Bo Centre’s bright new wall

One World Link in Bo have commissioned an artist to decorate the front wall. These bright new images are the results of his handywork.

Making learning interesting and fun in Bo schools

JP reports on progress with the OWL EducAid project to transform teaching in Bo schools. Teachers have been preparing materials to liven their lessons.

“I am very proud to inform you of the preparation of activity-based learning games… The teachers were excited to see their creativity; the exercise was full of fun and enthusiasm.

“As part of Strategy 9 (Make Teaching and Learning Fun), these games will enable students to learn independently through their interaction with the learning activities.

“Students should never leave school without understanding what they have been taught. We are the people who can make an everlasting impact and transform the lives of the younger generation.

Let’s not go to school and teach just for the sake of teaching; let’s teach for learning
We can do this!

“For literacy games, the skills we were enforcing during this creation were:

• Sentence construction
• Rhyming
• Sound of letters
• Word recognition
• Writing

“For numeracy, we targeted:

• Skip counting
• Number identification.
• Number bond
• Place value
• Multiplication &
• Number identification”

Teachers at UBC Lower, UBC Upper, RC Madonna and BDEC Messima making activity-based learning materials

Schools progressing with our EducAid project

The Bo project officially began on 15th September, 2025, to ensure that every student is IN school, SAFE, and actively LEARNING. Since its inception, we have engaged headteachers on the EducAid Top Ten Strategies for teaching and learning. This session took place on 27TH September, 2025, at the One World Link Centre in Bo. Additionally, all teachers from the five participating schools have been trained on these strategies.

We have also visited the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) to raise awareness about the project activities . Engagements have been held with school management committees to further inform key stakeholders about the initiative.

Data collection is underway on several fronts, including lesson observations and school scorecards assessing safety, attendance, community involvement, through lesson observations and school walkthroughs. We are already seeing evidence of the EducAid Top Ten Strategies in action across all five schools. 

For example, Strategy 1 (Ensure every child is known and seen) has led teachers to greet students by name and begin using the one-page-per-child tool, though adoption is not yet universal.

Strategy 2 (Fostering a growth mindset) is helping students build confidence, with teachers praising students’ efforts, encouraging more participation even when answers are uncertain. 

Strategy 3 ( Support Learning to learn) – I am now seeing some students with their vocabulary books, this was challenging at first but after a series of engagements with the schools, 50% of the students are now with their vocabulary books. 

Strategy 4 (Creating a kind classroom) is supported by Ubuntu Star posters, which promote kindness and generosity among students. 

Strategies 7 (Purposeful grouping) and 9 (Making teaching and learning enjoyable) have contributed to noticeable improvements in attendance and class engagement, this help to strengthen teacher-student relationships.

Strategy 10 (Executive functioning) shows promise as teachers and students collaborate to establish classroom expectations and improve time management. Although time management is not yet perfect, considerable progress is evident. Most teachers are now preparing lesson notes, a significant improvement from before the project began.

Despite these successes, challenges remain. Some teachers expected material incentives like transport or snacks during sessions, which the project does not provide. Schools also complain of shortages of the materials needed to display key ETTS elements visibly. Providing essential tools such as the one-page-per-child book, core skills tracker, and learning goal planner is still difficult, though some teachers have made personal sacrifices to supply these resources for the smooth running of the project.

Photos by JP, EducAid Mentor
Report by Miriam Mason-Sesay, PhD
Country Director, EducAid Sierra Leone

Education update – a busy time in Bo

So much has been happening with OWL Education in both Bo and Warwick this year. We are excited and ready to start a new project with our partner organisation EducAid.

Ignite Bo 🔥- Transforming Education in Bo (TEB Project)

So far, here’s what’s been happening:
✅Five OWL link primary schools in Bo have been selected to be part of the pilot project for 2025-26 academic year. Congratulationss to BDEC Messima, RC Madonna & Pre-School, UMC Messima, UBC Upper Moriba Town and UBC Lower Moriba Town.
✅ An EducAid Coach/Mentor has been recruited – Congratulations and Welcome to Sheku JP Sannoh
✅ All OWL schools celebrated The Day of the African Child together – our focus on Global Goal 4: Quality Education
✅ The TEB project has been registered with Bo City Council
✅ JP has visited the five schools in July for introductions. He will work with them over the coming year
✅Fundraising has begun!

Transforming Education in Bo OWL Schools

Five One World Link schools in Bo will receive training and mentoring in a year-long collaboration with EducAid. All fifteen linked schools in Bo were invited to participate and five were selected by Bo OWL: BDEC Messima, RC Madonna,  UMC Messima, UBC Upper and UBC Lower.

EducAid, a long-established NGO in Sierra Leone, have developed a programme to transform teaching and learning. They will give initial training to the school heads and staff, explaining their  ‘Ten Top Strategies for Teaching and Learning’. These require that teachers engage with the children individually, monitoring their progress, seeing where they need extra help and making school safe and fun, in contrast to the more traditional styles of teaching. They also involve the school management committees and the wider community

EducAid have appointed Sheku JP Sannoh (‘JP’), an experienced staff member pictured here, to lead the training and to be a coach and mentor for the coming school year. He will take up residence in Bo and spend a full day every week with each of the schools encouraging and helping them to implement those strategies. The overall aim is to improve teaching and learning, ensure higher levels of literacy and numeracy, reduce absenteeism and improve community involvement.

OWL have received a generous donation that has enabled us to start the project and are now actively seeking more money to complete the project. One sponsored walk has already been planned and our UK schools will be fundraising. Based on the outcomes of this year we have outline plans to extend the project to the other ten linked schools over the following two years.

The Youth team in Bo have produced new branding materials to relaunch the OWL Centre and a multi-purpose venue. They have issued promitional pictures and produced jingles for the local radio. The offer a range of services and facilites. As a venue, they plan to attract wedding receptions, meetings, worshops, dinners and parties. They have screens to display sports events. There will also be guest house facilities.

Their services include computer services, training, and a location for university and public examinations. They offer catering services a bar and much more.

Foir further information email oneworldlinkbo@gmail.com call +23276708229, +23276631200 or +23278179918

President Bio joins Bo schools celebrating Education Week

Schools in Bo celebrated Education Week with a march past, cultural events and performances.

The programme for the International Day of Education on 24th January 2024 was “Learning for Lasting Peace”.

President Maada Bio, speaking at the event, said “I must, on behalf of a grateful nation, praise the tireless work of educators, parents, guardians, community elders, and all the stakeholders who work to advance education in our beloved country.”

Teachers held a meeting at the OWL Centre in Bo to discuss plans for their collaborative work on Climate Change. Schools are focusing on UN Global Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. We hope to inspire pupils to consider re-using and recycling materials to reduce waste.

When the business meeting was finished the teachers enjoyed socialising and celebrated a colleague’s recent wedding and sang “The more we are together the merrier we shall be”. The words continue “For your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends..” which is so appropriate for One World Link which is the friendship link between our communities.

Bo Waste Management Project goes National

“Little things can grow into much bigger things but it might take a little while.”

Things are moving on in Sierra Leone with Undergraduate Certificate and Diploma Courses in Municipal Solid Waste Management now being offered by Fourah Bay College on behalf of the University of Sierra Leone.  The Eastern Technical University in Kenema is also offering a 1 year Certificate course and a 2 year Diploma course on Urban and Municipal Waste Management.  Who would have thought that would happen when OWL sowed those early seeds in Bo?

Furthermore, just last month (17^th November), Sierra Leone held its first National Waste Management conference.  It would seem that it was well attended with good representation from Government Departments.

The waste management project was born back in 2007 when OWL persuaded the UNDP to invest in equipment to help Bo City Council to resolve their huge waste problem. The municipal waste disposal system had collapsed during the dreadful civil war in the 1990s and they were starting again from almost nothing. Facilitated by OWL, specialists from Warwickshire County Council, Glenn Fleet and Derek Greedy, provided guidance for the project. It was later taken on by the German NGO Welthungerhilfe.

Bo now claims to be the cleanest city in Sierra Leone. As Derek says: “Makes you feel good when you see those early efforts turning into all this. Little things can grow into much bigger things but it might take a little while.”

Five teachers from schools in Bo are preparing for their visit to the UK in June. John Sandi, Elizabeth Allie, Nemahun Vandy, Jennifer Abdulai and Patrick Columba.

They now have their travel documents and tickets and are looking forward to their two-week stay in Warwick District. They will be staying with families and have a busy schedule visiting their partner schools and having discussions with teachers. Bo schools are preparing parcels for their linked schools which the visitors will deliver. They will also join in the celebrations of the Day of the African Child when four hundred children will assemble for a programme of drumming, dancing, siinging and storytelling.