Trips for all!

I am sorry for not having posted a blog on this site for some time. I have set up an email link with my previous school in Lincolnshire (which is proving very successful!) It is certainly very valuable for the two schools to be in contact....as we discover many similarities between the two schools!! In fact, the children were exchanging views about the shared reading scheme that we both operate!

We are currently on half term break (like you all back in UK). Before the holidays we arranged field trips for all the children. First Beaver and Bunny classes went to the local zoo, which was great fun for the children, and many of the two-year-olds returned being able to add many animal names to their vocabulary! Then Pony class (3-4year olds) were invited to visit the Magistrates’ Court. One of the children’s mums is a senior magistrate and as the class had been looking at different jobs, she invited them to the court. They had fun trying on her wig and gown, and sitting on her golden chair! They were also allowed to sit in on a court session!! Ice creams afterwards were also very welcome!!

Then it was the turn of Dinosaur class who visited the Art and Craft village. This was very interesting for them, and we were allowed to try out making necklaces out of tiny beads called sand beads. The children also really enjoying sketching some of the beautiful paintings done by some of the resident artists.

Finally Koala and panda classes also visited the zoo. These are the youngest children aged from 1-2 years. They were really good, and all insisted on walking around the zoo, refusing offers of a carry!! They particularly liked the giraffe and the zebras, and some were allowed a quick ride on one of the friendly donkeys there!

This week I have joined my husband and travelled to the north of Nigeria. He had work commitments in Kaduna and Kano, so I decided to join him so that I could get more experiences of the whole country. We travelled up to Kaduna by car on Monday. The countryside was very dry and relatively flat. We passed several small settlements of mud huts with straw roofs, and many large herds of African cattle and goats. We spent one night in Kaduna, and then moved onto Kano (another 3 hour drive) Again we passed through similar countryside right up to the outskirts of Kano...where there were some crops and vegetables planted along riverbeds.

We have spent two nights in Kano. Yesterday I had a driver and guide who took me to some of the attractions of Kano. His name was Ado, and he was a very jolly man, who was born in Kano, and therefore knew a lot about the city. We firstly climbed Dala Hill, which is a rocky outcrop in the middle of the old city. From there we had good views over some of Kano ( although the views were obscured due to the Harmattan).We then drove to kurmi market, which is a huge market in the old part of the city. I insisted that Ado went with me as it was amaze of tiny streets lined with stalls and huts and very easy to get lost! I bought a few items for our house in Abuja. Some decorated calabashes, 2 shell necklaces, some woven mats and a beautiful traditional Fulani hat (the Fulani are a group of people that wander around with their herds of cattle making camps as they travel). I also bought 3 interesting bronzes. Of course, each purchase was accompanied with a whole lot of haggling (this was when we had to agree a price for the goods....quite tiring, but also quite enjoyable and good-humoured!

After the market we then drove to the famous dye pits. This is where the dark blue coloured cloth is produced. Kano is very famous for this, and the process has been the same for over 500 years! There are very deep pits filled with a mixture of indigo, potassium and ash. The material is then tied into different patterns. It is then dipped by hand into the mixture, this takes as long as 6 hours continuous dipping. Then the material is rinsed, beaten by hand with huge wooden mallets to make the material shine. I bought two pieces of tie and dye cloth, which I intend to make into a tablecloth and a bedcover.






So I am very pleased to have seen a little more of Nigeria. I hope that you enjoy the photos of our trips. I also hope that those of you who were on holiday have had a good break.

I promise to keep in touch, and also hope that some of you manage to post a reply back to me!

Take care,
Love Mrs Sanchez

Moving again and a walk in the moonlight!

Hello once again! Well I’ve got quite a lot of news for you this time….we have finally moved into a lovely bungalow which is surrounded by a beautiful garden. I am really happy to be here. It is wonderful to be able to sit outside so much and I love watching the birds, butterflies and lizards that frequent the garden. There are several pairs of sunbirds (which are very brightly coloured and are similar to hummingbirds) that feed on the nectar from the flowers in the garden. There is one tree in particular with small green fruits and large yellow bell-like flowers that they love. This grows just across from our patio, so it is wonderful to sit and watch these tiny birds with sparkling feathers as they dart from flower to flower.



We are gradually getting sorted in our house, we went out yesterday to buy a lot of plates, glasses and cutlery, and have to buy a lot more furniture as this is a much bigger place than our last one. We have made it quite homely already (we only moved two weeks ago) and have some pictures up on the walls, and have curtains up in the bedrooms. It takes much longer to get some things here. For example, it’s not just a case of going into a furniture shop and buying things. Very often you have to get people round to your house and explain what you want and they go away and make it. We actually had a very good Nigerian artist at the house this morning. We wanted her to paint 3 pictures for us, so we explained what we wanted and showed her what size they should be, and she is going away to paint them. They will be ready in two weeks…which isn’t bad really!


We went on a long walk on Friday evening. It was called the Full Moon Hash which involved a big group of people following paper trails that had been set earlier in the day. Some people followed the runners trail, and some the walkers. Guess which one I followed??! It was a beautiful full moon, and we found that we hardly needed torches to light our way. The walk went all over a wild part of Abuja that was not built up, so it was quite exciting! At the end was a huge barbecue with plastic tables and chairs to sit on, overlooking the lights of the city…it was very beautiful! I did feel very tired on Saturday, however, and treated myself to a wonderful pedicure (a foot massage) at one of the local hotels. It had been a long and dusty walk, and I felt that I had earned that treat!

Speaking of dust, the Harmattan (the wind that brings dust down from the Sahara desert…do you remember?) is starting, and some days it hides the sun. It is not too bad at the moment, but I am not looking forward to when it covers everything in red dust! The good thing is that it helps to keep the temperature down (which is about 30degrees C at the moment)

At school, I hope to get our emails through to you next week. Mrs Cox and Mrs Jones will be writing with you, and I will get our two oldest classes to write to you. I hope that this will be successful, as it would be lovely to be able to write from one school to another, and exchange our news.

That’s about all for now; I hope that you like the photos of our new house. Next time I will include some of the birds and also some of my school.
Lots of love to you all,
Mrs Sanchez xxxx

Inspectors, packing and more packing!!

Hello all again! Hope you all had a good break! I haven’t had half term really. We had two days holiday earlier for Eid al Fitr which celebrates the end of Ramadan (a Muslim festival). We are also having a day off next Friday (Halloween!!)

Last Monday we had a visit from 6 lady inspectors. They arrived at about 8am and stayed with us for the morning. They were all dressed in traditional African attire, complete with headdresses. They wanted to have a good look at all the paperwork that we had in place, and also had a quick visit of the classrooms. They asked me a variety of questions, and then recommended that we bought a stack of their books for recording things that happen in school. They stayed for snacks and then took their lunch away in take out boxes! It was rather a strange morning, and I felt very uneasy…not knowing what to expect! Some of the ladies were very jolly, and they reported back to say that the teaching was good, and the school was very colourful and well-organised. They are due to send their written report after about 3 weeks. Yet another new Nigerian experience for me!!

I am writing this surrounded yet again with packing boxes!! We are moving to a bungalow later this week. We hope that we will start the move on Thursday, and complete it on Friday. There is still quite a lot of work to be completed on the bungalow, and we are hoping that the main things will be done before moving day!

Our new bungalow is on a large compound, and is surrounded by garden. The best thing about it is that it is so quiet! Our apartment where we are at the moment is on a very busy road, which is noisy 24 hours a day, which sometimes gives us disturbed nights…so we are really looking forward to some peace and quiet. There are also lots of mature bushes and trees in the garden which attract all kinds of birds and butterflies. I will take a lot of photos so that I can include these on my next blog!!

We have a new IT teacher at our school, who is busily working on a way to get us able to email you in Holton le Clay. I hope that we can set this up for after our Halloween break. It will be great fun to be able to write to you directly, and for you to do the same.

That’s about all for now, as I still have a lot more boxes to pack (I really don’t know where all these things have come from!!) Hope you have a Happy Halloween, and I look forward to hearing from you really soon!

Lots of love, Mrs. Sanchez xxxx

Welcome back!

Well here I am again after a very long break! I was actually away from Nigeria for 10 weeks! I had a very fun holiday on a narrow boat with my two daughters for a week and then had two weeks in Greece. This was all very pleasant.

I was ready to come back to Abuja on 22nd August, to train the staff and then re-open the school on the 2nd September. Unfortunately, my visa (which is a piece of paper saying that you have permission to go into a country) had not come through. I was not able to return with my husband and was actually delayed until 11th September!!

I was really sad not to be at school for the re-opening after the summer break. The school has really grown now, and we have over 80 children there now! We now have 6 classes…Koala class, panda, beaver, bunny, pony and dinosaur. It is getting to be a very big school, and we only have room for about another 10 pupils…..then we are full!

I had lots of new faces to recognise and lots of new names to learn! Everyone was very pleased to see me when I finally arrived, and I felt like the queen walking in to a royal party!! I now have lots of catching up to do!!



I have just had my birthday, which was on 19th September. All the teachers gave me a huge card that they had all signed, and I bought a big cake to share with them all after school had finished. I got lots of nice greetings, cards and presents from individual members of staff…and had a lovely day. Even my secretary bought me another cake for me to take home and share with my husband and Lydia and Grace! I have included photos of the two cakes (the bright yellow one was from my secretary)


I imagine that you are all well settled into school. I hope that you had a great summer holiday. I hear that Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Cooper have swapped classes, and that there are two reception classes now! In our school our oldest children are in the reception class. Our youngest pupil is Chike and he is 8 months old!! I will include some photos of the children in my next blog.

That’s about all for now. I hope that we can set up an email link between our two schools, so that you can communicate with each other. That should be great fun!!

Take care
Lots of love from Mrs. Sanchez xxx

Only one more week to go!

I am so sorry not to have written for so long! The excuse is that I have not been well at all. Unfortunately, I seem to have had a very severe form of food poisoning which has taken 3 weeks to right itself, and has left me feeling very weak!

However, I am now well on the mend, and actually managed a long walk in the bush yesterday, with a lot of other people. It was really quite pleasant, and not too hot! We all met up afterwards a t an outside restaurant where we had a great buffet and drinks. (Hopefully, I will not contract another bout of what I had earlier!)

I only have one more week to go before my school closes for the summer. I thought I would bring you up to date with some of the things that have been happening there since I last wrote to you. We have had three more birthdays, two children were 4 years old, and the other little girl was 1. We had parties for them all in the school hall, with cake and candles and party bags! What fun!



On May 27th it was Children’s Day. Some of the schools in Nigeria close for the day, but we decided to stay open, and have our own celebrations together. We invited parents into school, where the children showed them what they had done in school ( A bit like your family assemblies) The children were all invited to wear traditional dress and they looked really cute as you can see from some of the photos! Unfortunately, all of the children were rather dumb-struck, which meant that the teachers and I did most of the work! We started with our school song (which I have written) and then went on to a demo of our Action Kids warm up ( very like Activate) that we all do together each morning. I spoke a little about the Children’s Day Flag and then each class took a turn at showing the parents what they had done in the term. We then ended with inviting all the parents to join in the circle to sing and do the actions to the school song. The parents really loved it, and it didn’t seem to matter to them that the children had been rather quiet!!


We are very excited at school, as we have nearly 70 children enrolled for September! We have had to make another class for the 18 month – 2 year olds. We still have some spaces at the top end of the school, but are delighted that the school is such a success!


I will be teaching the oldest class (Dinosaur) in September. These children will be the same age as your reception class.

I hope that you like the photos of some of our pupils!

I will be coming in to see you all as soon as I return. So, until then, take care, have fun and be good!

Lots of love , Mrs. Sanchez xxx

Questions, questions, and a new chief!

Thank you so much, class 2, for all your questions! I am very sorry to have taken so long to reply, but I really have been very busy, and not just with school!!

Last weekend, we went to a ceremony where a friend of ours was made a chief! She had been working in a different part of Nigeria, helping with the health system there. She was retiring, and to say thank you for all the hard work she had done, she was to be granted the title of Chief of Udi Kingdom. We were guests of honour at the celebrations, which lasted for about six hours!! It was the first time that the title had been granted to a woman, so it was a great honour for her.




Next weekend, we have been invited to another typical African ceremony….a naming ceremony, which is like a Christening, but is the traditional African part. We have to wear traditional African clothing, so we have had to be measured for some special clothes that are being made up. My husband and I are both going in costumes made out of the same cloth…so we’ll take some photos to show you!


Now to answer your questions!!
Sophie, there are going to be about 60 children in our school. At the moment we have about 30, but a lot more have registered to start in September.

Megan, we have got a staff room. It’s quite small and has two tables in and a computer. The teachers only have 20 minutes break through the day, so no-one sits down for long! Our staff meetings are held in my office (which is bigger than the one in your school)

Lauren, we have 4 classrooms in the main building, and a crèche for the babies in a separate building. We also have a computer room, a library, a playroom, a hall, a kitchen and a parents waiting room.

Libby, there are 17 girls so far in our school!

The children eat hot cooked meals at lunchtime. We have our own cook, who cooks lovely things like pasta and pizza and sausages and fish. The children enjoy the meals a lot!! They also have afternoon snacks because some stay until 5.30pm

Joel, we only have 1 headteacher…that’s me!

Megan and Lauren,we do have a sort of playtime after lunch at about 12.30, when most of the older children go outside (some of the younger ones have a sleep then!) The children do play outside as much as possible. We even have swimming and paddling sessions on a Friday, when all the children go out and have a splash around! The children are very lucky and have a lot of toys to play with.

Daisy, I’m glad that you enjoyed the country dancing! Did you go to the church to see the flowers?

Olivia, our shared area is set up as a playroom that all the classes share (except for the babies)

Ebony and Megan, your mystery box sounds wonderful! We have a dinosaur and a pony to take home and write their diaries (a bit like Baby Bear.) We also have mystery bags that we put things in and have to feel and describe.

Ethan, yes, we have lots of balls of different sizes. Some of the little ones are proving to be excellent footballers. Our youngest star is Amjad who is just two, and can kick a ball further than I can!!

Hello Tom, are you still there? Did you come for work experience??

Mrs. Peart, I’m glad that you had a great time in the Dominican Republic. Can’t wait to see the photos!!

It was lovely to see you all at Easter. I am coming back at the end of June, so I’ll come in to see you all then.

Lots of love,
Mrs. Sanchez xxxx

Happy Easter and New Beginnings

Well here I am again, back in Nigeria! It was lovely to see you all just before Easter and I hope that you are enjoying your Easter break.

Wasn’t the snow amazing on Easter Day? My two daughters were staying with us and we all rushed out to build a snow family in the field next to our holiday cottage! I’ve put my favourite photo of my daughters in the blog. The one closest to the camera is Rachel and the other one is Becky. It just shows that you are never too old to play in the snow!


We had two weeks in England and then travelled back here as I had to continue to help set up my new school. We are now all ready to start….well, apart from the fact that we have no children yet! We open our doors tomorrow, and we have had a lot of mums and dads looking round and taking school brochures and admission forms away with them…we are just hoping that there will be lots starting!


One of the little boys due to start on Monday is called Zack, and it is a really special day for him, because it is his third birthday on our opening day! We’ve made him a birthday crown and are planning to get some balloons and sing Happy Birthday to him!

Today is really hot…over 40 degrees C!! We really need the rains to start as the temperature is climbing so high! The heat brings out the flame trees, and the photo is of a beautiful one in the gardens of our apartment. They are really wonderful, but sadly the flowers don’t last too long. Can you see the huge seed pods hanging down?


I hope that you all enjoy this next term…with exciting things like the Flower festival and sports day to look forward to. Are any of your classes going on any trips?

Do remember to write to me on the blog…don’t leave it all for Mrs. Peart and Mrs.Cox to do!!

Have fun, be good and learn lots!!

Love from Mrs.Sanchez xxxx