It’s not often that we non-teacher “adults” find ourselves in a primary school but that’s just where I found myself yesterday, dressed in a gorilla suit.

I was visiting Wickford Junior School to thank the students for choosing the Gorilla Organization (GO) as their charity of the year.

Wickford have been supporting GO for many years, adopting Amy the gorilla and taking part in the Gorilla Organization Twinning Programme with one of the Ugandan wildlife clubs who are supported by GO.

I spoke to the assembly of 360 students, while wearing my gorilla suit. The children were wowed by the pictures of the gorillas and showed a lot of interest in gorillas, especially the silverback – even to the point where one small boy asked whether a silverback gorilla could win a fight against 100 men.

I was included in the morning’s classes where the children were posed with the problem of providing a clean water supply to villages in Uganda. Their knowledge of the issues affecting children in other parts of the world was impressive.

Wickford has been involved in the Gorilla Organization’s twinning programme since its conception two year’s ago. Headmaster Terry Flitman says: “The link allows us to take children’s learning to another level – rather than Uganda being just a place on the map. For the children here it is a real country where we share in the lives of the children who live there.”

A big thank you to Wickford Junior School for all of their continuing support and a very Merry Christmas from the Gorilla Organization.

Written by: Sam Davies

Picture: by Sam Davies ‘Headmaster Terry Flitman standing in front of the Wickford Junior School gorilla wall.’