So today we were kindly visited by a lady from the City Council offices who helped provide us with a Permit for our Pre-School when we first arrived. She took us through step by step what will be required for obtaining a Primary Permit and took a look at our land and buildings to indicate whether opening a Primary School is a feasible idea.
It was a productive meeting with myself, Greg, Prudence and Pastor Musora all present and we were able to ask some niggling questions and get everyone on the same page as to where we are at at the moment.
In short, to have a full Primary School, you must have a premises that is 3 hectares of land…! Our premises is a little bigger than 1.5 hectares. This is only a problem so far as we cannot apply to open a full school, but we can apply to open a ‘Home School’ based on lesser requirements and the fact that the Primary School is the churches mission/project so it falls under this category. The process for this involves filling in an application form, submitting a report detailing (in detail!) our vision, values, why we want the school, who we are, why we’re here etc….which has to be informative and pushy! We also have to have new floor/area plans drawn up of the land and the buildings with their new uses and some various other paperwork.
It sounds like a lot, and it is. But we are fortunate that both Pru and Pastor M are on the same page and are both keen to get the process moving forwards quickly. We were informed today that the statutory length of time for the process to be completed is 3 months, but that she can guarantee it will actually take 5 months. So we are hoping to spend the last 3 weeks of this term completing and compiling all the documents we need, and then submitting before the end of March. This will hopefully mean we will have an approved permit by the time the third term starts.
The only draw backs are we want to be able to push to our current parents that we are opening the school and would like to start registering asap to fill spaces and know where we will stand once we open in January, however we are not sure when we are viable enough to begin the registration process for children. Hopefully we can begin that in the second term whilst the permit is being approved.
Many things to do, lots to think about, but all very promising and exciting! We kindly ask that you please, please keep us in your prayers over the next few months whilst this process is ongoing. We need some intervention from the Big Man and those who have kept up to date with our blogs know that without persistent pestering and our pushy administrator, will need to be on full energy in order to make sure the process is completed in the quickest time possible.
If you have any words of encouragement please do share them with us, as exciting as this is, it is hard work and a daunting prospect! From nothing to a Primary School in 2 years will be a huge achievement, but we need as much support as you can muster!
Thank you again and we’ll keep you updated!
Sophie xx