STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE (IROVO)
REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER 1170935
TRUSTEE REPORT & ACCOUNTS
6/5/2022 — 5/5/2023
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STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE (IROVO)
Legal and Administrative Information
Constitution and Objectives
STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE (IROVO) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) that aims to support the advancement of education in the village of Irovo (Shinyalu), Kakamega County, Kenya by providing and assisting in the provision of a school, facilities for education at the school, scholarships for children unable to afford school fees, teacher training and salaries and by such other means as the Trustees may determine.
Registered address
55 Clifton Drive
Lytham St Annes, FY8 1AL
UK
Founders
Alan Whelan, Olive Carroll
Trustees
Alan Whelan (chair), Olive Carroll, John Entwistle, Steve Sinnott, Sarah Campbell
Bankers
Barclays 38 Fishergate, Preston PR1 2AD
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STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE
Trustees’ report and annual accounts 6/5/2021 to 5/5/2022
Structure, governance and management
The board of trustees meets at least twice a year in person, and occasionally by virtual means. Trustees are responsible for the strategic direction and policies of the charity.
The two co-founders visit the project at least once a year to
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assess progress at the school
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provide moral support
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take advice from village elders, parents and neighbours
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hold formal meetings with school director Vitalis Tivis, his staff and parents
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invest charity funds
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plan future development
Trustees give their time freely. No remuneration or reimbursement for travel, accommodation, food, etc, is taken. Strive for Excellence has no paid staff. It is primarily a grant giving charity that purchases education services, infrastructure development and support services to Shalom Academy ECD & Primary School in the village of Irovo, Shinyalu in Kakamega county, Kenya.
Objectives and activities
The object of the charity is to create the first early childhood development/primary school in the village of Irovo. Before our involvement, Shalom Academy was peripatetic in nature due to erratic fee income and insecure tenure.
Our immediate aim is to develop the iron-sheeted school by
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providing 8 classrooms for all 8 grades from PP1 to grade 6 (ages 3—11)
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raising registration to 200
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improving academic standards
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training more teachers
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enhancing the aesthetic appearance of the school building & grounds
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- investing in more educational supplies
Projects Review
AW visited Irovo in June 2022; AW, OC and SC visited Irovo in February 2023.
Infrastructure improvements:
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Major repair was undertaken to the road surface of Education Way
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Mains water has been connected; a faucet is now fixed in the kitchen. Collected rainwater will be used as back-up and for washing, etc.
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Playground shelter erected with benches
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The entire exterior of the school was repainted
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New educational murals have replaced the fading images on the school exterior
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More text books were purchased
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Another set of shelves were fixed in the resource room to house additional books
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15 more benches/desks were built
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Ongoing repair to perimeter hedges and fencing
Other News
Staff
Current teachers: Vitalis (trained); Terry (trained); deputy headteacher Nobert (trained), Vincent (trained), David (trained), Joyce (trained), Roselyn (teaching assistant), Mildred (teaching assistant).
Caretaker: Post currently vacant.
Cook: Petronella.
Pupil registration is 133, surpassing our goal for January 2023 of 117. The huge rise in registration was due to a number of factors:
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The return to a ‘normal’ school term following lockdowns in 2020/21/22.
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Parents returning to work, making more household cash available.
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A major effort from Vitalis and other teachers to encourage new and returning pupils to come to school without the threat of suspension for nonpayment of fees.
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- Reduction of fees for PP1 & PP2 from sh2500 to sh900 per term encouraged more 4–6-year-olds.
Local Issues
The ongoing drought—the worst in over 40 years—has significantly affected food donations to the school lunch programme.
The January parents’ meeting was a great success; it was well attended and the general mood uplifting. The Shalom Academy board chairman has resigned because his child is no longer at the school.
The January staff meeting proved to be a valuable innovation. Teachers aired some issues regarding equipment & teaching materials and wages, many of which were resolved during our time there. Some teachers are receiving travel expenses, and their breakfast and lunch provision is more comprehensive than ever.
Another innovation was to bring grades 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 on two school field trips— one to a local beauty spot/mythical attraction, the other to a dairy farm. The outings were a huge success and both teachers and pupils used them as a high quality learning experience. They also proved to be tremendous (loud and colourful) advertisements for the school.
New uniforms were provided for all and plenty of English language story books were brought from the UK.
School director Vitalis Tivis completed his diploma final examination, coming first on a course of 53 students.
Fruit trees and vegetables for breakfast/lunch are failing due to ingress of neighbours’ animals and scrumping.
Every child was assessed according to performance indicators across all subjects. Generally the trend was one of low achievement. These results are a vital benchmark for future assessments. AW has created pupil achievement records to track each child’s academic progress and will be updated following each exam.
School transport (Honda motorcycle) has been repaired, serviced, taxed and insured for the year ahead.
Vitalis has dealt with more red tape, and incurred costs from the lawyer, surveyor and Land Registry to progress the land partition.
Vitalis began advertising the school with 50 colour posters pinned around the village
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Digital Literacy
Eventually we will have to face the challenge of bringing the digital world to Shalom Academy. The new curriculum stipulates digital access for all subjects at all grades, so we are out of step with national expectations. To that end Vitalis has investigated how to bring digital literacy to the school. Here are his findings:
Private schools buy tablets from Iconix brand agencies in Kakamega or Kisumu. The curriculum app must then be downloaded from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
| Development (KICD). | ||
|---|---|---|
| ITEM | KENYAN SHILLINGS | £££ |
| Construct IT lab 5m x 5m | 1,050,000 | 6176 |
| Desks/chairs 25 x 3,500 | 87,500 | 515 |
| Teacher’s desk/chair | 10,000 | 60 |
| Tablets 18 x 15,000 | 270,000 | 1588 |
| Tablets 6 x 12,000 | 72,000 | 424 |
| Router | 12,000 | 71 |
| Teacher laptop | 35,000 | 205 |
| Electricity infrastructure | 192,000 | 1280 |
| Electrical fttings | 94,000 | 523 |
| TOTAL | 1,822,500 | 10842 |
Fees / Expenses
Vitalis investigated systems at other schools for benchmarking purposes and wrote a major report to assess our progress.
It revealed 3 important facts:
1 State schools now provide free text books and stationery (previously this was a point of difference in our favour).
2 Pre-primary pupils get breakfast (snack) at 9.30am (we provided nothing). Teachers confirmed that many come to school hungry and were gravely lacking energy in the mornings.
- 3 Fees are lower for pre-primary pupils, averaging sh800 (all ours paid 2500).
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To compete with local schools, from January 2023 we began offering morning snack and reduced term fees to sh900 for pre-primary pupils to encourage higher attendance; higher grades remain at Sh2500 per term (approx £20).
Parental contributions have reduced to below our typical average of 60% of requested fees. Some parents also contribute some of their harvest/firewood for school lunches, although this is also diminishing due to the deteriorating economic situation.
Consequently there is a significant shortfall between school income and operational expenses. Due to the critical situation with non-payment of fees and rising costs, Strive for Excellence has paid the shortfall for the whole year.
Projects beyond 2023
Infrastructure
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General repairs
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Maintain ongoing painting programme for benches, school exterior
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Extend playground shelter
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Improve kitchen ventilation
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Follow up on electricity supply and costs. If not economically feasible, we should investigate using solar power.
Learning & pupil welfare
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Raise registration to 200 in 8 grades for January 2024 intake
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Build more benches/desks for the growing number of pupils
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Provide more books & stationery to increase the book/pupil ratio
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Continue pupil evaluations
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Donate more uniforms
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Continue teacher training
UK activities
Lancashire Schools Support
We have had little contact with our 4 supportive Lancashire schools
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St Gregory’s, Preston
St Augustine’s, Preston
St Francis, Goosnargh Mere Brow, Tarleton
Other fundraising activities
Trustees support ring-fenced projects The Souter Trust granted £3000 food support. Other fundraising comes from new and existing donors (both private and business).
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Balance sheet for year ending 5 May 2023
| UK BARCLAYS PRESTON |
KENYA ABSA KAKAMEGA |
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| BROUGHT FORWARD | 11732.86 | 1500 | |
| INCOME (donations) | 5684.23 | 8500 (from Barclays, UK) |
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| EXPENSES | Irovo (Education Way repair) |
1369.11 | |
| Musical instruments | 59.88 | ||
| Website hosting | 215.33 | ||
| Repairs | 1085.24 | ||
| Teacher wages | 572.32 | ||
| Uniforms | 160.05 | ||
| Shortfall top-up | 1136.19 | ||
| To ABSA Kakamega account |
8500 | ||
| Building infrastructure and on site expenditure |
5192 | ||
| TOTAL OUTGOINGS | 13098.12 | ||
| BALANCE ON HAND | £4318.97 | £4808 [Sh817,310.50] |
Alan Whelan, Chair of trustees 19/7/23
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