Keith in Sri Lanka

Unfortunately, Valerie has been struggling with her health, as she has a nasty cough, which has resulted in her not sleeping very well, and her eczema has also flared up, so she thought it would be better to get herself checked over, and try to get some treatment. Our friend Radha, who we went for lunch with recently, is a qualified ayurvedic doctor, so she came to school this morning to check Valerie out, and provided a number of treatments for her. Hoping that the treatments will quickly take effect (Radha seemed hopeful that she should feel a lot better tomorrow), we then both pressed on with our Maths lesson observations in Grade 2. Fortunately, Valerie's finished well before mine, so she was able to take it easier at school, and I took the lead when we gave the feedback after lunch. On returning to our apartment, she then relaxed for the rest of the day, and we will see how she gets on overnight. Whilst Valerie had a bit of a sleep, I went out to do a little bit of shopping fo

It was an interesting day today, as we started off this morning with a meeting with Sandra, Ravi, and Buddhika, which clarified some clear goals and targets for us over the next 2 months. We will basically be focusing in on developing all aspects of Maths with Grades 1 and 2, which we are both extremely happy about. This includes supporting the teachers in their use of English as they teach Maths lessons, which I think we will both enjoy very much. We moved into our new office in the Junior Department today, which is a lot more comfortable, as it has air conditioning rather than a fan (the fans seem to have triggered Valerie's eczema). It is kind of weird being back in a Headteacher's type office, but obviously something I am familiar with - albeit that I am now in my 10th year of retirement. Retirement - what retirement? I seem to have developed a liking for throwing myself back in at the deep end again. Sandra came round after school for a cup of tea and a chat, which was lov

It was back to work today, and I would love to say with a vengeance, but we found ourselves on a bit of a 'time-filling' exercise, as the Grades 1 and 2 section we are meant to be focusing on had mid-term tests today (and again tomorrow). We were assigned lesson observations in Grade 6 instead, but we were just given two teachers between us, so we ended up with two lessons apiece for each teacher, which was still enjoyable, but far less effective in terms of our agreed focus. In the afternoon we were assigned 2 hours to go through the Maths Textbooks for Grades 1 through to 6, which was quite interesting, but these text books are clearly not sufficient for the range of students across each Grade. Some of the poorest students are really struggling, whilst the brightest students are not receiving any challenge, and, although they love Maths, they are very bored in Maths lessons, as the work is far too easy for them. We can help with this, of course! Oh my goodness, did we know it

We both enjoyed being able to lie in for a bit this morning, as our first week here has been pretty full-on. Unfortunately, our washing hadn't dried very much overnight, as the air is so humid, and the temperature drops a little during the night, We think it rained a lot during the night as well, and it certainly rained for most of the day, so Sandra's idea of taking us to a coconut plantation had to be scrapped, as it just wouldn't have been that much fun. I spent the morning sorting out clothes, including doing a pile of ironing - mainly the shirts I wear for school each day, plus the new shirts I bought at Selyn yesterday, so that I have some reasonably smart-casual clothes to wear when we go away with Sandra's family for two nights at the end of next week. We are not sure where we are going, as it is a surprise, but we know it will be a lovely break away for a couple of nights, so we are very much looking forward to it. Sandra invited us round for lunch, and she pic

It was lovely not to have to get up quite so early this morning. We made the decision not to have our meals provided next door at the weekends, so that we could be more flexible. Although our plans for today were scrapped due to the torrential rain, which meant that an invitation from one of the staff members at the Pre-Primary Department had to be cancelled, due to dangerous conditions on the roads out to their home, it meant that we could catch up on things like washing. We weren't sure how to use the washing machine, but our neighbour Razeena helped us, and we got one lot of washing done very quickly, but a second lot got interrupted when some guys from the Maintenance Department came to sort out an automatic switch for the water pump, and they turned the electricity off with the washing machine only needing ten more minutes to complete its cycle, leaving us with completely sodden clothes and water still in the washing machine! Sandra provided a driver for us so that we could vi

We had breakfast a little later at 07:30 this morning, because we will be supporting the Junior Department as of today. As the Junior Department (and the Senior Department) are only 2 minutes' walk away from where we are staying, it gives us a little more time each morning. Unfortunately, it was tipping down with rain as we made our way to the Junior Department, where we were met by Chandika, who showed us where we would be based now. I was supposed to buy a card yesterday for my good friend, Aruni, who worked with Tea Leaf Trust for many years, but now lives with her husband, Babu, in Colombo. She had a baby boy on Wednesday, but in the midst of all the shopping that we did I forgot, so I made her one instead myself last night. I added it to some gifts we had brought from the UK for the new baby, and with the school's very welcomed help, I was able to get these couriered over to her today. A lovely lady called Dinushka showed us round the Grade 1 and 2 classes (8 classes in ea

We were due to move across to the Junior Department today, but they were still heavily involved with their concert performances, so we were back in the Pre-Primary Department for one final day, with a much lighter programme. In fact, we started with one of the Upper Kintergarten classes performing a Class Assembly in the auditorium on the top floor of the building, which was delightful. They even got us to give out some awards to the children. At the end of yesterday's concert performance in the Town Hall, and at the end of the Class Assembly this morning, everyone stood for the Sri Lankan national anthem. I don't know if it is the longest national anthem in the world, but it must be high up there. The children certainly sang it with gusto, and their enthusiasm was quite infectious. I think having us around is really quite a novelty for them, and we are warmly greeted wherever we go in the school. There were queues of people wanting to say goodbye to us at the end of the day -