Renovations

The school has been plagued by power cuts. The duration of the power cuts have been unusual even by Indian standards. The classrooms get dingy and stuffy without the lights and fans, so we decided to get enough ventilation and windows put in to be independent of power cuts altogether. Besides these we also thought it best to provide an extra toilet and a space for teachers to unwind and have lunch and tea, our own version of a teachers lounge if you will. We have had some after hour break-ins at the school, where books were stolen, which prompted us to get grills put in around the school premises.

Before construction

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After construction

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Students have been impressed and happy with the renovations and have been bringing their parents to school to see. It has made a difference to their learning environment. Teachers are also very happy as its made their job more pleasant. Classrooms are much brighter and cooler than before. These changes I am sure will be reflected in student behavior.

Our builders!! Thank you for all your help!!

 

Children at the Planetarium

A visit to the center of the city is a rare phenomenon for our children. We couldn’t think of a better way to destroy these fond memories than taking them to the planetarium. The children arrived on a hired bus an hour before the showing accompanied by teachers and a handful of ex-students to chaperone them.

After a series of un coordinated bathroom breaks, the children marched double filed into the planetarium for the 12 o’clock Telugu language showing. The children were seated flat and face up to the dome shaped screen of the planetarium. An air of confusion was about only to be interrupted by the silence following the lights turning off. The children and adults alike gasped as images of the night sky flashed across the dome and it felt as if we were sitting right underneath the stars. The Telugu narrator seemed to have done a good job in keeping the children entertained as you could hear them respond even to her rhetorical questions. 

The show ended and we headed to the small gardens below for a quick bite and onward to the science museum. The museum was very interactive. They had practical applications of science principals like gravity, energy transformation, friction and light illusions. Even though our children were too young to understand the concepts, they could still play around with the apparatus like peddling bicycles to power lights and using pulleys to hoist each other up. The day ended with a quick walk about the giant dinosaur skeleton in the dinosaurim and idle threats of it coming back to life on based on their school performance.

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Matthew’s visit

Matthew is the founding trustee of Hyderapals. Since the time of Matthews last visit a lot had changed. Matthew not only seemed to have landed in a ‘new school’ but also a new state. It also happened to be the eve of the Independence day. The teachers wanted to hold sports competitions for the children for which prizes were to be distributed the day after.

Children played a variety of games including running races, Ball Race, Musical chairs (where instead of having music on , children sang nursery rhymes),skipping and ‘basket’ ball. Matthew, Zoe and I were in the backdrop being route markers for races and were seen offering our unbiased decisions on ‘field calls’. Children loved every moment and seemed to want more at the end of it .

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The next day we arrived early bearing gifts for prize distribution and were welcomed to the sight of children decorating their classrooms. The traditional sequence of events for independence day like class decorations, preparing the flag for the hoisting and getting children lined up for assembly was on roll. The area police official was invited to unfurl the flag and he did so to the children chanting the national anthem.

Kareem and Matthew kicked off prize distribution with Lavanya calling out their names and Renuka passing on the prize to be distributed. Enough categories had to be concocted to not leave out any children. Bananas and Rachel’s (second founding trustee of Hyderapals) thoughtfully sent sweets were also distributed to make sure of the same. 

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Uniforms

This Year we change our school to brown color and we have one white pair also in week to wear, we changed because the previous wearing uniforms got spoiled and its five years … so we thought of change in uniform… 

Boys of 2nd Class

 

Boys of 2nd Class

Children in our school love wearing uniforms and we thought it was time we changed them and make them a bit colourful. Schools in India often have more than one uniform for activities like sports, scouts/guides  and school house uniforms. These often include multiple pairs of each along with ties, belts and shoes. This can be a major financial burden on families and deter them from buying them.

But on the other hand families in Yelammabanda would like to see their children go to school in uniforms in an attempt to adhere to social norms. Uniforms themselves offer a sense of great pride to children as they often see children from other nearby schools sport their own.

We decided then to have a uniform which would require the least amount of accessories. We employed a local women’s self help group to stitch us about 210 pairs of uniforms.The boys uniform includes a polo shirt and matching elastic shorts and the girls have a single summer dress. The clothes are meant to fit them loosely as the weather around the year tends to be on the warmer side.

The old boys uniform (although he’s missing his tie!)

The old girls school uniform.

The new uniform. Students doing some exercies in their morning assembly.

The new uniform during the morning assembly.

Teacher Training, June – May ’14

Our teachers are primarily high school graduates with limited English skills. They have not attended any formal teacher training. The school has limited resources owning to its remote location and economic constraints. Qualified teachers are not willing to travel so far and even if they could the school wouldn’t be able to afford them.

Patashala teachers

The best course of action then was for us to train our teachers in-house. We hired “Dhi”, a teacher training institute to come train our teachers. The teacher training would happen in two phases. They would undergo 120 hours of English training during the summer and weekly teacher training during the academic year. This was to be completely sponsored by Hyderapals.

The summers of Hyderabad are unrelenting, so we hired a room which was airy and well ventilated and close to the school for the summer training. Himabala (Teacher trainer from ‘Dhi’) was to train them for their English training. Classes were held from 10 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon, all days except Sundays.

Himabala’s training was very interactive, peppered with a lot of team building exercises. English training included basic grammar, parts of speech, tenses and pronunciation. Training would regularly brake into ‘circle games time’, which are games they would later have to play in their respective grades during lessons. Teacher training for the summer concluded with a potluck lunch and a symbolic ‘sowing of seeds’ for a new beginning.

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Summer School, May’14.

The Academic year of 2013-14 of MS Foundation (Previous Avatar of Patashala) had a low student to teacher ratio. The teachers were also not adequately qualified. We decided to do away with class five temporarily so as to concentrate our efforts on getting the standard higher. This meant classes four and five were to move to different schools. We decided to hold a summer school for classes four and five students so we could brush up their basic English and reading skills.

A lot of students had left for their summer vacations but we decided to hold the summer school regardless, for the ones who stayed back.The summer school ran for two weeks at the end of April and was run by Aditi and Yash. They ran Morning sessions filled with games and activities as well as basic grammar and reading.

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School Management Committee (SMC), 14th February’14

We decided to hold School Management Committees (SMC) to help us with the running of the school and to make the school accountable to parents. We aim to run one SMC every school term.

patashala Students standing beside the SMC poster.

Parents in Yelammabanda often don’t know what to expect from the school their children attend. The Lower Grades are seen as an alternative to a day care. The children are dropped off in the morning while parents go to work and are picked back up whenever they return. Most parents having not attended schools themselves do not know what to expect from them.

We invited parents around for tea on a Sunday morning . The children put on a small Play called “Ekalavya”  as an introduction. All the school teachers, Our principal (Lavanya) ,The school Helper (Ayamma) and Himabala ,who was leading this meeting, were present.

Himabala (in yellow) sitting at the front of the committee meeting.

Himabala spoke about the importance of getting birth certificates for the children. They need them to attend higher educational institutions, getting government help among other things. She spoke about the importance of spending time with their children while they do their homework, however little they might understand of it.

Other topics like nutrition, school attendance, general hygiene and school fees were covered.

Parents also came forward with their concerns and were engaged in discussion.The meeting concluded with parents agreeing to be part of the committee and elect parent representatives for each class. It is important that we get parents cooperating in their children’s education.