Background
Roots Nursery School was founded on 8th April 2002, and is situated in the village of Juffureh, 30km from Banjul, the capital of Gambia.
Juffureh was made famous by Alex Haley with his bestseller and mini series in the 1970's called 'Roots'.
Alex traced his family history back to Juffureh and a slave named Kunta Kinte.
The school's headmaster, Lamin Conteh is the 9th generation nephew of Kunta Kinte. Therefore with this connection the school was appropriately named.
The school initially operated under a tarpaulin and provided education for 20 local children.
It was later discovered by the 'Mama Africa Association' who provided the funding to build a school which was completed on 26 May 2006.
Much good will and hard work went into building the school and getting the most out of the funds available. This greatly improved the standards for the teachers and pupils alike.
The school is in need of further development and enhancements to support the teaching of the 110 pupils currently attending. This will require significant levels of fundraising
There were no toilets until June 2007 and these will be incorporated in a full washroom block when funds allow.
There are insufficient desks for the children to work at, with only two of the three class rooms having desks.
There are no kitchen facilities as yet to provide the children with a school lunch. We hope that construction will commence this year.
There were very limited school uniforms but these are now provided to all pupils each March and November, the latter which coincides with their official school photographs.
There were very limited teaching resources. Now supplies of essential teaching resources are supplied on a regular basis by playtime under fives in Hove.
This is all important in the running of any school.
In 2011 a teacher exchange was arranged under the auspices of the British Council and the headmaster and assistant visited the UK during the summer. this visit proved extremely beneficial to them and a return visit is planned for later in the year.
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