{"id":1902,"date":"2026-06-04T12:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?page_id=1902"},"modified":"2026-06-27T12:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:16:22","slug":"mariama-mae-nursery-school","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?page_id=1902","title":{"rendered":"Mariama Mae Nursery School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mariama Mae Nursery School<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mariama Nursery School in Gunjur (south Gambia), is the brainchild of Alison Calvert who first visited the village in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her remit was to help teachers understand how best to help children with learning difficulties. At that time she managed to persuade the local school to accept Mariama (a severely physically disabled child) into mainstream education \u2013 a major achievement since it is commonplace in third world countries for children with physical or mental disabilities to be isolated and confined to their own homes \u2013 thus receiving no education whatsoever (click<a href=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?p=58\"> <strong>here<\/strong><\/a> for a 2016 update on Mariama&#8217;s story).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nursery is now providing inclusive education for local children up to the age of seven, providing a place of learning for 140 local children aged between 3 and 6 years old. It provides employment for three local women &#8211; a caretaker, cleaner and a breakfast porridge cook. It has four fully qualified teachers. Also, Mariama Mae is now a very experienced teaching assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It now has four classrooms and an outdoor learning and play area. What you see of the school today is a far cry from how it looked in 2007, and stands as testimony to a great deal of hard work and dedication from numerous people both in England and The Gambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our aim is to build on this great start and ensure that the school continues to run and provide a place of education for many generations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7965415_orig.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7965415_orig.jpg 640w, https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7965415_orig-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" src=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5776306_orig.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5776306_orig.jpg 640w, https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5776306_orig-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6744882_orig.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6744882_orig.jpg 640w, https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6744882_orig-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More photographs and information on the Mariama Mae Nursery:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?page_id=3280\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"3280\"><strong>Mariama Mae Nursery School \u2013 Construction Photos<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?page_id=3291\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"3291\"><strong>Mariama Mae Nursery School \u2013 Up and Running Photos<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?p=1516\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"http:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?p=1516\"><strong>Play equipment &amp; much more!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mariama Mae Nursery School The Mariama Nursery School in Gunjur (south Gambia), is the brainchild of Alison Calvert who first visited the village in 2000. Her remit was to help teachers understand how best to help children with learning difficulties. At that time she managed to persuade the local school to accept Mariama (a severely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1902","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Mariama Mae Nursery School The Mariama Nursery School in Gunjur (south Gambia), is the brainchild of Alison Calvert who first visited the village in 2000. Her remit was to help teachers understand how best to help children with learning difficulties. At that time she managed to persuade the local school to accept Mariama (a severely&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3553,"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1902\/revisions\/3553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanoystertrust.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}