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!

Posting further thoughts

We have lots of images and thoughts to keep sharing with you so we shall continue to post here

Last day!

Well, we can't believe it's the last day already and are packing to go home. It has gone so quickly. Yesterday we got to see a different school that was run by the same group of brothers that run vidya vikasini school. A lot of the things were similar although they had a few more computer projectors in the classrooms. In the library they had lots of books that were similar to ours, such as Harry Potter and Roald Dahl. We then went to the national park where we saw lots of monkeys (we had to keep our bags zipped up so they didn't pinch anything!) and deer. We also visited the 'kanheri caves' while we were there. These were Buddha caves with lots of beautiful carvings that had been there for centuries. In the afternoon we went to a very busy market, which was a great experience. Managed to buy a few bits if Indian clothes to show you when we're back. We had better get on with packing now and go go breakfast, although we have been given so much food this week I think we nay be about to pop! Remember to check back during the week when we will load more photos. Miss Fisher and Mr Guest

Namaste everyone!

I tried to post a blog yesterday about 6 times from my ipod but gave up in the end so I'm borrowing Mr Guest's laptop!  It's great to see that you have been logging on to the blog, lovely to hear from Eva, Jamie, Alex, Sam and Lily. A lot of you are asking about the temperature.  It has been really really warm so far, particularly in the area of Mumbai.  Over the past couple of days there has been a little bit of a breeze in the area where our school is, slightly north of Mumbai.  We have still found it very warm, although some of the children were wearing earmuffs to school! We explained that it was a lot colder in England and that you had all been playing in the snow! A lot of them have never seen snow before.

Eva, the children did like the puppets.  They enjoyed the story of Robin Hood, although they hadn't heard of it before! They learn to read and write in a very different way to us and were not used to talking to each other about the story and the characters. We asked some of them to come to the front to make a forest and castle which they enjoyed and we taught them to cheer for Robin Hood and 'boo' for the Sheriff of Nottingham.

We have spent the last 2 days in the school.  It took us most of yesterday to say hello to all of the classes.  There were about 32 classes with at least 60 children in each so it took a long time! Half of the children go to school in the morning and half in the afternoon as they can't all fit in at once! We received the most wonderful welcome yesterday where we were greeted with flower garlands, bouquets and rosettes.  We had to walk behind a brass band into their assembly hall where they then performed a celebration assembly with lots of different dances, which were brilliant! We had even more welcomes today and were the guests of honour at their sports day.  We also got to see a few lessons in school.  They have about three times as many children in their classes and so their classrooms and lessons are very different to ours. We will show you more pictures when we are back.

We will post a blog tomorrow as it will be our final day! We have had an absolutely wonderful time and it has gone so quickly. We still have lots more photos and videos to load on to the blog when we arrive back in England so keep logging on over half term to have a look.  We have passed the blog on to some of the teachers and pupils of the school out here so we are hoping that they will also post comments on here soon. Hope you all have a great half term!

Miss Fisher and Mr Guest

Brilliant

Big up the Keyworth. Well done Basket Ballers I am mightily impressed by those scores. Shame I wasn't there to big up the big man on his last match for us.

We have had an amazing day and seen some of the best dancing ever. We have challenged Vidya Vikisini to a "dance off" online. They did a perfect Goan dance for us, but we said that our Lion King Dance was full of fun if not the  technical brilliance like they had. Miss Fisher will upload the bit of the dance for you to see how superb they were and show you the standard you have to reach! I know that you are capable!

We have also seen an Indian Sports Day, today. It was great. We were the "guests of honour" on the top table throughout the ceremonies. The children marched and danced whilst we watched, and then we had to give speeches. They had a brilliant type of maypole called the Sari Dance- using Saris instead of ribbons. We really want to give that a go at Keyworth. We were really pleased that we had brought Churchill as he was able to be our Mascot at the Sports Day.

Well, we are nearing the end of the week here. We took a look at your blog in Bricklayers assembly today and we are going to try our best to write to you when we get home!

We are expecting some snow later tonight and in to tomorrow. We are going to love it, but the teachers might not enjoy it so much!

We can't wait to see some more photos tonight. Please say hello to all of the children there and we hope that you have lots to tell us when you get back.

Hope you have a safe flight home!

KPNS children x

Some pictures from this morning

Receiving Garlands, Even Brother Jose got a Rosette.

 Every class had lots of cards and flowers for us. Yes all, 32 classes. Each with at least 60 children.

What we saw today

The Gateway to India, Miss Fisher on a train to Elephanta Island, The monkeys on the Island and Shiva as GOD- that is to say Generator (on right) , Operator (centre) and Destroyer (on left)

Oh and by the way- this statue is about the same size as our school hall! You really don't get a feel for the size on the photo

Churchill's Lazy Day

Churchill was very tired and stayed in bed all day whilst we went exploring.
There are a lot more dogs than I was expecting to see in India- all strays, but very peaceful.
Churchill can't wait to see some children tomorrow.

No school!

What a day! There was no school today as it was an election day, so we were whisked off around Mumbai. We went to Elephanta Island- you will have to Google it for some of the images as they were amazing. Deep caves with statues carved within of Shiva. Our guide told us lots of good stories that were new to us- but we all knew Ravanna who was defeated by the monkey god. "Hannuman," we all cried.

Mumbai is busy busy busy. Everything also looks half finished. We have not walked on a single pavement that doesn't have a pile of rubble on it, even in the grandest of places like the Gateway to India. Despite the busyness it also feels very safe.

I will post a photo to let you know how Churchill is getting on, Jack.

The hotel

Someone asked about our hotel. Here it is with the moon beside it. The place in front is a mechanic. Mr Guest's bedroom is on the top floor on the left and I can see right into the mechanic's workshop- he seems to be welding all day.