Link with St Michaels

Links with St. Michaels School in India strengthened.

Links with our partner school have been strengthened this year when Miss Sidaway visited St Michaels Primary School in Assam in India in October. 

"It was a fantastic opportunity to learn about what life is like for the children in our partner school and I was made to feel extremely welcome. When we arrived we were presented with a bouquet of flowers from the children as a gift. It was St Michaels Day when and normally the school would have been closed for the celebrations however both the staff and children came in especially as we were coming to visit them. The older children shared a traditional tribal dance they were learning for a dance competition which was expressing their right for an education and food. I was able to observe what lessons were like for the children and then had the opportunity to teach in each of the four classes, sharing resources and classroom practice with the staff. Our Year 6 children had made a fantastic English alphabet and numberline which I used as a teaching resource and I hope they are still being used after I left.

The highlight for me was taking the postcards made by year 6 and 4 with a self portrait of themselves on the front and information about themselves on the back. I was able to give each child at St Michaels a postcard which they really loved and the children in the top two classes made a postcard each for me to take back to our children at St Peters in return. It felt like a real partnership shared by individual children and it showed many similarities between the children. This could also be seen at playtime when children were playing the same games that our children play here in England.

I hope that the link between our schools will flourish over the coming years. I know it will be hard as communication will be difficult. The school is in a very rural area with no electricity and English is not widely spoken in the village and my Assamese is somewhat lacking! I have however established a friendship with a lady in the village who does speak English and hopefully we will be able to communicate through her and the link will grow."