Parents and guardians are delighted with the quality of education and ask for a primary school – Uphill Junior School is born! Elius and his business partner start to put up a wooden school building on rented land, but soon run out of money. Where is Uphill Junior School?

Elius takes Max to see Uphill Junior School for the first time.  The impact of 90 Ugandan children singing for him was too much for Max – he was hooked and vowed to help in any way he could! How it Began.

Max tells everyone who will listen about Uganda and Uphill Junior School. Friends get involved and 1st Newport Brownies raise over £1,000 to buy a water tank for the school.

The Uphill Trust is awarded Scottish charity status on 29 January 2015 and a group of trustees make their first official visit to Uphill Junior School. It is clear that the school is going to need good quality classrooms on a permanent site, so land purchase becomes the first objective for the charity.

The Uphill Trust obtains funding to purchase land in Iruhuura (legacy donation plus small grant) and a local landowner agrees to sell one of her plots to Uphill Junior School. Max returns to Uganda in the summer with his son Shaun to the finalise the transaction. A new home for Uphill

The original wooden school building is dismantled and moved to the new site to create 7 temporary classrooms in 2 blocks – one for the lower primary classes, the other for kindergarten. A third plot of land expands the school site further.  All Uphill children are now on the same site.

Ugandan schools need to have an official site plan as part of the licence and registration process. A site survey was commissioned, along with official plans for the school. The plans reflect the current school buildings along with a ‘wish list’ of other buildings. This becomes a guide for further school development.

Two more plots of land were offered to Uphill Junior School, both adjacent to the current site. One of them held an electricity pole, with the promise of power for the school buildings. Money was found and the land bought. In no time at all electricity was installed in the administration block, and later in the year in the classrooms.

A large donation from Dollar Academy Sponsored Walk (2017) plus fundraising from Kiltwalk events in 2018 and 2019 generated enough money to fund the two more classroom blocks for the primary section of Uphill Junior School. Water harvesting systems were installed and primary 1-4 moved out of their cramped wooden classrooms at last.

The Uphill Build Team work flat out to get the two new classroom blocks plastered, painted, with ceilings and electricity installed, in time for official opening by the Kabarole District Chairperson and other local dignitaries. Uphill trustees were also there and Max led the official visitors on a guided tour of the school.

Uganda went into pandemic lockdown at the same time as the UK and all schools were closed for 7 months. Food poverty – always a problem – escalated. The Uphill Trust ran a successful fundraising campaign to support the Iruhuura community food aid initiative. COVID 19 Food Relief 1; COVID 19 Food Relief 2

Uphill teachers reach out to pupils stuck at home. Government home schooling programmes required access to radio, TV and books – Uphill pupils had none of these resources so the teachers devised their own programme. Lessons in Lockdown.

A central handwash station was constructed during lockdown, just in time for partial school reopening. Fed by harvested rainwater from across the school site, this addition to the school infrastructure has been widely acclaimed.

A further grant from Meeting Needs funded a second latrine block with sewage tank this time for the primary boys. The original latrine will be taken over by the kindergarten children.

It was clear during the trustee visit in February that many of the pupils come to school hungry and stay that way all day. The Uphill Porridge Club will give every child one hot meal a day in school.

Uphill supporter Nathan Brown, of Nate’s Creative Digital Solutions, gifted a professional website to Uphill Junior School this year.