Monday 12th February 2024

What an absolutely wonderful day today has been! I am in awe of what Sandra Wanduragala has done here, which very deservedly led to her being awarded a national Lifetime Achievement Award recently. She is only 6 months older than me and is just an amazing woman. She is an accomplished lawyer, has also set up her own textile business (which has employed over 1,000 people), and established a simply massive school here in Kurunegala.

Apparently, when she was searching for a school for her daughter, she felt that there were no suitable schools available, so friends suggested she build her own school. She did just that, starting from scratch, and established the Royal International School, which has grown and grown and grown, to the point where it now has over 3,500 students, 902 of them in the Toddlers, Nursery, and Pre-School Department, where I will be spending most of my time.

Twins Hana and Herman were there with flowers to greet me when I arrived at the school this morning, and I had a tour of this section of the school, before meeting the Senior Management Team. I then did a number of lesson observations in LKG (Lower Kindergarten) with Tharika, who is Deputy Head of this whole section, and the lady in charge of Lower Kindergarten, feeding back to them just before lunchtime. I was extremely impressed with what I saw.

I got a lift to the Junior School at the end of the school day, where I had a long meeting with all the English teachers from across all three sections of the school - around 40 staff in total, which is quite astonishing. I was so within my personal comfort zone today. Much as I love my work with Tea Leaf Trust, which remains my top priority in Sri Lanka, I was doing today what I did for all of my professional life, and it just felt amazing!

Today's photographs start with Madam Sandra's Lifetime Achievement Award, then show my arrival at the school. I have also included a photo of the school's Vision and Mission statements, my chat with a little boy in the Toddlers section and my chat with the Senior Management Team. Finally, there are some photos of the lesson observations, including a lovely one of Tharika.














Comments

  1. CharlesFebruary 13, 2024 at 12:02 AM

    It must be reassuring to be reminded of what you did/achieved in your working life and to realise you can still perform at the same level.

    ReplyDelete

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