PUPILS at Whitstone Community Primary School were delighted to welcome Sulayman Daffeh to school recently. Sulayman is from the Gambia and a friend of Mrs Dyer, one of the Key Stage 2 teachers at Whitstone.

While staying with Mrs Dyer and her family, Sulayman graciously agreed to come into school and talk to the children about life in Gambia and his impressions of visiting Britain for the first time.

You won't be surprised to learn that for someone who has flown from an African country a few degrees north of the Equator the greatest shock to the system was the cold. However, he said that he had been soon warmed by the hospitable welcome he has received from the

people he has met in Cornwall.

The children in Key Stage 2 had prepared some questions they wanted to ask Sulayman, who was eager to do his best to answer them. Sulayman told pupils about the climate in the part of Africa he comes from, the food Gambians eat and the different types of houses they live in. He told them about what the schools are like, telling the children that in Gambia school classes can sometimes have 50 children in them, who have to bring their own books to school. Sulayman also told pupils about the rituals and festivals associated with Islam.

In their turn, they showed him some of the traditional Cornish dances they had been learning, including Maypole

dancing.

Headteacher, Paul Woolner, said: "We were delighted that Sulayman agreed to come to Whitstone and talk to the children. At Whitstone, we strive to make the curriculum as broad and exciting as we can; it's not every day that pupils in this part of the world get the chance to meet and talk to

someone who has travelled all the way from the Gambia.

"From the reaction of the children, we know that they thoroughly enjoyed the experience of meeting Sulayman and that his visit has been an experience that will have helped to broaden their minds and have

created a memory that they will treasure."