schools have been welcomed to Amano and have been given a glimpse of what this school is about. I am sure there will be further such occasions in the near future.
Trip to Lusaka
March 16th saw Grades 11 and 12 make a midday start for Lusaka, with teachers Rod Boatman, Lukundo Siwale and Ulfert Andresen. The purpose was to give students some insight into the different career opportunities available in Zambia. The visit included time with the Zambian Development Agency where we heard about different opportunities the country has to improve the economic situation. At the headquarters of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia we learned about their projects. From the Business Studies point of view the visit at the management of Arcades shopping centre gave interesting insights where the students could ask a lot of questions. Looking behind the scenes at the cinema and at Rhapsody's (a restaurant) an enjoyable addition. The most impressive visit was the Cure International Hospital, a private hospital which has its focus on disabled children. The students not only listened to presentations about that place but also had the opportunity to interact with the patients and with their parents. For many students this visit was an eye opener. One student wrote: This experience made me realise that it is truly God who is calling me into the medical field“
One morning we had the opportunity to follow the debate at the National Assembly. The students listened with interest to the discussions between the MP’s and the ministers as well as the Vice President. In the afternoon we visited the Ministry of Finance and National Planning. Our trip ended at Kabwata Baptist Church where we took part in a career talk and some church members gave presentations about different occupations.
Science Fair
It was the first time that our secondary students took part at the science fair at Lechwe School in Kitwe. In January we founded a Physics club. Most of the students are from grade 9. We have built a generator which can be driven by a water wheel. We spent a lot of time in constructing this device and the students have shown a lot of endurance when we spent a whole Saturday assembling the generator. But finally it worked and at least a LED was lit. At the fair Chigo from grade 9 won a science quiz for the lower secondary students and Daniel from grade 10 became second of the upper secondaries.
The Performing Arts continue to be very important to many of the students and staff at Amano. The primary department were able to work with two of the visitors to the school during the term on both dance and drama, which they very much enjoyed and which will also have helped them to develop their skills. They have also been encouraged in their singing by Mrs. Gwen Amborski who has taught them music during the last couple of years.
Last Christmas a group of secondary students learnt and performed a new song called ‘Wisdom Seekers’. This term they have taken it one stage further, with the assistance of Mrs. Amborski, and after weeks of rehearsals they went into a high-quality recording studio in Kitwe for a four hour recording session. It was quite an experience for them, as the different tracks were recorded separately, and they produced a good quality track of this song. Hopefully one day you will get to hear it!
Bullying is not something which often happens at Amano, so it was an unusual sight when a number of grade 9 students could be seen picking on one of the other students near the school car-park, in one of the classrooms, and later on the playground. Thankfully it was not the real thing- although it looked like it could have been- but they were acting out a play about bullying as part of their P.S.H.E. studies. Their performance was filmed and they were able to view their efforts, along with a number of primary students, just before the end of term.
EASTER SERVICE
The school term finished the day before Good Friday, so we were keen to celebrate Easter with the students and their families and visitors before they left for a month’s holiday. The focus of the service was on worshipping the God who has sent His Son to die for us, while also celebrating Christ’s victory over death. The songs chosen reflected this theme, as did the variety of presentations which both secondary and primary students took part in. There was a lively African song presented by the younger students, a drama recounting the events of the Last Supper, and the song ‘Above All Powers’ made all the more meaningful by the sign language which one of the primary classes performed very effectively. Some of the secondary students assisted Mr. Rod Boatman with a meditation on one of the characters at the scene of the cross, sung several reflective songs on the meaning of Easter, and then presented a powerful mime which illustrated the message of the Bible up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Mr. Mark Crawford, a visitor from the U.K., brought the service to an interesting conclusion with a short talk about what Jesus achieved by dying on the Cross, illustrated with the smashing of a cup much to everyone’s surprise. We concluded by singing a song of celebration for the victory won on Easter Sunday, ‘Thine Be The Glory!’
Progress has continued on the buildings. The grade 12 class have been able to use one of the classrooms in the brand new teaching block, and two members of Brass Tacks have been here at different times to assist with the new dining hall/kitchen/sports hall which is rapidly taking shape. We have also welcomed Mr and Mrs Kamanga to the staff as dorm parents which means that next term the boys will finally have a dormitory of their own!
Our photographs show two scenes from the Cross Country event, the Easter service, the Grade 9 'actors,' a scene form the Lusaka visit and the Lusaka students and teachers, the primary dance group and award winners from the Simba festival, a scene from the Valentine event and finally the Wisdom Seekers recording group.
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