News from Rising Academies: 10 new schools launched in Sierra Leone and Liberia

ANDREW STEVEN BOIMA

ADMINISTRATOR

RISING ACADEMY NETWORK

News from Rising Academies: 10 new schools launched in Sierra Leone and Liberia View this email in your browser Headlines ·         Super September! ·         New schools for Salone ·         Liberia launch ·         First evaluation results ·         Scholarship campaign Keep In Touch Super September! 1 new country. 10 new schools. 1800 new students (and counting). Talk about a Super September! Two years ago, our plans to open the first Rising Academy lay in tatters when the Ebola epidemic forced all schools in Sierra Leone to close. But thanks to a brave group of teachers we were able to launch our Ebola Crisis Home Outreach programme. Then, 18 months ago, we could finally open that first school. 9 months ago, we opened a second and third. Today, we are a network of 13 schools, 150 staff, and nearly 2200 students across 2 countries.  Thanks to all of you who have supported us on that incredible journey. 5 new Rising Academies open in Sierra Leone Rising has expanded its network of Junior Secondary Schools in Sierra Leone. 5 new Rising Academies - Adonkia, Babadorie, Grafton, Juba Hill and Waterloo - opened their doors on September 13th. With these additions our network in Sierra Leone grows to 8 schools, with close to 1200 students enrolled so far, and more expected to join in the coming weeks. In another first for Rising, two of the sites (at Grafton and Waterloo) are brand new schools constructed for us this year. As this map shows, we remain focused on Freetown and the Western Area. This is to make sure we can continue to provide intensive oversight and supervision of the schools even as we grow. Rising Academies comes to Liberia September 5th marked the start of the new academic year in Liberia, and with it the official launch of Rising Academy Partnership Schools in the country. As part of the Government of Liberia's Partnership Schools for Liberia initiative, Rising will be managing 5 public primary and pre-primary schools in Bomi and Montserrado counties.   Intensive preparations for the launch have been under way since July when Rising was chosen by the Government as one of eight operators to be part of the programme. Read all about how we used those precious few weeks to get ready for launch. The programme, which is being rigorously evaluated through a 'gold standard' randomised controlled trial, will run for 3 years and we're honoured to be part of it. Evaluation finds encouraging progress in Year 1 Our independent evaluation partners at Oxford University have just released their first annual progress report on our work in Sierra Leone, and the results are pretty encouraging. Although it's early days (this report just covers the abridged school year January-July 2016), the team find that Rising students are already making statistically significant gains relative to their peers in other schools in both reading and maths. You can read the report and my reflections on it on our blog here. Scholarship match-funding campaign kicks off With Rising's enrollment growing rapidly, it's vital that our scholarship support grows too so that we can continue to provide access to quality schooling for the most disadvantaged families. That's why we're delighted to once again be partnering with The Solon Foundation UK and GlobalGivingUK to launch our Scholarship 50% Match Funding Campaign. For the next month and until matching funds last, donations to the Solon Foundation Scholarship Fund via GlobalGivingUK will receive a 50% matching contribution from GlobalGivingUK, helping your support go further. There's a total of £4,000 in matching funds up for grabs, so to make it count we are aiming to raise £8,000 in new donations. If you'd like to help, head over to our page on GlobalGivingUK site or click the button below. And spread the word about the campaign: feel free to forward this message to friends, family and colleagues! Donate now Copyright © 2016 Rising Academy Network, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have previously said you wanted to receive updates from the Rising Academy Network. Our mailing address is:  Rising Academy Network 56b Main Motor Road Freetown,  Sierra Leone Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences