Getting to know Leopards Hill School

The first Monday of August is Farmers’ Day in Zambia, a national holiday to honor agricultural workers. This year, it also happened to be the day that the BC High Zambia team had our first visit at Leopards Hill School.

The students were finishing exams when we arrived. Even though they had worked hard all morning, there were two short classes after their exam so that we could observe their classroom experience. We made sure to tell them that it wasn’t our idea to have them take extra classes on a holiday. Despite the extra class time, the students were gracious and friendly, asking many questions about Boston and the United States.

We observed classes in Chemistry, Biology, Business, English, and History to name a few. There were many similarities we found between our experience at BC High and the teaching at Leopards Hill.

One thing that was not similar was the campus: it is designed for their warmer climate. Right now it is winter in Zambia, but their winter feels like Boston’s late spring or summer. The campus is set up as a series of courtyards. Classrooms, offices and dormitories open onto these courtyards and have large windows that stay open to let in the breezes. The courtyards have palm trees, ferns, and according to the faculty the vegetation is almost always green and growing.

After watching the students in an academic environment we were able to enjoy some of their creative talents. The students and faculty prepared a welcome assembly (held in one of the sunny courtyards) featuring music, dance, and drama.

Near the end of the assembly Mr. McGonagle was called forward to introduce our team. We each had a chance to wave to the sea of new faces making up the student body of Leopards Hill School before the assembly was dismissed and students and faculty went to lunch.

Lunch was another hearty Zambian feast (more on the foods here to come later). We ate with the faculty, and discussed the plan for our student retreat. Mr. Huynh took the lead explaining the day and the goal of our retreat – much like he does with retreats at BC High.

Before we left for the day Ms. Lungu took us through a gate past the boys’ dormitories to a large expanse of land that belongs to the school. Off in the distance on one of the playing fields a handful of boys were kicking a ball around and practicing flips and dance moves.

With the vista of so much open space on the horizon, Ms. Lungu told us about the school’s plans to expand outside of their current walls, design a new secondary school facility and use the current facility for a primary school.  These plans are still in very early phases, but its fair to say most of us want to return in five years to see how they have developed. We’ve only been here two days and we already have plans to come back.