We have had a lovely busy day today in the hot sunshine. At 9am we travelled to the boys school where we had taught the teachers. It is a private school and one of the best in India; certainly the opposite ends of the spectrum from the CRS slum schools we have all been teaching in. Seven different activities had been set up by some of us around th sports fields – parachute, football, sack race, skipping, 3-legged race, tennis/catching skills. We then waited for buses to bring ALL our children from all the schools to meet us. There were 500 children in all and they were NOT used to a big space like this to run around in-they certainly took full advantage of that and it was hard to keep them to task in the beginning.

They moved around all the activities in turn having about 20 minutes on each; they absolutely loved it all and watching them was a delight. Another treat for them was a magician who they watched while they ate lunch and also enjoyed ice creams. Finally a ventriloquist finished their day and although we couldn’t understand, whatever was being said made all the children laugh a lot.

It was very sad to say goodbye to the Hastings children and teachers, but hopefully it won’t be the last time we see them. We are looking forward to seeing your smiling faces very soon, though!

Miss Gill and Mrs M, from Kolkata with love xx

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Teddy Edward came to Hastings with us today and the children loved him. We did lots of rhymes and counting and then gave the children paper plates to make faces so that they could practise the names of body parts that we learned on Tuesday. We did some multiplication and showed them how to draw arrays just like the infants were doing last week. Then we gave them coloured stings and beads to make bracelets. The beads were supposed to be in patterns of 2s and 5s but they were so excited about the bracelets that we just let them enjoy the activity! Some of the ladies who live around school came to see what was happening so we gave them some beads and strings and they went off and made their own jewellery. Before we came home we gave the children some little gifts including gliders which they took outside with some of their mums and other people who had gathered around. It was really nice to get to know the Hastings community better and it’s amazing how much chatting you can do without understanding any of each other’s words! School finished a bit early today because the children are all from Muslim families so they go to the Mosque for prayers on Friday afternoon.

After lunch we visited Brace Bridge where CRS have opened a new school. It’s in a very similar area to Hastings but they have a railway line instead of a road system.

This evening the bishop invited us for a dinner at his private residence which was very special and he looked after us very well.

Its getting towards the end of our visit now and everyone is quite tired. Tomorrow is Saturday and we have 500 children from all the CRS schools coming for a huge sports day so we’re going to go and get some sleep.xxx

It’s been another busy day, starting with our second morning teaching the teachers. This time we were showing them ways to work on English prepositions with their children. For some of them it was difficult just to learn to pronounce the words and then to use them in a sentence. With others we got into lengthy discussions about when to use ‘among’ or ‘amongst’ or when something is ‘inside’ rather than just ‘in’- our brains hurt by lunchtime so they must have been exhausted. We did the planning for tomorrow with the Hastings teachers after lunch and showed them the new website that has been made especially for them to help them teach phonics (phonics4india.com if you want to have a peek).

This afternoon we visited the ladies at the Nari Dana Centre which is also run by the Cathedral Relief Service. This teaches young women skills that they can use to earn some money for their families. They make beautiful scarves, aprons, bags and some clothes and jewellery to sell. Some of them were there working when we went in this afternoon and were pleased to tell us who had made which of the things we bought.

This evening we went out for dinner to a restaurant that serves dosas, which are a huge crepe with vegetable and cheese fillings and were delicious- ask Mr Wilde about them, he was a big fan when he came last year!

While we have been doing all of this today, some of our group were visiting a village called Mahamaya where CRS were having a grand opening of their new centre which has a school, clinic and a community room and kitchen. Imagine our surprise to find this evening that the event had been on the national news! Have a look at the clip and see the kind of beautiful dancing and welcome ceremony we were telling you about yesterday. You might also spot Rig, who runs CRS and came to our school a couple of years ago- and lots of the others friends we have made on this trip.

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We’re back at Hastings tomorrow with lots of fun activities for the children.
Night night from both of us xx

PS Mrs Worth, please would you tell Alfie that his work finding the peanuts in Elephants Aloft rescued us this morning from not being able to find them under pressure- we used the copy he’d marked up for us a lot! X

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Hi Everyone!

Today we have seen two very different aspects of India – life in the city and life in the countryside. We were taken out to a rural town called Diamond Harbour where CRS(Cathedral Relief Service) have another school. We were greeted by some beautiful girls who showered us with petals and blessings. We had a bit of lunch and watched someIndian dancers including some really young children who performed for us. Teddy Edward looked at some rice paddy fields. Obviously a LOT of rice is eaten here and it needs space to grow where it is very wet. The traffic is still unbelievable even in the country and it felt a bit like a rollercoaster at times as the bus swerved to avoid bikes, other buses, cars or cows!! The roads in some places were really dirt tracks and in Diamond Harbour the River Ganges is right by the side – we even saw a dolphin🐬 Squeezed in along each side of the road were little stalls selling fruit, meat, clothes,sweets, garlands- virtually anything!

We woke this morning to pouring rain😱which something neither Miss Gill or I had ever seen in India, however by the time we were out of Kolkata it had stopped. We found out it was St Valentine’s Day ❤️ today and lots of girls and women were dressed up in their beautiful saris.

After tea we went for a walk along the streets of Kolkata. There were thousands of people out so it was a squash everywhere. We looked at a huge market and I bought some lovely silk material from which to make something. I had to barter hard for a good price but it worked! All of life happens on the streets. There are people washing themselves, cooking their dinner, chatting with friends, reading a newspaper and working.

Valentines’s kisses to you all!😘💕

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Hi All Mrs M here!

We have had a busy but best day with our Hastings children. We arrived at the school at about 10am and we thought we had gone to the wrong place!!! The children wore lovely dark blue uniform looking very smart (although most still had bare feet), there were desks for the children to work on even though they sat on the carpet. The whole classroom had been arranged differently and the space looked so much bigger. The lady who had lived in the space had moved out so the children have more room.

Can you see we did some work on our bodies and Rashni, the oldest girl, is drawing around one of the boys. We also played 10 pin bowling with 10 plastic bottles. We had just finished singing a song with 10 bottles – can you guess which song it was? They loved that activity and it nearly turned into a cricket lesson!

You can see that their living conditions have not improved. Can you spot the place someone uses to cook?

Finally we finished up at the Bishop’s Palace for a fancy Bengali meal to celebrate the opening of his new lawn. It did look very pretty with all the lights.

Thank you for your questions- lovely to get a few more. Back tomorrow- keep looking! Xx

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What a busy day today has been! We have been at the biggest of the private schools in Kolkata, La Martiniere, who let us use one of their halls to do our training with the Cathedral Relief Service schools. Mrs M and I led a session about teaching the children about parts of the body and we used songs and games and matching activities. The Indian teachers came to each activity in the room in groups of about eight and we did our activity for six different groups. All the teachers joined in and wrote down everything we did so that they can do it with their children when they get back to all the different schools. They especially liked all the songs and one lady even made me sing them all again at the end so that she could record them onto her phone! They shared the rhymes they do with their children too and you can see some of them in our photographs- can you spot the beautiful Bengali writing?

After lunch we taught the Indian teachers a song that we are going to work on with the children in the schools so that they can all sing it together at our festival event on Saturday.

Then we had some time to sit with the teachers from Hastings to do some planning for the lessons we are going to do with the children tomorrow. That was really tricky because neither of the Hastings teachers speak English and even with a translator it was hard work. We think we know what we’re teaching tomorrow but we’ll have to wait and see whether our plan works!

On the way back to the hotel we went to see the house where Mother Theresa lived when she was a nun in Kolkata and where lots of other nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, still live. It’s a very calm and peaceful spot in the middle of all this chaos and noise and one of our favourite places to sit and have a few minutes to be still and quiet. We are only here for a few days and do what we can to be helpful to the Hastings children and their teachers but Mother Theresa spent her whole adult life here working with the very poorest people… she must have been quite an amazing lady.

All the English teachers went out for dinner together and then Mrs M and I came upstairs to finish getting together all the things we are taking to Hastings. It was lovely to hear all of you when we called- we miss you lots!

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Because it was a holiday for everyone today there were so many people around and the women looked gorgeous in their bright and blingy saris.We started the day at the cathedral with a lovely service and then breakfast.

Next we walked around a park to see everyone out celebrating National India day but we missed the parade which was a shame.

Lunch at the Friendship centre-lovely to see all our CRS friends.

Finally went on a boat trip along the Ganges. There was a singer on the boat and we joined in the dancing!!

Tomorrow we see the teachers and do some training with them and then Tuesday we are with Hastings children….yippee! Miss Gill and I can’t wait to be with them.

we will send some more updates tomorrow-loved the responses-come on juniors-only Emmy so far !

xx😴😴

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So, once we’d caught up on a bit of sleep the CRS team took us out on the buses again to see the Eco Park. It’s a huge community park with lots of playgrounds and space to play ball games or have a picnic and plenty of interesting things to look at. It’s so enormous that you can hire bikes or ride on the train that gives tours. The main attraction, though, is the miniature versions they have built of some of the wonders of the world. We certainly weren’t expecting to find ourselves somewhere that looked like Italy today…or China… or Egypt! Have a look at our photographs and see how many wonders you can spot (and which ones you think are missing). You can see that we found some friends- a lovely group of children who wanted to chat to us and were very keen to have their photographs taken.

Kolkata is an incredibly busy city with people crowded into every building and spilling out into the street. We’ve seen people washing themselves and their clothes, cooking dinner and even sitting reading a newspaper on the pavements of roads that are bustling with cars, buses, rickshaws, bicycles, cows, dogs and lots and lots more people. It’s very loud too, with car horns and all the stall holders on the street trying to persuade the passers by to buy their wares. The colours are amazing with brightly painted buildings and signs and vibrant saris everywhere. I think we had both forgotten how fast and exciting Kolkata is and we’re so pleased to be back.

It’s almost 10 o’clock in the evening here and we’re ready for bed because it’s been a very busy day. With you it must be about half past four so we hope that you enjoy looking at our pictures this evening and we’ll look forward to reading your comments at breakfast time (when you will all still be tucked up in bed asleep!).

Night night and lots of love from Miss Gill x

(PS Can you find Teddy Edward enjoying one of the wonders?)

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We have flown more than 5000miles today! We met at Birmingham airport yesterday and set off on a beautiful plane called ‘The Spirit of Diversity’. In the middle of the night we landed in Dubai and had to run across the terminal to catch our connecting flight to Kolkata. Rig and his team met us and we are now at the hotel. We haven’t had any sleep yet so we’re off for a snooze but we shall be going out later so look out for another post when we get back…

For the last three years South Darley CE Primary School have had a link with the children and staff at Hastings School, Kolkata. The children at Hastings live very different lives from ours- they live outdoors, underneath the middle of a huge road bridge. Even their school doesn’t have a building but the children still come every day, smiling and keen to learn, because they know how important it is to have an education if they want to have choices later in their lives.

This month Miss Gill and Mrs Maynard will be returning to Kolkata to visit the Hastings children and their teachers. We are looking forward to having lots of fun together as we continue to learn from each other. We can’t wait! You are welcome to join us on our journey by following our blog posts. We’ll keep you up to date with things we are doing and send you our photographs. You can comment on them or ask questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Miss Gill and Mrs Maynard, from Kolkata with love x