Dreams & Teams
DREAMS & TEAMS
The Background Information
Dreams + Teams helps to develop young people's leadership skills through sport.
Managed and developed by the British Council and the Youth Sport Trust (YST), Dreams + Teams uses sport to develop international Young Leaders.
Started in 2001, it now operates in more than 30 countries and has established more than 100 school links.
Take a look at the Dreams and Teams section of the gallery for some pictures of previous trips to Nairobi.
What is Dreams and Teams
Dreams + Teams is an international programme aimed at developing Young Leaders through sport. We run training courses for overseas Local Tutors, who then train young people to act as Young Leaders and organise a sports festival in their community.
By running sports events for hundreds of local young people these Young Leaders are challenged to:
· Demonstrate leadership
· Be active citizens in their community
· Value and promote cross-cultural understanding
Dreams + Teams encourages the Young Leaders to work with their international counterparts via e-mail, video conferencing and face-to-face contact, bringing an international and cross-cultural understanding to everything they do - thinking globally while acting locally.
Dreams + Teams international Young Leaders are an inspiration to work with. Many have never taken responsibility for managing an event of any kind, never met their international peers, never travelled out of their countries before. But they respond to the international challenge of Dreams + Teams with commitment, imagination and idealism
Whats Happening Where?
There are currently 31 countries active in Dreams + Teams:
Argentina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Chile, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Zambia
There are many more countries interested in joining Dreams + Teams:
Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Latvia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Philippines, Romania, Spain, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam
The History
Drew Allison, Director of Sport at the Academy, had heard of the international programme and wanted our school to join. He went through all the paperwork and schedule, completing all the questionnaires and in September 2006 he attended a British Council meeting with Nick Pink where he learned the schools application had been successful. It was at this meeting that he learned the Academy had been paired with Aquinas High School for Boys, in Nairobi.
Correspondence between the schools and the British Council followed for several months and in December 2006 George Muthee, Principle of Aquinas, and Charles Nganga, Teacher in charge of Sport, came to the UK to visit Northampton Academy.
Their Visit
Sunday 3rd December 2006 our visitors arrived into Heathrow. They then spent Monday and Tuesday down in London involved in various activities and discussions aimed at Cultural Awareness. Peter Hullah attended on the Sunday evening to welcome our guests to the country, Drew Allison was in London for the three days attending the cultural awareness sessions.
Tuesday evening George and Charles came to Northampton. They came directly to the Academy to see their partnered school. They were shocked at the size of the school and the level of technology within it. On the evening the attended the first of two of the schools Prize Givings but it was only on the Wednesday evening where George gave a speech to the pupils and parents who attended.
From Wednesday to Friday George and Charles followed a tailor made programme focusing on the school, its daily structure and content, our sporting facilities and the leadership schemes already in place at the Academy which would help to make this partnership successful.
Friday 8th December George and Charles returned to Kenya, overwhelmed by what they seen over the past few days. We all had so many ideas about where we wanted to take the partnership and what we wanted to do with it.
Searching for a Girls School
Obviously with the Academy being a mixed cohort it was not ideal that we had been paired with a boys only school. Whilst George and Charles were here we discussed the possibility of finding a girls school that would be willing to join our partnership. It then emerged that Aquinas had a sister school down the road, Huruma Girls School.
When George returned to Nairobi he visited Huruma and its principal Henirietta Ikambili. They were only too pleased to join our partnership and create more links with other schools.
Now the work began to plan our return visit to Nairobi and get the partnership firmly established between the three schools.
Our Visit
Saturday 3rd March 2007 Drew Allison, Director of Sport, Kirsty Reeve, Academy PE Teacher, and David Fraser, PDM flew out to Nairobi. Our purpose of the visit was to visit the two secondary schools we were now partnered with, Aquinas High School for Boys and Humura Girls School. Whilst we were there we intended to deliver Tag Rugby sessions to a select group of pupils in both the secondary schools, to start the leadership programme, and we also opted to deliver the sessions to a select group of children from 5 of the feeder primary schools for the two schools.
The Tag delivery went well and when we had finished secure and strong links had been established between the secondary schools and the 5 chosen primaries; Morrison, Kimathi, Dr Krapf, St. Patricks and Mary Immaculate. On Thursday 8th March the 5 primary schools came together at Aquinas and we organised a mini festival for the boys and one for the girls. The pupils from the two secondary schools continued with their training and development on knowledge by watching some of the games and how we refereed them.
On Friday 9th March history was made when both the schools conducted their annual sports day together. All the pupils from both schools congregated together at Aquinas for a packed day of sporting events. It all started with the 5000m walk, then the 5000m and 3000m races. Then 800m, 1500m, 400m, 100m, 200m and final the relays. Intermittently throughout the day the field events for throwing and jumping were also held. The day closed with the presentation of trophies for event winners and the overall house winners from the two schools.
Upcoming
November/December Henirietta and Alice Kimuge, Teacher in charge of Sport, from Huruma Girls School will be visiting the UK to be officially accepted onto the Dreams and Teams programme with their cultural awareness training. They will then come to Northampton and visit the Academy and its pupils.
A cohort of pupils will be identified from the three schools; Aquinas, Huruma and the Academy to start a leadership group organising festivals and other sporting events for primary children. There is also the possibility of this leadership group developing into an exchange over the next two years.
This is a very exciting programme and although the programme is three years all the schools involved see this as a long term partnership beyond the term of Dreams and Teams.
Selecting our leaders
In preparation for the visit of Henrietta and Alice we wanted to have our young leaders identified ready to meet them. All year 12 students who are involved in the CSLA programme were invited to apply to be considered for the experience. They had to fill out an application pack and then would be invited to give a presentation to Drew and Kirsty. Method of presentation was up to them but they had to say;
- why they wanted to go,
- what it would mean to them,
- what they could offer to the group and
- why pick them.
Dreams and Teams Presentations - Tuesday 9th October
10.15am Paige Walker
10.30am Stacey Chaplin
10.45am Thenjiwe Dube
11.00am Chantelle Cameron
11.30am Luke Archer
11.45am Chris Jones
12.00pm Tom Young
12.15am Ryan Percival
12.30am Tom Wilson
At the end of the process we needed 3 girls and 3 boys so we looked at their presentations separately. They all did really well. It showed they had all put great time and effort into the presentation and to some of them this clearly was a life changing chance. After all had delivered and we had discussed them all we picked the final 6 -
Paige Walker
Stacey Chaplin
Chantelle Cameron
Chris Jones
Tom Young
Ryan Percival
These 6 will be involved in the programme for the next 2 years. They will accompany staff out to Nairobi to visit Aquinas and Huruma, working along side their leaders to develop and introduce rounders into their schools and their 6 Primary Schools. They will also be involved in the reciprocal visit be their leaders over here, to visit our schools and visit 6 of our Primary Schools.
Well Done!
Girls School Visit
Sunday 18th November Henirietta Ikambili and Alice Kimuge, from Huruma Girls Schools arrived in Stansted airport greeted by Peter Hullah and Snow! For Alice especially this was a great shock as she has never been to England before and very rarely seen snow before.
Peter brought them back to Northampton and settled them into their hotel to get some rest ready for their busy week. Monday morning Drew Allison collected them from the hotel and brought them to school to be introduced to our staff and explain the programme we had sorted for them for the time they were with us. Most of the Monday was spent in and around the Academy looking at the building and its facilities. The same as George and Charles they were both shocked at the size of the school and the facilities it had to offer. Alice and Henrietta also went into a couple of lessons, Alice into PE and Henrietta into French. They were also surprised at the amount of resources available in the classrooms for the staff and pupils to use.
From Tuesday to Thursday Henrietta and Alice followed a tailor made programme focusing on the school, its daily structure and content. Tuesday morning they met with our 6 leaders. They discussed Dreams and Teams and what they all thought about it. They talked about life in Nairobi, Aquinas and Huruma and how it was different to Northampton. Henrietta and Alice also taught our leaders some Swahili, the local language to Nairobi. Our leaders now need to practice so they arrive in Nairobi ready to talk and work with their leaders. Developing on the sporting facilities they spent Tuesday afternoon at the Saints Study Support Centre with a group of our students that go every week. Here they looked at a typical day for the group and some of the past elements that they have worked on or looked over the year. Alice also spent some time looking at the leadership schemes already in place at the Academy which would help to make this partnership successful.
On their final night Henrietta and Alice were treated to meal at Red Hot. Dreams and Teams might be based on leadership though sport but it also looks at breaking down barriers and building international relationships so we thought it might be nice to go to a restaurant that serves food from all around the world. They both found it quite entertaining that a restaurant served not just 1 type of food and also that you got to serve yourself what ever you wanted when you wanted it.
Henrietta and Alice left Friday morning to fly home and share their experience and thought with their staff and pupils. Next, for Huruma and Aquinas comes the task of selecting the young leaders that will be involved in the exchange programme with our leaders.
Hopefully we will all meet again in Nairobi in March!?
