Good news about visas...

We're hearing from the teachers one by one that they are getting their visas back, well on time, hurray. We haven't heard from them all yet but we have no worries.

Merhaba | hello!

Greetings to the teachers from Palestine... 
We look forward to meeting you in the UK in the new year.

Teachers in Action Update 25th November

Dear everyone involved in this exciting project, some notes on where we’ve got to…

(1)    PARTNER SCHOOLS - We have a list of partner schools which will be in the middle of the project (see below).

(2)    PALESTINIAN TEACHERS - Palestinian teachers have given in their visa applications and have had one meeting.  

(3)    Some of the teachers have sent photographs and one has sent something for the blog – we welcome this from all of you.

(4)    RESIDENTIAL ARRANGEMENTS - We have many applications from UK teachers and are hoping to confirm all places by Friday. We’re giving a little more time hoping to have someone on the residential from each link school and we need to know the group before we can firm up arrangements for travel and also answer those of you who don’t have partner schools but want to join us!

(5)    PREPARATION FOR THE RESIDENTIAL - Details to UK teachers will follow agreeing places (later this week). Palestinian teachers please let us know  your own role.

(6)    PLACES INVOLVED - The programme is getting firmer each day and we hope you will help us to publicise it. We think there will be teachers in (and meetings in) all of the places below – so tell friends and specially teachers who are nearby. We hope to have publicity for these events very soon and will put things on Dropbox/ on the project blog.

·         Chester

·         Knighton

·         Worcester TBC

·         Hackney

·         Camden**

·         Liverpool**

·         Pendle**

·         Northampton**

·         Tower Hamlets**

·         Hammersmith TBC

·         Lewisham TBC

** Main partners with linked schools

(7)    SCHOOL TWINNING WITH PALESTINE CONFERENCE - Please do your best to advertise the conference on Saturday 16^th January especially to teachers or people interested in twinning with Palestine.

(8)    PRESS AND PUBLICITY - We would appreciate help with publicity for the project as a whole – it’s ambitious and probably a first – and special anyway. Do you know people who would write/ broadcast about it in your area or nationally?

Problems at Abu Dis Boys' School

     Although Abu Dis Secondary Boys' School is new (this is the Nehru School),  the Israeli occupation wants to spoil every opportunity for good education for the students of the town.  
     In this last period, the Israeli occupation has arrested six students under the age of 15 years: some of them are still in prison and the others were released after paying large fines.  

     Collective punishment is still implemented by the occupation.  Early on Sunday, 22^nd November, the Israeli occupation army attacked  the town and shut everything down. Sunday is a school day in Palestine (the weekend is Friday and Saturday) but we couldn't  reach school until 10 am.

     Another crime of the Israeli occupation: one of the students in the 12^th grade (this is the final year of school) was shot and seriously wounded. We don’t know if he will manage to finish his school this year or not.

Moein Abu Hilal, History teacher.

بالرغم  من كون مدرسة ذكور أبوديس الثانوية جديدة (مدرسة للانهرو) إلا أن  الاحتلال يريد إفساد كل فرصة لطلاب البلدة لتعليم الجيد  فقد تم اعتقال العديد من الطلاب الذين تقل اعمارهم عن 15 سنة  مازال بعضهم الى يومنا هذا  في السجون في حين تم اطلق  سراح بعضهم بعد دفع  غرامات كبيرة  كما واستمرت انتهاكات الجنود الاسرائيليون ضد مدرستنا وبلدتنا حيث تم اقتحام البلدة يوم الأحد 22-11-2015 منذ ساعات الصباح الاولى مما ادى الى تعطيل الدراسه في املداس ولم نتمكن نحن من الوصول الى المدرسة قبل الساعة العاشرة.

جريمة اخرى ارتكبت ضد طالب من طلاب التوجيهي في المدرسة عندما اطلق الجنود الاسرائيليون النارعليه مما أدى الى اصابته بجروح خطيرة هو الان موجود في المستشفى يعاني من الاصابة ولا نعرف اذا كان سيتمكن من 
اكمال عامه الدراسي ام لا.

Conference on school twinning with Palestine

Really looking forward to meeting you....

Yesterday, the Palestinian teachers went to Ramallah to do their finger prints - another stage in the long process of getting UK visas. Now they have to wait a few weeks and we hope all is well. They met, too, to discuss the visit - and we hope they took some pictures so we can share them with you.

Today in Camden, a small group of teachers met (it seems that we made a silly mistake about the date and put '20th' - we hope to meet some others tomorrow. But it was a good meeting and all agreed that they are looking forward very much to meeting the Palestinian teachers very soon!

Pictures from Abu Dis Boys' School

Above - picture of Abu Dis Boys School yard from the first floor balcony

Below - picture of the head teacher's office  (with Abed and Hazem from Dar Assadaqa). 

We look forward to having more pictures from the UK and Palestinian schools, very soon.