St John’s Week

Annually, during St John’s week, we hold numerous fundraising activities – with each tutor group trying to raise as much money as they can to at least sponsor one child. We also have skype sessions with the pupils and staff of St John’s in assembly, and in some of our lessons.

We are very grateful for donations from other organisations like the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Catenians and the Grail Society. We are also deeply moved and encouraged by the generosity of many families and individuals, who consistently set up standing orders to support this programme.

If you would like to be involved in this life enhancing programme, please contact Mr Osbourne via email: c.osbourne@oaklandscatholicschool.org

Oaklands-St John’s Scholarship Programme

Background of St John’s

St. John’s school is a Catholic school that offers affordable high-quality education to children from poor families in Korogocho. The school was started in 1990 by the Comboni Missionaries as drop-in centre to rehabilitate street children. It later became a learning centre for poor and vulnerable children in the community, who were locked out of basic education when public schools in the neighbourhood were still charging a lot of money for school fees. Today, St. John’s school has evolved into a fully-fledged primary school that offers high quality education to poor and needy children. With increased school enrolment, St. John’s is the largest, affordable and most progressive primary school, in Korogocho informal (slum) settlement.

Specific objectives for St John’s school

1. Providing affordable and quality pre-primary and primary education to children from Korogocho slums and her environs.
2. Promote equal learning opportunities to all children irrespective of their religious background. We encourage children from the Muslim community to join our school.
3. Developing sporting culture among children and the youth. We have facilities for both in-door and out-door sporting activities opened to the school children and the general public. These include a football pitch, volleyball, basketball, netball and short football court. Apart from the usual physical education lessons, the school has regular sporting activities.

Impact on the Korogocho community

• St. John’s school has transformed life of many youths in Korogocho, some of them are now employed and today they lead decent lives outside the slum.
•  The school’s sports and music clubs have remarkable impact on the social and economic life of people the slum. It has not only nurtured talents and helped youth to realize their potentials, but has also created jobs and opportunities that have enhanced personal and social transformation.
• 15-20 pupils of St. John’s school represent Nairobi County in the national ball games every year. This year the school sent 25 pupils to the National Music and Drama Festivals in Nairobi whereby they took position one in three items.
• The school has helped to rehabilitate and educate many children who could have been wasted by drugs and alcohol; it has also protected many others from joining gangs and becoming criminals by offering free and affordable education. In short, St. John is here to transform lives of poor people in Korogocho.

Impact of Oaklands-St John’s Scholarship Programme

The aim of the Oaklands St John’s Scholarship Programme is to help the less fortunate in Korogocho community acquire education by paying school fees, exam fee and other basic needs for the learners. This year, 194 pupils benefitted from this programme. 91 pupils benefitted from full sponsorship while 103 pupils benefitted from partial sponsorship. A total of Kshs 655,200/= (Approx. £6000) was received this year for school fees, sanitary towels, textbooks and school uniform.

Achievements

• Capacity has been increased, bringing more children to the school, to continue with their education – especially the ones who had dropped out of the school because of the school fees.
• The academic performance of the majority of the 194 children has improved gradually and consistently each time exams are taken – though some are still on their way to improvement.
• We have also managed to keep children in school, without sending them home for money and this has also lessened teacher workload in class, since very little time is wasted.
• Buying uniform for a number of our pupils, whose school attire was not in good condition or some of them completely lacked, has made the children feel important and loved.
• Purchasing sanitary towels for girls has built confidence in them and enabled them to stay in lessons, especially during their periods.