Friendships forged as Maasai tribe visits Wirral school

The visitors from Kenya gave a special assembly to all of the pupils at Church Drive Primary School in Port Sunlight before they spent time building bird boxes with members of the school’s eco and conservation clubs.

Helen Godfrey, eco lead at the school, said the children had thoroughly enjoyed forging new friendships and finding out about the Maasai way of life and traditions at the "once in a lifetime" event.

She said: "This was an amazing experience and fantastic opportunity for the pupils. They will never forget it." 

Pupils at Church Drive Primary School in Port Sunlight got to meet members of a Maasai community as part of a cultural exchange (Image: Andrew Price) Year one teacher Jen Hughes said: "That was one of the highlights of my career. With the demands of the curriculum, it is easy to forget how valuable and memorable experiences such as these are for our children. Incredible."

The event at the school was organised as part of a two-week trip to the UK.

Organiser Jason Ingamells, director of the Woodland Ways Bushcraft Foundation, said the aim of the trip was to raise funds for the development of a school in Kenya and to further develop and nurture "a cultural exchange of help, assistance, ideas and raising awareness of what it is to be a Maasai and what it is to work in partnership with people who are trying to make a small difference in their own part of the world".

Mr Ingamells said his organisation had been working with the group for about 10 years.

He said: "We have been helping a community to help themselves by providing financial input and logistical help in order for them to undertake projects that would be much harder to achieve without that assistance.

Pupils at Church Drive Primary School in Port Sunlight got to meet members of a Maasai community as part of a cultural exchange (Image: Andrew Price)

"It's a group of friends we have been working with for years. They lead on projects, we just provide assistance to make them happen."

Earlier in the day, the Maasai group visited the headquarters of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) near Wrexham. BASC sponsored a minibus to transport the visitors around during their trip and staff from BASC accompanied them to the school to help build bird boxes.

Garry Doolan from BASC’s communications team said: "When we saw Jason’s post on social media we knew we had to help.

"Education is at the heart of what we do and when we saw an opportunity to find out more about the community and tie the visit in with a visit to a nearby school, we jumped at the chance."