You may have seen our brilliant, bright yellow fundraising thermometer outside of school and wondered just when we were going to let you all know what is going on...well wait no longer!

Cutteslowe children have had the amazing privilege of being visited by Miriam Mason-Sesay (MBE, PhD) twice in the last couple of years. Miriam is the country director of EducAid which began when Miriam opened a school for vulnerable children: ex-combatants, orphans and child-mothers. EducAid Sierra Leone, a non-profit organisation started with twenty children and now educates over 2,500 students across nine primary and secondary schools. Due to a high emphasis on equality the participation rate of girls in secondary school is double the Sierra Leone average. Miriam leads a teaching team of 150, two thirds of whom are past pupils.

Sierra Leone has faced many challenges over the years, from civil war to Ebola to Covid-19.During the Ebola and Covid outbreaks, EducAid’s Remote Learning Program created 200 podcast lessons and distributed them via motorbike to students and other teachers, using USB sticks with rechargeable radios.

It is our wish as a school to see a permanent twinning grow between Cutteslowe School and EducAid Sierra Leone. The hope is that, with the help of our children and our wider community we will be able to create a lasting relationship, based on common understanding and shared values between our children and staff.

EducAid’s income has suffered tremendously due to worldwide Covid restrictions, as their traditional routes of fundraising from schools, places of worship and communities were shut down. 

Can you help us jump start our new and exciting relationship with EducAid? Our children will be doing car washes and ice lolly sales amongst other fundraising activities. If parents and carers have any ideas for fundraising or can offer any help to EducAid it would be greatly appreciated as we look forward to starting our future together. Now let’s see that big fundraising arrow rising!