Andy Phillips Blog - Education for All Morocco and the Marrakech Atlas Etape

St Mary’s alumnus, Andy Phillips, who studied Geography from 1975 to 1979, recently took part in the Marrakech Atlas Etape charity bike ride in aid of Education for all Morocco. He tells us about his experience. Education for All Morocco was established five years ago with the aim of enabling teenage girls from remote mountain villages in the Atlas Mountains south of Marrakech to get a secondary school education. The charity works by raising funds to build boarding houses (three so far), where girls can travel to on either a Sunday night or Monday morning and be looked after during the week by a 'house mother' whilst they attend the neighbouring secondary school. When the first house was built, Dar Asni, it was intended that the girls would get three years of a secondary school education (from the ages of 12-15), however this quickly changed into five years and the first cohort of 12 girls are presently studying for the baccalaureate and all being well, they will then stay on to complete, what is in effect their 'sixth form' studies. There are currently over 100 girls living in three houses, attending three different secondary schools (all in separate valley's), and plans are in place to build at least one if not two new houses, each accommodating and addition 36-48 young women. For the past five years, Andy Phillips (trustee) and Mike McHugo (driving force and owner of Kasbah du Toubkal) have organised an annual weeks cycle ride through the foothills of the Atlas Mountains to not only raise awareness for this charity, but, also, to raise much needed funds. The idea for the Marrakech Atlas Etape (MAE) was born last spring and since then a huge amount of front and back office work has gone into developing the very first Etape in Morocco. And so last Sunday (28th April 2013) the inaugural MAE began - 140 riders from many different countries, including a contingent of elite riders from the Moroccan Olympic squad set off on the 140km ride to the top of Mount Oukaimeden - a pass considerably higher than most of the cols of the Etape de Tour (the open stage that follows the annual Tour de France). Not only did the MAE attract the attention of Halfords who very generously used the event to launch the 2013 series of Boardman bikes (and which they also very kindly donated one for the charity auction that proceeded the ride), but also Garmin (makes of market leading sports related GPS and data systems). In addition, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Morocco and Mauritania, His Excellency Clive Alderton spent the preceding evening and day with both the trustees of Education for All Morocco and more importantly lunched with a representative group of 15 girls and their respective house mothers from the three houses, where he heard first-hand the impact that this work is having on the lives of both the girls and their families. His Excellency was so impressed with the work of the girls, that his office is keen to hold a 'graduation' ceremony for the girls who will complete their baccalaureate this summer at the Embassy. Needless to say, the girls are highly excited about this. Following the Etape, two of the trustees, Mike McHugo and Andy Phillips hosted a week's cycling through the Atlas Mountains, visiting the three boarding houses and spent time learning more about the impact this project is having upon not only the lives of the girls and their families but also their future aspirations. If anyone would like to know more about the work of Education for All Morrocco, then please visit the website, for more information about the Marrakech Atlas Etape, then click here. If you are interested in being a volunteer in one of the boarding houses (female only), then please contact: andy@apa-ec.co.uk for further information. Andy is the founding director of AP Associates, responsible for developing and growing the training and consultancy services to schools. He has extensive teaching and leadership experience from working in both primary and secondary schools. He has undertaken consultancy work for the British Council, running their Headteacher Leadership Development Programme for Estonia, Croatia and Kuwait. He also undertakes consultancies and training in international schools in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam. He works mainly as a school improvement partner (SIP) to both primary and secondary headteachers (both in England and overseas), working on all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment, as well as leadership development programmes. Andy is also a qualified Ofsted inspector and leads the inspection of primary and secondary schools. A video from the Marrakech Atlas Etape can be found here.