Lüderitz Blue School

The school is registered both as a Namibian not-for-profit organisation and as a school by the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture.

School Mission

To establish a high quality private primary school in Lüderitz, Namibia that offers a high number of scholarship places to children from the local community and coordinates a full programme of extra-curricular activities open to the children and young people of Lüderitz. 

School Values 

• Academic Excellence: In breadth as well as in depth
• Boundless Curiosity: A love of questioning and discovery
• Open-Mindedness: Inclusive and empathetic 
• Tenacity: Bold and audacious, tenacious and resilient
• Gallantry: Generosity of spirit, kind and helpful to others
• Environmental Awareness: Aware, awed by, and knowledgeable about the desert, the sea, and the past and present of the region

School Goals

• Top Quality Education: Provide international standard primary education to the community in Lüderitz, including a high percentage of scholarship pupils.
• Healthy, Active Lifestyles: Provide a programme of extra-curricular activities for children and young people to develop skills, foster links and cooperation across different areas of Lüderitz' society and promote healthy, active lifestyles.
• Best Practice in Education: Build partnerships with international schools around the world and in other parts of Namibia to foster a culture of understanding and exchange best practices in education and development.

School Motto

Inspiring Wild and Curious Minds

Miss Marnie Allen is the Director (Principal) and Co-Founder of Lüderitz Blue School. 

Ms Allen co-founded the school together with Ms Lucy Hooft, Chair of the School Board. The project began in late 2021, with the not-for-profit registration coming through in early 2022 and the official school registration in late 2022. The school has enrolled learners (including a high percentage of scholarships) and is currently operating in its 'Growth' phase.

Ms Allen has put structures in place for day to day operation of the school, as well as procedures to ensure the long term sustainability of the school. This includes formulating the curriculum, policies and procedures, staffing, extra-curricular activities for enrolled learners and children across the town and provision for scholarship places.

She is passionate and driven to expand our reach regarding extra-curricular and scholarship placements, to allow children from all over Lüderitz to reach their full potential, regardless of their circumstances.

Lüderitz Blue School has a small but dedicated team who are all fully committed to assisting with the development of the school, and helping it to achieve its goals and mission. As a new and growing school, we are ambitious with what we want to achieve and the opportunity that we believe the school can bring to the town and its children, but also to the country.

Despite potential for huge success in Lüderitz, some major companies have not sent staff with children here in the past, or those who have come, have sent their children away to boarding schools from a very young age. This is due to many factors, including lack of a range of organised activities for children and young people to do after school finishes at 1:00pm, and a lack of a high quality, international school that would allow children to easily transition school-to-school should families relocate to- or from - the town.

With many projects of global significance on the horizon including in the seaweed, diamond, green hydrogen and now oil and gas industries, we have opened the first private primary international school in the region and are acting as a lighthouse for growth, learning and opportunity in Namibia. Not only our enrolled learners benefit from the school, but also our scholarship pupils and the children and young adults who attend the full extra-curricular programme which we run after school every day until 3:00pm or 4:00pm.

All staff understand our story and vision, and development is key to our work culture. All staff are keen to take on more responsibility to help the school grow and children thrive. Staff all have the drive, and time, to focus on projects such as these, and are all keen to contribute to the growth of our extra-curricular programme, which is the focus on this project.

The development and deployment of a full, engaging programme of extra-curricular activities open to all children and youth in Lüderitz.

Due to Lüderitz' remote location, we are impacted by a lack of resources for our extra-curricular programme- both in terms of specific equipment and specialised staffing.

This is a list of the extra-curricular activities currently run by the school every day (for 6-12 year olds):

• Arts and Crafts
• Robotics*
• Lego*
• Mythology
• Astronomy
• Cooking
• Sign Language
• Science
• Oceans Day*
• Adventure club

Up to now, only clubs marked with an * have been open to external (non-enrolled) learners, but from August, we will be opening all clubs to the community. 

We would also like to also include Sports and are especially keen to begin with Swimming classes, which are not currently available anywhere here. This is due to a lack of equipment, place to practice or learn and the lack of trained swimming teachers. People tragically lose their lives every year in Lüderitz by drowning. There is also no coast guard here.

Our Oceans Day club has already begun to expose young people to the ocean, showing them its wonders and that it is not something to be feared. As a next step, we would like to teach children in this club to swim.

Providing access to engaging and inspiring extra-curricular is invaluable to a child's wellbeing - showing them that success can take many forms, both in and out of the classroom. We hope to expose the next generation to as much as possible and help them find their passion, while also introducing them to possible future career opportunities.

Our solution to the lack of organised extra-curricular activities for young people and children in Lüderitz has been to create our own full programme, coordinated by the school. 

The town itself is made up of many experienced, passionate people, many of whom have a talent or interest to share. The school has taken the first steps in establishing a full extra-curricular programme with the activities listed in the previous response. This is only the very beginning of what is possible - and it is our intention to approach many people in town to ask them to get involved and share their talents and passions.

As mentioned above, one large aspect of the problem here is the lack of swimming training, facilities, practice space, leading to tragic drownings every year. As a first step, we have trained a group of 5 volunteer lifeguards who can be called upon as and when our swimming plans develop. The training was successfully completed and the lifeguards are ready. There are also plans for a tidal pool to be built in Lüderitz.

Once the tidal pool is completed, we plan to find a swimming teacher to come down, or find someone who can attend a swimming teacher training elsewhere in the country. They will be able to begin swimming lessons and trainings here in Lüderitz - to directly address the issues regarding drownings and fear of the water here.

Aside from the swimming activities, we are providing internships for teachers-in-training, and are planning to welcome volunteers on a gap year to help set up a sailing club, sports activities and other fun clubs for the children. We will also continue to work with individuals in the community to encourage them to work with us and pass on their talents and passions. 

Our solution is linked to learning variability - because every child is different, and what success looks like, does and indeed should look different to every child. Our activities are currently open for 6-12 year olds. If children are exposed to such a variety of activities from a young age, they are bound to discover their interests and passions and to understand that that may differ to that of their peers. It is also to be expected that some children who may not be high achievers academically may thrive in a certain activity. This is key in celebrating diversity and difference and helps children to excel in all areas of their life.

As our school is so newly established, we have not yet carried out any formal research and are at the beginning of this journey.

However, 3 of our extra-curricular clubs (Robotics, Lego and Oceans Day) have already been open to the wider community for an extended time.

We have witnessed positive social and emotional change in the children who have taken part in these clubs, especially those who joined in the very beginning and are still with us now. Our full programme is currently being attended by our enrolled learners and we are ready to open up the entire programme to its full capacity including learners from all schools in the community - to witness this further.

As mentioned above, we have not conducted formal research or studies. We have however opened 3 of our clubs for up to one year now.

We have come to understand the different ways we can promote our clubs, and how to keep the administrative work effective and clear. 

We have also tried out different ways to approach families and children for places in the clubs, including speakers to learners and teachers in Assembly, posting on Social Media and using posters. All of this is invaluable going forward into our next stage.

This is the right time for our school to engage in a LEAP project. Our school is fully registered and operational as both a school and a not-for-profit, providing academic lessons to our enrolled learners in the morning, and a full programme of extra-curricular clubs in the afternoon. We currently run 8 clubs, with 3 of them open to external (non-enrolled) learners. Up to this point, we have only opened 3, mostly for logistical reasons.

Our school is currently in our growth phase, and we are looking to open up all our clubs to children in the wider community over the coming months. We believe we have witnessed positive social change in the children who have joined us for the 3 clubs, and this will grow on an exponential basis as we open up more clubs.

KEY QUESTIONS

1. What are the positive affects of regular participation to extracurricular clubs for a child?

2. Which clubs have the strongest positive impact on a child?

ADDITIONAL - POSSIBLE CLUB-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

 1. What is the social impact of girls being introduced to Robotics club at a young age?

2. What is the social impact of people learning to swim on a coastal community?

We envision implementing both formative and summative research methods during our LEAP project.

The formative methods we have in mind could include the following:

·      User interviews

It would be interesting to interview children joining our extra-curricular program from external schools at the start, throughout, and at the end of the LEAP project, as well as their families. We would focus on changes in their behaviours, attitudes, hobbies, interests and even ambitions. We could also engage with their schools to observe whether regular participation in clubs has any impact on their social lives at school or even on their academic attainment.

·      Case studies

We may be able to identify certain children who would benefit from engaging in extra-curricular activities, and monitor their journey and progress in similar ways to those mentioned above.

The summative methods we could use are:

·      Correlational studies

It would be interesting to observe the social changes that come about throughout the course of the project, and to see if certain clubs have more impact than others, and on certain groups of children (eg. of different genders, from different backgrounds etc).

Following the conclusion of the LEAP Project sprint, we may do further research on what we have discovered.

Importantly, we will use the findings to review our growth strategy, and to understand how we can ensure we reach as many children and families and possible to join our extra-curricular programme.

We will review what is going well, and not so well, in our reviews and continue to develop our growth strategy to further engage and work with the community here.

By reviewing our growth strategy, we desire the following outcomes:

Short term

• We will be able to reach more children will join our extra-curricular programme.
• We will able to reach more adults to volunteer on our programme.
• Many of these children will enjoy their activity and discover a new hobby or skill.
• Children will bring their friends along to join the programme also.
• Children's social skills and engagement in their community improves.
• The school will be a hub for fun, learning and inquiry on a daily basis.

Long term

• The skills, hobbies and passions the children explore through a club may open opportunities for a future career for them.
• Attending clubs on a regular basis will have a long lasting social impact on the children, their families and the community.
• If swimming lessons can commence: the town will benefit from a higher number of trained swimmers (adults and children) which should dramatically increase the number of drownings.