St.Luke’s High School, Ringswell Avenue, Exeter, EX1 3EG

01392 204600

email stlukes@eclipse.co.uk

home email thebarretts@tesco.net

I teach mathematics at St Luke’s High School and I am responsible for the media and publicity within my school. I hope to gain an insight into the educational system in South Africa through the Crossings initiative. I look forward to meeting with teachers and linking with schools in Cape Town. I hope to develop our schools multicultural education as part of the Crossings project through students linking via email with others and sharing lifestyles, through the creation of newspapers which highlight students shared areas of interest and the exchange of this media between Cape Town and Devon.

My Hobbies and Interests:

I like taking photographs on land and underwater. I am a BSAC snorkelling instructor and sport diver. I am interested in politics and am an active member of a political party. (Liberal Democrats). I enjoy using computers and surfing the Internet. I am the Secretary of Topsham Millennium Committee, which promises to be a brilliant eventful year 2000 and we have a lottery bid for £45,000. Let’s hope we are successful!

Rainbow Reflections of the New South Africa

by Sandra Barrett

We were inspired and moved by the desire and keenness of young people in the New South Africa to learn and succeed. Within their education system there are many visible differences we encountered as we visited schools in Cape Town. Some of the schools were struggling against all odds to deliver an education with very little resources. They were delighted to receive resources donated by the community of Devon County Council, St Luke’s High School, Devon Purchasing, Exeter City FC and Tesco (Pynes Hill). The Crossings newspaper, created by Rosie Taylor NiE Co-ordinator for The Express and Echo, was received enthusiastically by all the young people in Cape Town who read with interest the articles many of our students had written.

The Chris Hani school was an inspiration to us all. This school was successful in providing education for township children in Langa who didn’t posses a birth certificate. Despite the immense difficulties it faced on a daily basis the staff were the hope and future for these children in the New South Africa. Chris Hani is a celebrated martyr to the black South African peoples struggle for freedom from apartheid.

ANC Statement on the unveiling of Chris Hani's tombstone

13 April 1995

‘We continue to draw inspiration from the bravery and vision of Chris Hani in facing the difficult problems of housing, hunger, disease, poverty, crime, ignorance and humiliation created by decades of apartheid tyranny. He touched the very heart of millions of our people because he knew our pain and eased it by giving us hope, courage and a way forward.’

The Storemont Container School, Guguletu was a credit to its staff and pupils. On close inspection each classroom consisted of two containers, these containers were donated by Liverpool Dockers. Joined together with a track line running through the centre of the room, this amazing basic structure satisfied the accommodation requirements of the school. Inside this building children were being educated to take up their adult position in the society of the New South Africa.

St Luke’s High School will link with Masithandane Public Primary School, Khayelitsha, established in 1986 with 1300 children aged 5 - 15 years and 23 teaching staff. We will also link with Thandokhulu High School in Mowbray. This school is situated in the city centre of Cape Town and buses provide transport to the city for pupils from the outlying townships of Langa, Guguletu and Khayelitsha. Thandokhulu, originally catered for the disadvantaged communities who were living in squatter camps in Khayelitsha and was moved to its current site in Mowbray, Cape Town in 1992. Today the school has 900 pupils aged 13 - 17 years with 26 teaching staff.

British Telecom have donated four 166 Pentium computers to the Crossings project to enable St Luke’s High School to extend e-mail communication with our link schools in South Africa. Two computers have been donated to St Luke’s High School and two are being transported to Cape Town in the summer term via DHL to our link schools.

At St Luke’s High School we are keen to develop equal opportunities and multicultural education through links created with our South African schools and the resources developed by the Crossings project. We plan curriculum enhancement through subject links and exchange of children’s work. Expressive Arts will benefit from the influences of South African dance, music and drama, culminating in public performances for our community and a festival in June ’99 to celebrate the work and resources developed from the Crossings initiative. An Art CD ROM resource which has images of African masks, is being piloted in spring and summer term ‘99. Links with our African schools will be enhanced this summer through a poetry project in English for year 8 and 9 students who will have the opportunity to look at the writing of contemporary African poets. I will endeavour to encourage international communication between our countries and generate cultural enrichment to our school’s curriculum, addressing issues which positively affect our schools development plan.