Topsham teacher jets off to Uganda on educational trip

A TEACHER has set off on a thought-provoking trip to a school linked with Topsham Primary based in Uganda.

Rob Evans jetted off to the Ajulu School in north Uganda last week.

The 12 day educational trip has come about as a result of a project called Food for Thought which Topsham Primary School has been involved with for around six years.

A central theme of the initiative is to teach children good eating habits early in life and to maintain those into adulthood.

Mr Evans said the project entailed establishing a link with a school in Uganda with the purpose of increasing cultural awareness through food issues.

“Depsite the fact we’ve been working with the school for quite a while now, nobody has as yet been over there,” he said.

“I wanted to go to develop the link further and gain a personal insight of issues to come back and discuss in our exploration of cultural differences and similarities.

“Learning about other cultures is very much a part of the global citizenship element of our curriculum.”

Mr Evans, who will teach in the Ajulu School for five days, was swamped with gifts from the parents of Topsham pupils to take over before he left.

His trip was funded courtesy of a global schools partnership grant from the Department for International Development.

Mr Evans will teach in the Ugandan school for five days. “It is a new challenge for me – teaching at a school where it is not uncommon for classes to have around 60 children,” he added.

“There is a massive amount of logistical planning that goes into such a trip but the teachers here at Topsham Primary School have been fantastic in helping me prepare.”