One year in Africa
Leonard Mputhi with students from Harrismith Secondary School in Intabazwe township
A science teacher's enthusiasm for international links has led to a one-year secondment in South Africa.
After a fortnight's exchange visit, Tony Gray, winner of the Guardian Award for Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School in the West Midlands in 2005, has swapped life as an advanced skills teacher at King's Norton Girls' School (KNGS) for three terms at Harrismith Secondary School in Intabazwe township, Free State.
Pictured here is Tony's friend and colleague Leonard Mputhi, a sports teacher, with whom he travels to school each day. Through Leonard's wife Linda, Tony has got involved in the schools' Wellness programme, which buys schools uniforms for the poorest children and serves free nutritious lunches.
Back at KNGS, the School Parliament is raising funds for the uniforms project and has also sponsored a day trip to Durban. 'The most needy children have certainly never seen the sea,' writes Tony.
Before the year is out, he has at least two other targets: to plant and reap a crop of fresh vegetables in the school grounds and to organise an outdoor residential trip.
'We are surrounded here by wonderful countryside and wilderness areas, which, I am told, few children will have experienced.'
In the long term he also dreams of an exchange between young South Africans and pupils from England. 'Now that would be an enriching residential experience'.
