User:Sarahmwi/sandbox

Ayisatu Owen International School

The Ayisatu Owen International School, in Techiman, Ghana, is a private, co-educational day school which offers an educational program from day nursery through Junior High School year 3 (also known as Form 3). The school was founded in 1997 by Wilfred Owen, Ph.D., and his wife Ayisatu Owen. Its English-language motto is "Deeper Understanding" and is printed on the uniforms of the students. Students are split between two campuses. Day nursery through P2 are situated the original campus while students in P3 through JHS3 are found on a newer campus just down the road from the original. Since its inception, the Ayi School has partnered with the Foroneworld not-for-profit organisation of Old Lyme, Connecticut. Foroneworld provides travel grants to volunteers each year and supports orphans who attend the school.

Academics
The Ayisatu Owen International School follows the national curriculum of the Ghana Education Service (GES). This means that students are offered and expected to study the local Ghanian language (Twi), English, mathematics, science, social studies and religious and moral education. The school puts emphasis is on science, mathematics and written English. Classroom lessons are reinforced with projects spanning across various subjects. The projects conclude with student teams presenting to an audience of peers, parents and town notables. The campus WiFi, JSTOR-2 and the libraries support the project-based learning. The students graduate to residential high schools in various part of the country. The Ayi School has graduated students with learning disabilities and cerebral palsy as well as trained adolescents and adults who came to the classroom late in life.

Volunteering
More than 60 volunteers have lived and worked at the school, 35 being sponsored by Foroneworld. Volunteers have come from USA, UK, Canada, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland, Russia, Hong Kong. Gunther and Mariata Bruns, professional teachers and volunteers coming from Lubeck, Germany, trained the first teachers 98-99. In 2013, students from St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont students and teachers spent two weeks at the school. The Academy will visit again in February, 2017.

Awards
The Techiman Municipal Assembly awarded the school first position in the municipality in the 2010 national Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). In 2015, the Techiman North District Assembly awarded the school the first position as well.

Support
The school has benefitted from donations and support offered to them by individuals and businesses alike. The Rotary International Clubs of Kumasi (2010) and Techiman (2013) have made grants and contributions to the school. In 2000, an anonymous Dutch donor funded the building of the day nursery hall. Students from various schools in the USA have financed school supplies through bake sales and fund-raising.