Miss Agatha Cudjoe and Miss Agnes both served with extraordinary levels of commitment at the pre-schools and shall be sourly missed after giving to Flowers Gay Schools, the best part of their 26 and 24 year careers respectively.

Mr. George Abraham who until the end of the past academic year had served the Schools as an ITC teacher for 12 years also moved on as a result of inevitable family commitments. His generous devotion to solving IT related challenges during his stay with the Schools was consummate and shall not be forgotten anytime soon.

Regrettably, the School lost the services of Miss Emefa Dogbatse and Mr. Christopher Yeboah of the English and French departments respectively to further academic pursuits which would conflict with their commitments to the Schools.

Flowers Gay Schools recognizes, acknowledges and appreciates the altruistic service they individually and collectively rendered to the Schools and wishes them well in their every endeavor in the future.

We pray that the grace of God locates every one of our departing old staff and are confident that all the new staff shall by God’s divine providence deliver their best to impart knowledge to the Children of Flowers Gay Schools.

In spite of the loss, Flowers Gay Schools is happy to announce that the services of some new highly competent professional teachers have been engaged to replace the few who left owing to unavoidable circumstances.

Ms. Joyce Amoak and Vivian K. Maumunyu join the teaching staff of the Home Economics and English departments respectively on permanent basis whilst Mr. Emmanuel Agudey has been engaged to teach ICT.

To further strengthen the ICT department, the Schools have engaged the services of Mr. Josef Ansah Odum as a ICT Technician who joins us from the Holy Trinity Lutheran School in Kumasi.

To augment and stabilize the French Department of the Schools which hitherto had been manned on part time basis, three professional French teachers with immense experience and impeccable educational credentials (Mr. Elom Kofitse Azouma, Ms. Linda Johnson and Mr. Matthew Kofi Segbedzi), have been employed to afford our pupils more access to French Teachers during the term which should hopefully translate into an enhanced interest in the subject area and ultimately the best results for the Schools.

Flowers Gay Schools officially welcome all our new staff into our fraternity and trust that your contribution will ultimately add to the impeccable image we have been graced with.

The dynamic nature of teaching and learning today demands that educational institutions keep up with modern trends and best practices to achieve excellence. Accordingly Flowers Gay Schools has chosen to introduced the Montessori Methodology of teaching at the Preschool level.

There are several different methods and opinions on how to educate children.  However, one methodology that is gaining popularity is the Montessori Method of educating children or the Montessori approach to learning which has been scientifically proven to offer children unlimited access to knowledge and help guide them to realize their full potential.

With the Montessori approach Children begin to realize that they have the intelligence and ability to do things for themselves – a concept which not only empowers children, but also affords them a boost in confidence which comes in handy in the future.

Today most parents when choosing a school for their children choose schools that will not just prepare their children for the next grade or level, but schools that focus on preparing them towards becoming global citizens, able to think on their feet and to confidently articulate their knowledge.

Flowers Gay Schools knowing that parents hanker for the preparedness of the Schools to go the extra mile to teach responsibility, compassion and self-motivation and not just core subjects, and in keeping with our promise to provide quality and uncompromising standards in education, has decided to engage the Montessori Methodology of teaching to achieve the mainstream Ghana Education Service (GES) curriculum targets.  The advantage of this hybrid approach is that children achieve more and quicker than they ordinarily would using alternative methodologies, thereby achieving the Schools primary objective of providing a holistic educational system to best serve our clients.

To be able to fully implement this new hybrid system of education there was the obvious need for extensive and systematic capacity building and reorientation deliberately targeted at the Schools’ Pre- School classes (Mainly Nursery 1 – KG2) and Class 1.

In this regard, a five (5) day intensive training workshop for teachers and teaching assistants of the Pre- School classes (Mainly Nursery 1 – KG2) and Class 1 has been held at the Schools’ premises where participants were introduced to the Montessori Methodology with the main focus on language and number work.

The Schools was privileged to host Mrs. Ema Anamuah-Mensah (Proprietress and founder of Marigold Montessori in Accra, Ghana). A trained Montessori instructor par excellence.

Ema who holds a certificate in Montessori founded Marigold Montessori School in 2015 which currently boasts of over fifty children ranging from creche to kindergarten.

To the admiration of participants, Ema facilitated the workshop with profound command over the chosen subject areas, emphasizing pertinent areas such as:

• Montessori Overview.
• Montessori Language
• Montessori Number Work
• Number work activities

Teachers and teaching assistants who participated in this workshop thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the training sessions and learnt a great deal which in most cases was a departure from other obsolete teaching methodologies.

Participants were encouraged to implement what they had learnt via the building of relevant Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs), presentations and demonstrations to prove the actual transfer of knowledge.

Participants were awarded Certificates of participation and encouraged to put to full use the knowledge they had acquired over the 5 days.

We anticipate further training sessions in the near future to build the teachers’ capacity further in the Montessori Methodology of teaching.

A Reading, Writing And Public Speaking Competition was organized by Graduate Women International (GWI) (https://www.graduatewomen.org/who-we-are/our-vision/); a renowned international advocacy group which has been in existence since 1918, championing women’s rights, equality and empowerment through access to quality secondary and tertiary education, and training up to the highest levels with national affiliates in 60 countries.

The program was held at University of Cape Coast (Sasakawa Centre), on the 16^th November, 2018 and was chaired by the President of the association in Ghana, Dr. Mrs. Genevive Adukpo.

The aim of the competition was to encourage the girl child to aim at enviable heights through the act of writing (eg. poems and articles), public speaking and reading.

Participating schools were:

• Flowers Gay Schools
• University JHS – South Campus
• University Basic School – North Campus
• Montessori School
• Mary’s Anglican Primary and JHS.

The competition was grouped into three (3) categories.

• Category one, assessed students on their Public Speaking ability.

Claudel Agyapong led the School’s team in this category. She and her team had fifteen (15) minutes to write on a balloted topic (The Effect Of Illegal Mining) after which the team was given seven (7) minutes to speak on their topic.

Judges looked out for distinctness, poise and the quality of the content of their presentation.

• Category two, was to test students’ reading ability.

In this category, Flowers Gay Schools was represented by two students (Nana Esi Koufie and Kazia Borde-Koufie) who were asked to read portions from the books titled “From Flowers to Honey” and “Eye to Eye with an Artist”.

In this category, the judges looked out for

• The correct word pronunciation
• Observation of punctuations
• Distinctness of voice
• Confidence in reading

• Category three (3) mainly assessed students’ creative writing abilities.

Flowers Gay Schools’ team was made up of Jible Ohenewa Larbi (leader), Joyce Amponsah and Juliet Quansah.

The team was tasked to write an essay within 20 minutes, ending with the phrase “I now realize that my fall from grace was imminent. How I wish I could change the hands of time”.

In this category, again the judges looked out for

• correct vocabulary use
• the correct use of punctuation marks
• a well paragraphed work
• correct spelling
• correct usage of subject verb agreement and conjunctions.

At the end of the competition, Flowers Gay Schools emerged overall winners after placing

• First in Reading Ability
• First in Creative Writing
• Second in Public Speaking

Participants were awarded with certificates and vouchers to shop at EPP Book shop.

The teams from Flowers Gay Schools were accompanied by their teachers.

Management and the entire fraternity of stakeholders of Flowers Gay Schools highly appreciate the …efforts of the English Department which prepared the girls for the competition as well as all the participants who have made the Schools Proud. Your exploits shall forever remain indelible In the history of the achievements of Flowers Gay Schools.

Indeed…. By their fruit ye shall know them

African Union Day or Africa Day (as some call it), is an international, cultural and historical celebration observed by member states of the African Union (formally known as the Organization of African Unity – OAU) to commemorate the anniversary of the foundation of the African Union.

Africa Day continues to be celebrated both in Africa and around the world, mostly on 25th May. Though the day is mostly celebrated around the world, on May 25, in some cases these periods of celebrations can be stretched out over a period of days or weeks.

Organization of African Unity was first organized in Addis-Ababa on 1963 to bring all Africans together to foster Regional Solidarity and Unity among the people of Africa. Ghana, being the pace-setter in gaining independence in the sub-region, led by her first Prime Minister, thought it wise to bring all the people together to help eradicate colonialism and neocolonialism and to corporate to achieve a better life for the people of Africa.

This name Organization of African Unity (OAA) was changed to AU, (African Unity) with the same vision of uniting Africa. In Ghana, it is celebrated as the “AU DAY” on the 25^th of May each year.

This display of our culture is to sensitize Africans and Ghanaians on our common goal in being and staying united amidst our unique differences.

Since the actual day of the celebration fell on Friday and was to be observed as a holiday, staff and pupils of the Schools decided to commemorate the celebration a day earlier (i.e. Thursday, May 24, 2018).

As part of celebrations of this all important annual event, staff and pupils of Flowers Gay Schools have undertaken activities and dedicated time to discuss the significance of the Day.

It was a joy to behold the beauty of African tradition as staff and pupils arrived at school in pomp and pageantry, displaying the spender of rich African fashion as a means of creating awareness of this year’s African Union Day Celebrations.

Privileged final year students used the laboratory for the first time ever and performed experiments – “Titration” under Acid, Bases and Salt.

The well-stocked laboratory has basic apparatus needed in conducting all science related experiments relevant to GES JHS approved syllabi. In attendance were two representatives from MELGREB, of the firm which constructed the laboratory, the P.T.A Chairman, the Principal, the Headmistress, a representation of the Schools’ teachers and the final year students.

At the pre-inauguration, pupils of the Schools were fully represented by smartly dressed JHS 3 pupils (in white laboratory coats). Official from MELGREB Ltd. (the Contractors who undertook the refurbishment of the Laboratory) handed over of the keys to the laboratory to Dr. Kwasi Opoku Boadu (Chairman of the Schools’ P.T.A) who in turn handed it over to Mr. Seth Lartey (a science teacher in the Schools) who received it on behalf of the Schools.

The first laboratory experiment took place after the project was prayed over by the Principal of the Schools, who also advised the pupils to take their studies very seriously considering how close they were to the B.E.C.E examinations. It was a great experience for the students who for the first time had a hands-on feel of the apparatus and chemicals used in performing experiments at their level.

The journey to establishing an ultra-modern laboratory has been a long one.

In line with the Schools’ vision to always uphold all round academic excellence, the P.T.A, enormously contributed financially and otherwise to ensure the achievement the schools’ dream of having an ultra-modern science laboratory to enhance the teaching and learning of Science in the Schools.

Management of the Schools is grateful to the PTA for the huge support and is optimistic that the use of the laboratory will create a renewed desire among the pupils to pursue science with passion and become great scientist in the future.

Source: Ghana| flowersgayschools.com |Delilah Ward Brew

NURSERY 1        –        GRACE

NURSERY 2        –        LOVE

KG.1 A&B           –        HUMILITY

KG 2 A&B           –        OBEDIENCE

CLASS 1              –        LOVE

CLASS 2              –        JOY

CLASS 3              –        PEACE

CLASS 4              –        PATIENCE

CLASS 5              –        KINDNESS

CLASS 6              –        GOODNESS

JHS 1                   –        FAITHFULNESS

JHS 2                  –        GENTLENESS

JHS 3                  –        SELF-CONTROL

Organized/Awarded by:       Presidency

Year:                                      06^th March 2001

Recipient(s):                           Emmanuel Abaidoo-Brew

Position:                                 1^st