New Term, New Students, New library, New Staff room, New Year at Amano!

Tuesday 15^th February- ‘Banana House’

This term has been a very exciting one for youth workers Mr Jarrett and Miss Kerry as they have seen the completion and opening of the Banana House. Previously the Thursday night youth group (for boarders) was held in the multi-purpose big hall, and although an excellent space for games meant the setting up and packing down of sofa’s, rugs, lights etc week in, week out.  Now, with the Banana House space available for youth activities, the building can be left set up. 

The youth group (named T4:12 after 1 Timothy 4:12) has now been split into two groups as the amount of boarders was too big for a smaller space. Tuesday nights is for Grade 8 and 9 and Thursday nights is now only for Grade 10,11,12 and 6^th Form.

Saturday 19^th January- ‘Amano Friendly’

We kicked off the year with a friendly sports event hosted here at Amano. We had three visiting schools; Ndola, Simba and Lechwe. We were blessed not to encounter any storms and we had a great day of friendly competition. The matches included Under 19 boys Football and girls Netball and Under 13 girls football.

Amano students all showed excellent teamwork and overall did extremely well winning all of their netball matches, 2 out of 3 senior football matches and 1 out of 2 primary football matches!

Wednesday 6^th February- ‘Library moving day’

The old saying ‘many hands make light work’ was proven to be extremely true this half term as we set about moving all the library books from the old library to the new library building opposite the secondary classrooms. It was a great turnout of smiling staff, parents and workers and within half a day (fuelled by some much needed doughnuts!) we had completed the task! Not only did we manage to move all of the library books but we also managed to put furniture in the new, larger (complete with fireplace) staff room. 

End of term!

Who could have thought this term would have whizzed by so quickly! Big apologies for not updating the blog in such a long time...But what a brilliant term it has been jam packed with lots of wonderful events and activities. There is so much to report but we have decided to pick just a few highlights from this term.

Friday 21st September- ‘The Quiz Night’

This was the start of the farewell period for our grade 12’s and sixth form. They kicked off the term with a FANTASTIC quiz night as part of their fundraising to go towards their leavers activities at the end of term. They worked extremely hard to transform the school hall into a lovely candle-lit setting for a three course meal provided by staff and PTA members. The Grade 12’s did an excellent job of serving the tables and hosting the event.  In between each course of the meal there was great laughter (and a lot of blank faces!) as we answered various questions about different topics. The Quiz night was a great success and it was a real encouragement to have over 70 guests attend.

Sunday 23rd September- ‘Baptisms’

What an absolutely incredibly joyful day this was as we witnessed the baptism of three Amano students; Edwin (Grade 9), Manena and Tim (Grade 12).
The service and baptism pool was set up outside the secondary classrooms in the beautiful (very hot!) sunshine; it was great to see such a big crowd of family, staff and friends come to witness this memorable occasion. The songs we sang had been chosen by the three students and we were lead in song by Amano staff and students. A highlight of the service was to hear the young people’s testimonies as they spoke about their own individual stories of coming to know Jesus (tissues were at the ready!); what an absolute privilege it is to witness young people who are passionate about their faith and wanting (and brave enough) to share this with their peers.
We had a thought-provoking message from Mr Grove who encouraged the students to carry on their journey of faith after the point of baptism and to seek out other Christians in the next stages of their education (especially as 2 prepare to leave Amano).
This was all rounded off by sharing a meal afterwards with the families and friends of those who were baptised.

Thursday 15th November- ‘Dorm Farewell’ 

Another excellent event; organised by the grade 11 students as a goodbye from the dorm to the Grade 12 and sixth form students. The dorm students worked hard to decorate the girls dorm with lighting, photo’s and colourful decorations ready for the programme. Our hosts for the evening were the wonderful Chipe and Chigo and they did a great job at leading us through various songs, interesting talents (a highlight being Mr Kmanga’s incredible display of press-ups!), dry jokes, power points and power cuts!
Mr Grove (Jnr) finished the evening off with a challenging talk based on 1 Corinthians 10:23- “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.’ It was a challenge not only to the leavers but to all of us about making the firm decision to follow Christ before challenges and temptations arise in our lives.
The evening’s entertainment ended noisily as boarders and staff shared in lots of yummy baked cakes and LOTS of photographs!!

Saturday 17th November- ‘The Meal Out!’

The long awaited Grade 12 leavers meal finally happened on Saturday! This is certainly a huge highlight for the grade 12’s and has been the topic of conversation for quite some time as students have thought long and hard about what to wear, how to have their hair, what shoes (and that’s just the boys!!). And it certainly paid off as they all looked absolutely amazing, some even unrecognisable! Some of their class teachers and dorm parents also joined them (also looking great may I add!)
The grade 12’s (with the help of Miss Scott; their class teacher) had decided upon going to a place called ‘The Mukwa Lodge’ in Kitwe. And what an excellent choice they made! The restaurant staff had even gone to the effort to arrange a photo type podium just outside the dining area with a spotlight so the students could get their photos done in style, as you can see.
As we all sat and chatted it was great to see the relationship between staff and students and the obvious atmosphere of ‘familyness’. For those who have been at Amano for a long time it was nice to hear their stories of seeing these young people turn from children into young adults and now see them fly the nest as they go their separate ways.
The atmosphere was lovely but made even better with some delicious food pre-chosen by the students. A great evening enjoyed by all!
The Leaver’s Service November 18th 2012
What a wonderful day of seeing the grade 12 and 6th Form graduate from Amano.  It was great to hear the testimonies and to see how their lives have been changed during their time at Amano.  We had a great turn out of family and friends to see them take another step in their life.  May God bless them as they grow closer to Him as well as taking on new challenges in their lives.

Friday 25^th May

PTA SCHOOL FAIR

We had a BRILLIANT day as the whole school prepared for the PTA school fair. Many of the students were involved; planning and setting up stalls. Stalls included ‘popcorn’, ‘beauty salon’, ‘Yucky Dip’, ‘Lucky Dip’, ‘Hoop a chair’, ‘Tin Can throw’ and many more. And the student’s favourite by far was; ‘Throw a wet sponge at your head teacher!!!’. 

It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining! Lots of parents came along to support the event and it was a great turnout. Staff and students went head to head with a tug of war. Unbelievably the students won and those involved were rewarded with a non-school uniform day!! 

Saturday 2^nd June

ISAZ National Athletics

Many secondary students travelled down to Lusaka to participate in the ISAZ National Athletics.  Amano came in second on the medals table.  In total Amano collected 27 medals, 11 gold, 5 silver, 11 bronze.  We had the highest total of gold medals out of all the schools.  It was a long day, but it was also a fun day!

Friday 8^th June

ACS PRIMARY SCIENCE FAIR

Written by Juanita Sakala, Grade 6

‘On Friday 8^th June the primaries had a science fair. There were so many projects; about how to make an egg bounce, response time, illusions and so many more. The primaries were so nervous when their projects were being judged by Mr Rass and Mr Andresen. But most of all was that we had fun and learnt a lot!’

Thursday 5^th July

T4:12 Creative Prayer Night

T4:12 is the name given to the secondary youth group which started back in November 2011. The students chose T4:12 to represent the bible verse in 1 Timothy 4:12- ‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity’. The youth group runs every Thursday evening for boarders; the aim is for the students to have fun and learn more about how Christianity applies to their lives. It is run by Mr Jarrett and Mrs Rass; both youth workers at the school.

This particular Thursday evening we decided to do something a bit different; a creative prayer night. We set up 10 different prayer stations in the main hall with different creative ways to pray. Some of these stations included; writing prayers of praise on balloons, using a map to pray for friends and family around the world, writing postcards of encouragement to those around us and reflecting on photo’s of Amano as we prayed about our community. The atmosphere was very reflective and chilled as the hall was transformed using different materials, dividers, low lighting and lots of cushions! It was a great evening and many of the youth enjoyed thinking more about prayer!

Days at the races!

Sorry that the blog has not been updated in some time but we have lots of exciting news to tell!

Friday 3^rd February- The Mud Run

We all had a BRILLIANT afternoon here at Amano as many gathered together for the ‘Mud Run’; some brave ones running and others being great supporters. The Mud Run was organized and run by the P.T.A with the idea that the young people would get sponsored for the amount of laps that they did of the muddy route to raise funds for a swimming pool.

It was great to see staff and pupils getting stuck in (literally!) and working hard to raise funds for the school.

Friday 24^th February- Cross Country

It was great to join together with other schools as Amano hosted the ISAZ primary and Secondary Cross Country Races.

Mr Grove had created a brand new secondary course which was approx 5.7km and the primaries ran approx 3km. Quite a bit further than the pupils are used to but all students did extremely well including the students who cheered so loudly and were so supportive of those running.

It was a great day for us overall as Amano won both the primary and secondary races 

Sunday 4^th March-Ready Steady Cook

We had our first ever ‘Ready Steady Cook’ competition at Amano! Mr Jarrett and Mrs Rass invited the grade 11&12’s to compete boys against girls in a cookery competition. Both teams got identical ingredients and had to come up with some creative recipes.

The boys cooked at Mr Jarrett’s trailer and the girls cooked at Mrs Rass’ Flat, both teams were given 1.5 hours before all meeting together to eat.

Mr Andressen and Miss Scott came along to be the official judges, judging on taste, presentation and creativity. And at the end of the night the overall winners were the girls!

The judges then threw a surprise on Mr J and Mrs R as they were given the challenge of who could make the quickest omelette which resulted in lots of egg on the table, floor and egg shell being thrown about everywhere! Again the girls were the winners as Mrs Rass won!