Other school activities

But they do do a lot of question and answer from child to teacher. This was a maths lesson.

Then we had some time in Brother Jose's office.

Robin Hood

We took some Robin Hood puppets with us and told the story of Maid Marion being locked in the tower by the Sheriff of Nottingham. We asked the children to talk to each other to invent ideas about what could happen next. They were not used to doing this in class.

Eventually they go the hang of it. They are not normally allowed to talk in class like this.

An Indian Sports Day...

...starts with an hour and a half long ceremony before you begin to get any races! We raised flags, released pigeons, lit lamps, paraded and saluted flags- but most importantly, watched dances.

 Most innovative use of feather dusters...

 The Sari Dance was like a beautiful Indian Maypole Dance.

The children sat on a huge map of India dressed in different regional clothes. They then performed different regional dances. Our favourite was the bhangra dance.

We didn't get to see any races as were were taken off to see Vasai Fort.

PT

Once a week there were games lessons, but after school everyday the children lined up in their house colours and did a form of yoga.

The Boarding School Orphanage

The school also takes care of about thirty boys who are orphans or semi-orphans. What is a semi- orphan? Well one of the children asked me if I knew his mother as she worked in London. Apparently he has no other family to care for him and his mother has found work in London. She cannot afford to come home to visit him.

 Rice for dinner!

The boys were just breaking from their studies- this is where they do their homework. They love football and cricket and could tell us all about what was happening in the English premiere league. They are looked after by only two people, so were desperate to talk and have some attention. We found them to be much more mature and very loving and caring towards each other.
We did wonder if there was a school for orphan girls somewhere.

Classrooms

Our link is with Vidya Vikisini SSC school. You have to pay to go to school in India, the school next door (ICSE) is selective and has smaller class sizes. At SSC there are 60 children in each class - even with the two year olds (though they do have a teaching assistant with the young ones who you can see in the back of the picture- she also works as a cleaner)

You may have noticed the children wearing balaclavas, ear muffs and fleecy jumpers. It was about 20 degrees C- so we were quite warm, but they found it very cold!

Curry for breakfast

We were presented with a lavish breakfast every morning at school. Though we could have had sliced bread, jam and fruit, it's always more important to try to live like our hosts live. So curry for breakfast was something non of us had ever done before.

This is our last meal in India at the hotel. We thought we had ordered just a few small items- but what you see on the table is just the stuff that Miss Fisher and Miss Seedhouse ordered- no space for what Mr Guest and Mr Mapperely had ordered!