On behalf of our school, KILIMANJARO GENIUS ACADEMY, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for the knowledge gained through the Ollie the Elephant booklets, which enabled us to build a strong foundation of English language literacy.
Firstly, the OLLIE training has enlightened me as the head teacher of this school and as the first person to receive this privilege in Tanzania, and now I’m transferring it to my colleagues. So far, I can stand and express ideas confidently, adhering to the basic foundation received from the booklets. I have realized that it’s just smaller words, which most people ignore, that matter in language, not bigger words.
Secondly, my team members (teachers) are very grateful for the skills they’ve gained, which they pass on to students in our classrooms. Seven teachers have benefited from this program; therefore, they are passing it on to more than 10 students in our school, from Primary 1 to Primary 4. So far, teachers are experiencing a drastic improvement in their English as they are using most of the words learned in their daily communication and classroom instruction.
Lastly, our students are very excited about the program and always very active when Ollie’s time comes. The simple language, examples, and clarifying cartoons and pictures used in these booklets help our students learn quickly and enthusiastically.
When communicating among themselves and in class, students can apply the words they have learned in the different ways shown in the booklets.
We hope that this program will change our school and our country, Tanzania, as far as the English language is concerned.