Railway Primary School

This school was first established in 1948 for the children of the local railway estate. The area surrounding the school is made up of three slums: Nsambya, Kamwanyi and Katwe. About 20% of the children are orphans. There are over 1200 pupils attending the primary school from the ages of 5 to 16. Here are some of the school initiatives:

• Aids awareness club
• Writers club
• Art & craft
• Scouts and girl guides
• Vocational skills development
• Early readers

Although taught in year groups, the school has a tutorial system of 30 ‘families’ headed by a teacher with 45 children in each group. Regular meetings allow pupils and staff to share concerns and issues that are affecting the children. Their sense of belonging is developed in this ‘family’ and it is reflected in the pupils' manner around the school and involvement with the clubs and activities. Many of these children have harsh backgrounds and this could be the only sense of family they will know.

Assisted Attendance Scheme

Uganda has introduced a free education system for all primary school students, however the funding they supply is often short and so school charge a fee which will contribute to school lunches, ground rent, teacher top up pay or other areas of need. The basic fee is around 29500 UGS per term, which roughly equates to £10 per term per child.