We are very fortunate to be linked to G B lane in Kolkata. Some of our staff members have visited this school and worked alongside some truly wonderful and inspirational teachers and children.  Being linked with this school in India is immensily rewarding and enlightening for our whole school community. 

As a Church of England school, our spiritual health is greatly impacted by why and how we give. We know that all that we have belongs to God. We also know of our responsibilities to offer what we have for the promotion of Christ’s Kingdom.

Teaching our children to prayerfully give, to sacrificially give, and to give for the glory of God is a very important lesson.

It can include friendship and time, and many other kinds of activities. Our involvement with G B Lane is a great example of this in action. 

The diary entries from the staff's last visit to India in 2020 are posted below. We continue to pray for our friends in Kolkata and hope to be able to visit them again soon. 

 

Day 10 - Sunday 2nd February 2020

Good bye Kolkata!

Today we fly home. There is a mixture of feelings in the groups we set off for our long journey home. But one thing is clear, through the poverty that you can see in these pictures there is also a lot of love, joy and courage. The people we have met over the last 10 days are extraordinary people who are working hard to have better lives, for themselves and their families. We are looking forward to getting home and seeing our families and everyone at Loscoe but we are returning with a slightly different view of the world and of what happiness really means.

Day 8 - Saturday 1st February 

Today is Sports Day. A chance for all of the schools we have worked with to come together and have fun! The children were given breakfast and then enjoyed a morning of different sports. Mrs Wyer played football with the children and Miss Sylvester had lots of fun playing parachute games. The children then were given lunch and ice cream whilst they watched a magic show and a ventriloquist show. We rounded off the day with some singing. Throughout the week the teachers and children have been learning a song that we too will learn in the UK. It is called 'Walking in the light' and it was chosen as the lyrics emphasise the importance and love that the teachers in Kolkata have for their children. 

Day 7 - Friday 31st January 2020

Today we visited G B Lane school again. This time we did team teaching with the teachers at the school and helped to support them. It was a lot of fun and the children were very well behaved and happy to have us back. Th teachers were very good and were trying hard to make the learning fun and effect of the children. We started by modelling a phonics lesson and then moved onto maths and literacy. See the pictures below for some of the lessons and activities we did wth the children. We then finished with a final Hokey Cokey! To see the smiling faces of both the adults and children made the trip very worthwhile. We were sad to leave but we will see them all again at the sports day tomorrow.

Day 6 - Thursday 30th January 2020

Today was a teacher training day. It was so lovely to see all of the Indian teachers as they are so friendly and join in with all of our games and songs. We helped to teach behaviour management through the use of a parrot puppet and also directions and verbs. We finished off by teaching the song 'I jumped aboard a pirate ship.' After lunch, we introduced the teachers to a new website that has been created especially for them, to help with the teaching of phonics. We then spent some time with the teachers from GB Lane and planned what we are going to do in school tomorrow!

Tonight we are going out for a South Indian dish called a 'Dosa'. We will add some pictures on later!

Day 5 - Wednesday 29th January 2020

Today we went on a trip to a rural village called Diamond Harbour, it took us 3 hours to get there! During the journey, we had lots of time to take in the sites of India. However, it was sad to see so much rubbish! We are so glad that Loscoe has a fantastic Eco Committee to keep our school and local area clean and tidy. We were welcomed into the community by a special welcome ceremony, which included: throwing flower petals, wafting incense and we were each given a bhindi spot. The ladies then demonstrated some traditional, Indian dances! They were amazing! 

Day 4: Tuesday 28th January 2020

Today was our first day in school. We were both very nervous but the teachers and pupils at G B Lane were so friendly and kind. We spent time in all three classroom and completed activities with children from age 2-10. We did lots of singing, and the children particular loved The Hokey Cokey! We also taught some maths and how to complete whole class maths activities. We finished the day by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The children loved Mr Parrot and  liked shaking his wing and telling him their names.

Day 3: Monday 27th January 2020

Today we had our first Teacher Training Day. We started the day with 6 rounds of English language activities, to support the teaching of English in the schools. Our activity was to learn the names of fruits and to talk about fruits that they liked. We then learnt a fruit song which involved verbs (i.e. chop, peel, pick etc). We finished our activity by playing "When I went to the market, I bought...". We then learnt a song (which we will be learning in school next week!). After lunch we had time to plan tomorrow's day in school, with the Kolkata teachers!

Day 2: Sunday 26th January 2020

We started our day by attending an inspiring church service at St. Paul's Cathedral. What a beautiful place of worship!

After the Holy Communion, we visited Victoria Memorial. Did you know? The Victoria Memorial building took 15 years to build! After that, we met up with the Cathedral Relief Service (CRS), who made us a delicious lunch. Mmmm more curry! We finished our day by taking a river cruise along the Hooghly River. Can you find out some interesting facts about this river? Otters, find out what the river is used for.

See pictures below :)  

Day 1: Saturday 25th January 2020

After 20 hours of travelling, we finally arrived in Kolkata! After dropping our bags off at the hotel and a quick breakfast (vegetable dahl and naan!), we visited the Eco Park. Can you identify the 'Seven Wonders of the World' that have been built in miniature at the Eco Park? We then ended the day with dinner (curry and naan bread!) before catching up on some sleep.

On Friday January 24th Mrs Wyer and Miss Sylvester will both be travelling to Kolkata to help train the teachers at our partner school, G B Lane. Follow our adventures as we help support local teachers in Kolkata on our school website and Facebook.

For a video of Kolkata 2019 visit click on the link below:

https://animoto.com/play/tfXbraNz3d5MhlD9Cn39hg 

For the past four years Loscoe Primary and Nursery School has worked in partnership with Derby Diocese and The Cathedral Relief Service (CRS) to send teachers out to provide professional development for teachers that work in the slum schools of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. 

The CRS has three main aims: to help educate the poor of the city, to support health projects and to promote women's empowerment giving women the skills to support their families. This is essential work to help children and women support their families and escape from the poverty of the Kolkata slums. 

Mrs Wyer and Miss Martin have both been out to work at B D Colony (Besanti) School and we took much needed resources provided by the families of Loscoe Primary and Nursery School. Throughout our time at B D Colony, Mrs Wyer and Miss Martin helped to train the teachers to teach phonics and maths. If the pupils can gain a minimum level of literacy and maths skills they will get accepted into a state school and from there learn skills to gain jobs. This is a project that Loscoe Primary and Nursery School will continue to support where ever possible. Through this project our children not only learn a great deal about another culture but also many Christian values such as compassion, empathy, respect, kindness and love for all people, no matter where they are from or what they do.