Humanist Clubs give students in the Humanist Schools an opportunity to have fun while working for the common good. Recent reports from clubs at Kasese and Isaac Newton Humanist School give an indication of the activities that students undertake.
Below is a picture of members of Kasese Humanist Primary School’s Freethinkers Club and a picture link to a statement of their activities written by Geofrey Masereka, one of their leaders.
The group invites donations towards their activities. They would like £110 to enable them to buy a mobile megaphone speaker for use in group meetings and to address public gatherings where they convey the Humanist message in local villages and primary schools. They also need £80 to improve hand washing facilities in the Kasese Humanist Schools by providing water tanks and soap supplies at each of the toilet blocks in the 4 schools.
The many members of Isaac Newton Humanist Association are also working together to spread Humanism and improve daily life within the school and in the surrounding community. The group organise their activities to meet each of the Ten Humanist Commitments:
Students from Isaac Newton have worked for years to help widows and old people in the local villages by constructing screens to create private washing areas, drying racks for pots and pans, and hand washing stations. The picture shows the students at work and also standing proudly alongside the Humanist Association sign. Click here to read their Full Report written by Rafert Mumbere, the club President.
The club is seeking donations to help them carry out an ambitious programme of work, including:
Placing Ten Commitments signs around the school (£24)
Providing pens and paper to the poorest students (£48)
School cleaning to combat disease transmission (£24)
Planting trees for environment & climate change (£24)
Promoting Humanism through drama (£48)
If you would like to support the work of Humanist School Clubs you can send a specific donation from the link on our Donation Page with an email to stevehurd@uhst.org to say that you would like the money to be used for Humanist Clubs. All money donated in this way will be shared across the Humanist Clubs.
UHST is a strong advocate of fostering a reading culture in schools. We are delighted that the Humanist schools share this passion. Schools do their best to help children to become proficient in the use of books and on-line information. They welcome help in acquiring up-to-date material to reinforce and supplement what their children learn from teachers. Competency in reading equips children to evaluate arguments and evidence and to become free and critical thinkers.
Ensuring that Humanist schools have a plentiful supply of books and other reading sources is essential, though not sufficient. Teachers accept that their job goes beyond conveying information by telling and writing on chalk boards. They try to enable children to become independent learners and experience the joy of discovery. The central investigative skill is reading, and teachers try to foster it both in and out of lessons.
Young readers at Eagle’s View Primary School
Kasese library being tiled & refurbished
Learning to read well in primary school gives children an advantage through the rest of their lives. Primary teachers in the Humanist skills have wonderful didactive skills. They are expert in developing reading competency with little more than a piece of chalk, a wall chart and repetitive verbal drills. “A cow is an animal. A tree is a plant. What is a cow? A cow is an animal. What is a tree? A tree is a plant? How do we spell animal? We spell animal a-n-i-m-a-l. How do we spell animal? And so on. Every child is engaged by this approach. No child is left behind. Children thoroughly enjoy this very skilled oral transmission of information and it has proved to be effective. Books do, however, considerably speed up vocabulary acquisition. This is why we are trying to equip the Humanist primary schools with well designed graded reading schemes, with easy reading books, non-fiction as well as fiction, and with learners’ dictionaries to enable children to look up unfamiliar words.
Textbooks are used to support learning both within lessons and for preparatory and follow-up reading out of lessons. For this to happen there must be sufficient copies of a textbook to ensure that there are no more than 3 children per book. A decent subject textbook eases the burden on the teacher and empowers children. Textbooks free teachers from mindless dictation and endless writing of notes on the chalk board. They allow students to read in preparation for a lesson, to make notes after the lesson on points they missed or misunderstood and to see the correct spelling of words. Online resources such as Wikipedia and RACHEL, and attractive reference books in a well-stocked library also provide valuable reading and learning opportunities outside lessons.
Reading for Pleasure Competitions, which stopped during Covid, are restarting this year. Students enter the competition by borrowing and reading 5 books from the library. They write a brief review of a chosen book and say why they would encourage others to read it. A short list of finalists is drawn up and each presents a review in front of other students. Winners receive prizes of a dictionary and money to spend as they wish. The competitions are very popular. A current new English teacher at Mustard Seed school explained that winning the competition inspired him to go to university and return to his school as a teacher. Girl in Reading for Pleasure Competition at Isaac Newton..
UHST supports 11 schools with over 4,000 students. Our aim is to raise enough money each year to be able to flood each school with books. We want to help the schools to foster a reading culture. This will enable students of Humanist schools to become independent enquirers who are motivated to understand the world and to identify and resist mis-information and indoctrination.
At the start of each school year, girls in the Humanist schools supported by UHST receive packs of Afripads. These are neatly designed reusable sanitary pads which are supplied each year with funds generously donated by members of the Ethical Society of St. Louis in the United States.
Afripads Schoolgirl Kit
Each pack is washable and lasts for over 60 washes and more than 12 months. The pads have an all-in-one design with wings and buttons for simple fastening. They have an advanced stay-dry top layer, ultra-absorbent core layers and an anti-leak security layer. They come with a menstrual training pack to help the school nurse when instructing girls in their use and a Girl Talk Booklet for primary and pre-menstruating girls.
In 2024 we were able to supply Afripads to girls at Isaac Newton, Mustard Seed and Kasese High schools, and to primary school girls who need them at Katumba, Kanungu, Eagle’s View, Isaac Newton and Mustard Seed.
Kanungu: “Our school senior woman Teacher Evelyn explained to girls how to use the pads using the manual the Afripads company sent. We distribute padsto girls above 10 years. They were very excited and appreciative of this great support, the support which many other schools can’t manage!”
Kasese: “Afripads were requested by our female teachers, who were so grateful to St Louis and UHST for making this possible.”
The senior woman teacher at Kasese, Betty Biira, explains that while the pads are welcomed by all girls and senior teachers, some girls in their homes lack soap, clean water and buckets to keep the pads really clean. We are looking into ways that schools might be able to help those girls who have this problem.
Afripads have enabled girls to feel comfortable and to be more confident in school during their periods. Since we started to provide Afripads girls’ absence from school and from lessons has fallen dramatically. These days girls and boys attendance are similar and attainment levels of girls match those of boys. Members of the Ethical Society of St Louis should feel justly proud of this valuable contribution that they make to girls’ education in the Humanist schools each year.
Posted: April 24, 2024 by Steve Hurd
Humanist Clubs Create a Sense of Community
Humanist Clubs give students in the Humanist Schools an opportunity to have fun while working for the common good. Recent reports from clubs at Kasese and Isaac Newton Humanist School give an indication of the activities that students undertake.
Below is a picture of members of Kasese Humanist Primary School’s Freethinkers Club and a picture link to a statement of their activities written by Geofrey Masereka, one of their leaders.
The group invites donations towards their activities. They would like £110 to enable them to buy a mobile megaphone speaker for use in group meetings and to address public gatherings where they convey the Humanist message in local villages and primary schools. They also need £80 to improve hand washing facilities in the Kasese Humanist Schools by providing water tanks and soap supplies at each of the toilet blocks in the 4 schools.
The many members of Isaac Newton Humanist Association are also working together to spread Humanism and improve daily life within the school and in the surrounding community. The group organise their activities to meet each of the Ten Humanist Commitments:
Students from Isaac Newton have worked for years to help widows and old people in the local villages by constructing screens to create private washing areas, drying racks for pots and pans, and hand washing stations. The picture shows the students at work and also standing proudly alongside the Humanist Association sign. Click here to read their Full Report written by Rafert Mumbere, the club President.
The club is seeking donations to help them carry out an ambitious programme of work, including:
If you would like to support the work of Humanist School Clubs you can send a specific donation from the link on our Donation Page with an email to stevehurd@uhst.org to say that you would like the money to be used for Humanist Clubs. All money donated in this way will be shared across the Humanist Clubs.
Posted: April 18, 2024 by Steve Hurd
Fostering a Reading Culture
UHST is a strong advocate of fostering a reading culture in schools. We are delighted that the Humanist schools share this passion. Schools do their best to help children to become proficient in the use of books and on-line information. They welcome help in acquiring up-to-date material to reinforce and supplement what their children learn from teachers. Competency in reading equips children to evaluate arguments and evidence and to become free and critical thinkers.
Ensuring that Humanist schools have a plentiful supply of books and other reading sources is essential, though not sufficient. Teachers accept that their job goes beyond conveying information by telling and writing on chalk boards. They try to enable children to become independent learners and experience the joy of discovery. The central investigative skill is reading, and teachers try to foster it both in and out of lessons.
Learning to read well in primary school gives children an advantage through the rest of their lives. Primary teachers in the Humanist skills have wonderful didactive skills. They are expert in developing reading competency with little more than a piece of chalk, a wall chart and repetitive verbal drills. “A cow is an animal. A tree is a plant. What is a cow? A cow is an animal. What is a tree? A tree is a plant? How do we spell animal? We spell animal a-n-i-m-a-l. How do we spell animal? And so on. Every child is engaged by this approach. No child is left behind. Children thoroughly enjoy this very skilled oral transmission of information and it has proved to be effective. Books do, however, considerably speed up vocabulary acquisition. This is why we are trying to equip the Humanist primary schools with well designed graded reading schemes, with easy reading books, non-fiction as well as fiction, and with learners’ dictionaries to enable children to look up unfamiliar words.
Textbooks are used to support learning both within lessons and for preparatory and follow-up reading out of lessons. For this to happen there must be sufficient copies of a textbook to ensure that there are no more than 3 children per book. A decent subject textbook eases the burden on the teacher and empowers children. Textbooks free teachers from mindless dictation and endless writing of notes on the chalk board. They allow students to read in preparation for a lesson, to make notes after the lesson on points they missed or misunderstood and to see the correct spelling of words. Online resources such as Wikipedia and RACHEL, and attractive reference books in a well-stocked library also provide valuable reading and learning opportunities outside lessons.
Reading for Pleasure Competitions, which stopped during Covid, are restarting this year. Students enter the competition by borrowing and reading 5 books from the library. They write a brief review of a chosen book and say why they would encourage others to read it. A short list of finalists is drawn up and each presents a review in front of other students. Winners receive prizes of a dictionary and money to spend as they wish. The competitions are very popular. A current new English teacher at Mustard Seed school explained that winning the competition inspired him to go to university and return to his school as a teacher.
Girl in Reading for Pleasure Competition at Isaac Newton..
UHST supports 11 schools with over 4,000 students. Our aim is to raise enough money each year to be able to flood each school with books. We want to help the schools to foster a reading culture. This will enable students of Humanist schools to become independent enquirers who are motivated to understand the world and to identify and resist mis-information and indoctrination.
Posted: April 17, 2024 by Steve Hurd
Girls love their Afripads
At the start of each school year, girls in the Humanist schools supported by UHST receive packs of Afripads. These are neatly designed reusable sanitary pads which are supplied each year with funds generously donated by members of the Ethical Society of St. Louis in the United States.
Each pack is washable and lasts for over 60 washes and more than 12 months. The pads have an all-in-one design with wings and buttons for simple fastening. They have an advanced stay-dry top layer, ultra-absorbent core layers and an anti-leak security layer. They come with a menstrual training pack to help the school nurse when instructing girls in their use and a Girl Talk Booklet for primary and pre-menstruating girls.
In 2024 we were able to supply Afripads to girls at Isaac Newton, Mustard Seed and Kasese High schools, and to primary school girls who need them at Katumba, Kanungu, Eagle’s View, Isaac Newton and Mustard Seed.
Kanungu: “Our school senior woman Teacher Evelyn explained to girls how to use the pads using the manual the Afripads company sent. We distribute pads to girls above 10 years. They were very excited and appreciative of this great support, the support which many other schools can’t manage!”
Kasese: “Afripads were requested by our female teachers, who were so grateful to St Louis and UHST for making this possible.”
Letter of appreciation by the Head Girl of Kasese Rukoki Primary School.
The senior woman teacher at Kasese, Betty Biira, explains that while the pads are welcomed by all girls and senior teachers, some girls in their homes lack soap, clean water and buckets to keep the pads really clean. We are looking into ways that schools might be able to help those girls who have this problem.
Afripads have enabled girls to feel comfortable and to be more confident in school during their periods. Since we started to provide Afripads girls’ absence from school and from lessons has fallen dramatically. These days girls and boys attendance are similar and attainment levels of girls match those of boys. Members of the Ethical Society of St Louis should feel justly proud of this valuable contribution that they make to girls’ education in the Humanist schools each year.