While the morning dawns grey and dull, Cultural Day at St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School is a celebration of colour and energy.
Today is a day for students to celebrate and learn about Tanzanian cultures. With the help of teacher mentors, they’ve prepared performances, artworks and traditional dishes around the theme ‘Development Though Culture’.
“Culture has significance. It is an instrument for education. So we want to instil in our students the ability to love and embrace their culture,” explains Mr Chokora, an English and geography teacher. Observing the excited students this morning, it’s clear that St Jude’s is succeeding in this quest.
The show begins with a bang: first up are the ngoma groups (in Kiswahili, ngoma refers to traditional dancing with drums). The students are dressed in bright costumes, their hair styled in intricate braids and buns. Oprah, from Form 2, is dancing with the Africana ngoma group today. She is from the Bondei tribe who are historically based in the Tanga area, on Tanzania’s Northeast coast. “I really enjoy performing,” she says. “It’s important to show our culture and share it with everyone.”
Next come the choirs, who share songs in Kiswahili. Then, for a humorous interlude, the audience are treated to a series of short dramatic acts, written and performed by the students.
The final section of the program is dedicated to a fashion show. Student designers have dreamed up and created inventive outfits. Their friends model the designs, showing off the bold creations.
One talented designer is Sabha, in Form 4. Her collection, called African Diva, demonstrates ingenious use of recycled materials. She explains, “When you look at the environment, you can see inspiration everywhere.”
Some people look at fashion as a frivolous pursuit, but not Sabha, who hopes to pursue a career in design. “A key element of culture is dress. Here in Tanzania we have many tribes and each has their own way of dressing.” Sabha is a member of the famous Maasai tribe and says Cultural Day is one of her favourite days of the year. “It’s a chance for people to show their creativity and their talents,” she beams.
Perhaps the most keenly anticipated performance of the Cultural Day is the teachers’ dramatic performance. Almost all teachers at the school have been involved in writing, rehearsing and performing a funny act, which demonstrates the importance of appreciating culture.
“I take part in Cultural Day to model cultural appreciation to the students. Culture is part and parcel of human life, so I want to show them that participating in culture is not something bad or embarrassing. As staff, we want students to develop an interest in embracing their cultures,” enthuses Mr Chokora, a teacher who is part of today’s performance.
Another performing teacher is Miss Doreen, who teaches Kiswahili. “I really like to perform, because we want to show our students that we’re capable of doing anything. Even though we are very busy we are still capable. We still have time for culture,” she explains.
Miss Doreen and Mr Chokora are pleased to see that their efforts have helped the students take an interest in culture. “They have been asking what we’re doing for weeks, but we wanted to surprise them,” says Mr Chokora.
After a morning of performances, everyone has worked up an appetite. Luckily, students have prepared an array of dishes from all over Tanzania for their guests to enjoy. Veronica and Maria, both in Form 4, are two of the students responsible for today’s feast.
“It's fun to watch the performances on Cultural Day and also learn new things, like cooking,” says Veronica. Maria explains, “We have mentors to help teach us to make the dishes. We had a practice day last weekend and then we got feedback to help us perfect our cooking today.”
“My favourite food today is bada,” says Veronica. “It’s a kind of stiff porridge made from cassava flour,” she explains.
Attendees sample foods including loshoro, a Maasai dish which is a mixture of maize and fermented milk, mtori, a meal of banana and beef and mlenda, a dish from the Singida area in central Tanzania, made of ground leaves and tomatoes.
Cultural Day is a celebration unique to St Jude’s - a day full of fun, but also with an important purpose. “It’s a great way to help our students learn about their roots,” says Miss Doreen.
Like trees, our students must have healthy roots in order to grow tall and strong. To become the future leaders of Tanzania, St Jude’s students must have a deep understanding of the country’s culture.
Through events like Cultural Day, St Jude’s nurtures our students’ growth from within. As Fausta, a Form 4 students puts it, “This day builds something in our hearts.”
At The School of St Jude, receiving a St Jude’s uniform is a day of celebration for newly enrolled students. It’s the first step towards breaking the poverty cycle for these students who come from considerably poor backgrounds, yet demonstrate academic promise.
Every year, St Jude’s offers academic scholarships for three key stages of a student’s education in Tanzania; primary scholarships to support primary students from Standard 1 to Standard 7, O Level scholarships to support secondary students from Form 1 to the end of Form 4 and A level secondary scholarships to support the final two years of school, Form 5 and Form 6.
Francis is among the students recently selected to receive an academic scholarship at St Jude's. He joined in Form 5 after attending a government school for his primary and O Level education.
"I attended a government school where classrooms are overcrowded, there are few learning resources, boarding houses are without running water, and all students share one bathroom. With St Jude's, I have all the resources I need to succeed in my academic career. It's a dream come true,” says Francis.
“I’ve been raised by my grandparents. My grandmother is a housewife, and my grandfather is a casual worker who does work as it comes,” explains Francis, who aspires to be a civil engineer.
"In the next two years, I will receive free, quality education, learning the skills I'll need to become a future, community-focused leader."
“It took me eight hours to get here from my village,” says Philipina, a Form 5 science student.
Philipina dreams of becoming a doctor. "I want to be a surgeon. When I see how doctors help the sick and save lives, I am inspired."
“This is my first time staying at boarding school and I love it here. I don’t have to worry about walking a long distance to get to school. I want to focus on my studies, fulfil my academic goals and develop my leadership skills so that I can support my family,” she adds.
At St Jude's, teachers are passionate about helping students build self-confidence and develop leadership skills.
“For new students, we first help them become familiar with the school's core values," says Mr Joseph, a business teacher at Smith Campus.
The school has four core values which are Respect, Responsibility, Honesty and Kindness.
“Good leaders should have courage to speak in public, be honest, and demonstrate responsibility," states Mr Joseph.
"I encourage my students to learn public speaking and to compete for different leadership positions so they can practise and sharpen their leadership skills."
One new student ready to heighten his leadership abilities is Kelvin. As he begins his journey at St Jude's, he is looking forward to pursuing a leadership position within the student government.
"I want to run for a position as an academic prefect in the student government election," reveals Kelvin, a science student hoping to study petroleum engineering once he completes his A Level education.
“I was an academic prefect at the government school that I attended. One of the differences between being a prefect at St Jude’s and at a government school is that we get recognised at the end of Form 6," he adds.
St Jude’s honours student leaders with certificates when they complete Form 6 for outstanding leadership service.
"When I graduate, I will use the certificate to demonstrate my leadership capabilities for employment opportunities," Kelvin says proudly.
St Jude’s strives for academic and moral excellence and ensures that students attain a holistic education, providing them with a pathway out of poverty.
St Jude’s three schools are lively places. There is always laughter ringing out across the playground, or a song wafting down from a music room, or an exciting game of football being played on the sports fields, with accompanying shouts and blasts from a whistle.
To take a step into one of our three libraries is to take a pause from this hustle and bustle and enter into a calm, quiet place of focus. Students take advantage of this atmosphere for their studies, to browse the shelves or to get a recommendation from one of our trained library staff.
Mr Forehead started at St Jude’s 13 years ago as a Library Guard. After a diploma and then a Bachelor of Teaching, he became our Primary Library Teacher. He’s never met another Tanzanian with the same job. “It is not a common role,” he says. “I teach students how to utilise the library, how to find books, how to borrow and how to take care of the books.”
When students begin at St Jude’s in Standard 1 or 2 (the first years of primary school), it’s usually their first time in a library. “When they first arrive, they are so excited about the library,” smiles Mr Forehead.
“Reading definitely helps them to improve their English,” he explains. “You’ll see when they start, you give them a book and they’ll just know one or two words, and then over time as we read more and more it just improves so much.”
Miss Sylvia is the Library Assistant at St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School library. She takes a keen interest in her students to help them thrive in their first four years of secondary school.
“My students are big fans of novels. The most popular books are the Twilight books by Stephanie Myer and Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare,” she smiles. But Miss Sylvia isn’t content to leave her students to read only the most popular books. “I get to know students and staff members, so when they visit I can tell them about the certain things they’re interested in. So, students start to think, ‘Oh, Miss Sylvia is really interested in me,’ and it makes them feel important, that I care about them.”
In the primary library, Mr Forehead gets creative to encourage reading. “The students have reading competitions and then they make presentations about what they have read. With the young ones especially, I give them stickers when they finish a book, which gives them a lot of motivation,” he says.
Mr Forehead’s enthusiasm for reading is particularly remarkable given that his own school did not have a library. “We had a few books in boxes which were kept in the headmaster’s office and if you wanted to borrow a book, you would have to ask the headmaster. A year might go by without anyone borrowing the books and then you would find they had been spoiled,” he recalls.
For the last two years, SCIS (Schools Catalogue Information Service) has supported St Jude’s by donating their annual licensing fee and it’s made a huge difference in our libraries. SCIS creates easy-to-download catalogue records for school libraries and is used in libraries all over the world.
“With SCIS, cataloguing is so much faster,” enthuses Miss Sylvia. “All the information about the books is there. You can just click, download, and it’s all there and all correct. It has saved so much time.”
SCIS also assisted library staff with a series of webinars in 2020 to help make the most of everything SCIS has to offer. In a country without a huge network of libraries, St Jude’s is grateful to have a link to experts in Australia for inspiration and learning.
St Jude’s students are such ravenous readers that our librarians are regularly faced with a familiar challenge. “The biggest challenge is having enough books. The students love to read, and they’ve almost read all the books,” says Mr Forehead.
Over the years, St Jude’s libraries have been stocked with books donated by generous visitors and international supporters who have sent books to Tanzania. The school prepares a ‘wishlist’ of requested books each year so that visitors who wish to donate books can bring those which will be most useful.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has reduced the school’s annual international visitors from around 1,100 to almost zero. And no visitors means no new books. As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, St Jude’s hopes to add new stock to its libraries.
Even with the challenges they face, St Jude’s libraries have an important role at the heart of each school. They’re a place for students to discover new worlds, to catch up on the news and to study, uninterrupted. Unlike the majority of Tanzanian students, who are not afforded the advantage of a school library, St Jude’s students can enjoy all of the benefits a library offers, thanks to supporters from all around the world.
At The School of St Jude, one of the most important days on the calendar is the annual Standard 1 and 2 Student Selection Day. Long-term supporters will know the images of a sea of brightly-dressed students and parents at the St Jude’s gates. Each year, 1000 or more government school students are invited to the school for the first step in St Jude’s student selection process.
What these familiar images do not show are the months of planning and preparation needed to make Student Selection Day, and therefore our mission, a success.
This mission is to give bright, poor Tanzanian students a free, quality education. Through student selection, we find students who will benefit most from everything St Jude’s has to offer, including free uniforms, stationery, transport to school, daily meals, tuition and extracurricular activities. They’ll join a class of around 25 students, compared to classes of around 60 students in many of their government schools.
The job of organising student selection belongs to the Community Relations team. Theopister, who works in Community Relations, explains:
“Student Selection Day is the first part of our selection process. We invite students from government schools to come and try for a chance to join St Jude’s. This year we started planning it more than two months before the selection, in May.”
The planning process begins with inviting potential government school students. Theo’s team works closely with the Regional Education Officer to find the most academically gifted students St Jude’s should consider. “We get the top ten names from each stream at all the surrounding government schools in Arusha,” she says. “Then, we send an invitation letter to each student through their school and the headmasters give the letters to the respective students.”
The Community Relations team also makes an announcement on local radio about the upcoming Selection Day and, this year, a group of staff visited a number of markets to give out pamphlets and spread the word further to parents of potential St Jude’s students.
“Getting to interact with people was fantastic,” says Ziada, a member of the Marketing team who handed out pamphlets and spoke to community members about St Jude’s. “It was great to hear from the parents that our school is trying to reach.”
Finally, after months of planning, the big day arrives. This year, it’s 31 July. Today, 1,778 students and their parents have come to St Jude’s, all hopeful of receiving one of 50 academic scholarships to start at St Jude’s in 2022. A scholarship can change everything for a student and their family.
“Government school is free, but if you want lunch you have to pay. You need a uniform, you have to pay. Some parents will tell their children to skip their meals because they won’t be allowed to eat if they haven’t been able to pay. So some of these students will eat just once per day,” explains Theopister.
The school gates open at 7am and many people have been lining up since before 6am! When the students enter, their parents remain outside and the huge task begins.
“The process starts in the registration area. First we split the students up into districts; Arusha, Arusha City, Arusha DC and Arusha Meru and our staff help them move to the right area. Then we check their documents,” says Theopister.
After that, it’s time for testing, gently overseen by our academic staff.
“We do arithmetic, counting one to ten and one to 20, recognising numbers. And writing a self-introduction in Swahili,” says Miss Juliet, a Standard 1 teacher who has now been involved in nine Standard 1 and 2 Student Selection Days.
It’s a huge day, but there are small moments when staff have time to think about what’s being achieved.
“My favourite time is when I’m in the hall, doing the reading test and I find a student who is just reading perfectly. It’s exciting,” smiles Miss Juliet.
When the potential students are not being tested it’s the role of staff to keep them safe and contained. Luckily, the St Jude’s Primary School offers plenty of fun.
“Our school is blessed because we have playgrounds, and some of these students, they have never seen anything like this. So, we take them to the playgrounds and supervise them to keep them busy between testing,” she explains.
After testing, document checks and time on the playground, there’s a shortlist of potential students who meet document requirements and have passed their exams with distinction. They’re reunited with their parents and given a note, explaining when they should return to school for the next step in the selection process.
Like most staff, Miss Juliet is glad to be part of Student Selection Day at St Jude’s. In 2022, she’ll have the unique privilege of teaching the students she helped select today.
“When they come into my class, I feel excited. You get to see the change from the day you select them to the day they move to the next class,” she beams.
For 50 students, today is the beginning of that change.
Innovation begins with the spark of an idea.
Students at The School of St Jude have been demonstrating this since the first Science Day Projects Exhibition in 2010.
Science Day is an annual event that has been held at Smith Campus for the past 10 years. This year, the event took place for the first time at St Jude’s Girls' Secondary School to motivate girls to be more active in participating in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.
"Extraordinary inventions have been presented at Science Day by some of our best students," notes Mr Shaban, Science Day chairman of both Smith and Girls' campuses.
"Students use everyday items from school such as plastic bottles, cardboards, etc. However, we do support the students in other ways such as providing them with electronic devices so they can demonstrate their projects more efficiently," he adds.
"Science Day is important to these students because it motivates them to enjoy STEM subjects. It helps them put theory into practice. As an example, one student built a transformer using gas that worked," explains Mr Shaban.
In this year's exhibition, 97 project entries were registered for the competition.
Gideon partnered with his classmate Rashid, both Form 2 students, to create their project called Automatic Secured Agriculture Controller. “This is my second time to win. The first time I won is when I was in Standard 7.”
Describing how the software functions work, "The unique thing about this project is that it provides security and controls agriculture activities such as chemical application and automated drying of crops."
These are impressive functionalities that would be very beneficial to Tanzania’s large population of agricultural industries and small-scale farmers.
Winners of the Science Fair are chosen from different categories - science, arts and design, mathematics, geography, biology, chemistry, and ICT.
Debora, a Form 4 science student, was this year's winner from St Jude’s Girls' Secondary Campus.
Taking the top prize in the ICT category, Debora’s project, The Use of Mobile Network in Controlling Road Accidents, has been chosen to participate in the national competition.
“This project is meant to save lives by preventing traffic accidents,” she explains.
"I used various materials to design the project, including ultrasonic sensors to measure distances between cars, different jump wires, and sim card connections, as well as cardboard and bottle tops to demonstrate the concept," she further describes.
"I am truly thrilled that the project has been accepted to compete at the national level. So I'm trying hard to make some adjustments and modify the project so I can bring home the prize. We would also like to incorporate an alcohol detection sensor into the system,” Deborah excitedly says.
Mr Matotola is a mentor to science and ICT projects. He also coordinates the Science Day.
“Five projects from the Science Day have been selected to compete at the national level this year. One of them is Debora's project. So it’s truly exciting!,” says Mr Matotola.
“Girls are always eager to learn. We would like to see more girls interested in STEM subjects, so holding the Science Day on their campus will skew them in that direction," he enthusiastically remarks.
In this year's Science Day, 57% of girls participated, compared to 43% of boys. This shows how girls were driven and are ready to innovate incredible projects.
Every year, students present new creative, innovative and technological ideas at Science Day. St Jude's promotes creativity and encourages students to create projects that will benefit their communities to lift them out of poverty and improve their quality of life.
Increasingly, the best schools around the world are coming to the same conclusion; a holistic education that includes sports and arts alongside academics, helps students become well-rounded adults. Not to be left behind, St Jude’s has re-evaluated the way we provide our students with a well-rounded education. Over the last 12 months, our popular Sports Program has been updated, modernised and expanded.
Mr Jenerali is the driving force behind St Jude’s improved Sports Program.
“Sport is an avenue for students to let go, to get outside and de-stress, to burn a little energy. Then there’s the social aspect of it as well. Students learn soft skills too; communication, grit, leadership skills, they learn to take responsibility and to see what they can contribute to the team,” says Mr Jenerali.
A Driving Force: Mr Jenerali has spent the last 12 months revamping St Jude’s Sports Program.
Until now, St Jude’s students have participated and excelled in sports commonly played in Tanzania; football, basketball, netball, volleyball, handball and athletics. While these popular sports certainly have their place, Mr Jenerali was keen to diversify.
“It was important to introduce new sports,” he explains. “Mainly it’s about physical literacy. The philosophy of this program is about long-term athlete development. Younger students don’t specialise in a certain sport, they do rotations every two months. It’s all about fun and then they grow into specialising after a while. Then when they’re older, they tend to be more active in sports, even after school. It builds enjoyment of physical activity.”
Now, there is a year-round program of sports, which includes traditional sports in summer. In winter, students play martial arts, cricket, tennis, rugby and badminton. Athletics is offered all year.
To get these new sports started, St Jude’s needed specialist coaches. Previously, three coaches taught St Jude’s 1,800 students. Today, there are 22 coaches in addition to the schools’ PE teachers.
These new sports have been enthusiastically received. In particular, martial arts has proved unexpectedly popular among secondary students. “We’re actually struggling to have enough space for everyone who wants to do it,” laughs Mr Jenerali.
Sensei Issa is the martial arts coach. He started at St Jude’s just three months ago and has already seen improvement in his students. “Since they began taking my class, I have noticed progress. At the moment, I am teaching students how to defend themselves and I'm also working on getting them physically fit,” he explains.
Since 2004, Sensei Issa has taught students privately, but he has enjoyed working with St Jude’s. “I think St Jude's Sports Program is excellent,” he says, “It helps makes sports more popular in the school.”
Students are enjoying their new-and-improved Sports Program. While not every student can be a star-player, everyone can have fun being active and learn from being on a team.
One such enthusiastic student is Costantine in Standard 5. In the summer, he loves to play football and during winter his favourite sport is athletics. He trains on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and competes on most Saturday mornings.
“I like my athletics coach and I like training. It’s really fun,” he beams. “I hope one day I can be a professional football player. I play forward or mid-field and I am working on my speed.”
Costantine agrees with experts who say that sports help students academically. “When you play sports you can stay fit and healthy, so you don’t get sick and miss your studies,” he says.
Over at St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School, the new winter sports offerings have been welcomed by the students. Janet, in Form 3, is usually found on the basketball court, but this winter she’s giving martial arts a go. “I like martial arts, it’s really good. We can get fitness from it and also personal security,” she says.
Her favourite part is using the ‘dragon’ implement as seen in the photograph above. “It is hard at the start. You might accidentally hit yourself many times, but then you learn,” she laughs. “I feel more fit since I have started martial arts,” Janet continues. “My mind is more fit too, when I’m in class.”
One of Mr Jenerali’s proudest achievements at St Jude’s is, “…just seeing the enthusiasm from the students – that’s a big reward for me,” he smiles. Costantine and Janet are just two of the many enthusiastic students who make Mr Jenerali’s job so rewarding.
St Jude’s is constantly striving to provide our students with the best education possible. Studies from around the world show that the best education is a holistic one; an education which includes arts and sport alongside academics. Our Sports Program is an important part of a holistic St Jude’s education, which not only offers students an outlet but also complements their classroom studies.
