Shirebrook school exchanges teaching tips with Sudanese teachers

Three teachers from Sudan visited Stubbin Wood School to interact with teachers and pupils and gain more of an insight into different teaching methods.

Teachers Omaama Ahmed, Abaas Yousif and Yahira Mohammed Eilhassam spent a week at the school to apply their experiences at home.

Omaama, an English teacher at Gezira Special school in Sudan, said that seeing the use of the ICT and technology in the classrooms was inspiring.

She said: “We want to gain experience from the wealth of knowledge from the teachers and the teaching methods that are used to help the children back at home.

“We have access to some great ICT in our school now and want to make the most of it. We are here to learn and have plans to completely change the way we teach with ICT. But we also want to share our experiences with the youngsters here by teaching them about our culture, food and way of life.”

The Shirebrook pupils tried a taster of traditional Sudanese dishes including how to make Aseeda - similar to porridge eaten in the UK. The Sudanese teachers said their school has 150 special needs children, who are taught in a shared building with around 1,000 mainstream pupils of primary and secondary age.

Abaas said: “This is very common in the Sudan, to have children of all ages and abilities together, much like here at Stubbin Wood, with Shirebrook Academy just next door. It gives everyone the chance to develop some skills together, like vocational skills which will allow some special needs children to enter the workforce.”

It is hoped there will be the opportunity for pupils to visit each other’s countries and learn more first hand in the future.