Wednesday 14th January 2026

I somehow managed to think Thai Pongal was a day early! It wasn't today, so I ended up walking into Norwood this morning and getting a lift from Chan in the school tuk-tuk to Tea Leaf Centre Maskeliya. On the way into Norwood, I bumped into Stefhan and his wife Nilushi. Stefhan serves on the Media Team for Tea Leaf, and Nilushi is a former member of staff. In this area you will find Tea Leaf people everywhere, which is such a credit to the organisation.

It was lovely returning to Maskeliya, where I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past 7 years. Tea Leaf Centre Maskeliya houses a very vibrant team of staff, many of whom have known me for a long time now, so I received a lovely, warm welcome. I ended up being a part of another training day today, as Laurent, Rachele, and Thomas delivered a second lot of training on 'Dialogic Teaching', having previously introduced the concept in training sessions last year. 

'Dialogic Teaching' in layman's terms basically encourages a move from a traditional 'knowledge-based' curriculum, where the teacher stands at the front of the class, imparts information, which students note down, have to learn somehow, and then get tested on, to a more 'skills-based', dynamic, interactive approach that serves students much better because it helps to equip them with the skills necessary to succeed in this crazy, modern world of ours.

I thoroughly enjoyed the training session, although I had to concentrate hard to understand Laurent's very strong French accent, especially in the morning, when he was imparting a lot of rather complicated information. However, he has such a charming, engaging, manner, with an excellent style of teaching, and I was extremely impressed with the response from Tea Leaf staff, who showed such positive engagement with the exciting concepts that he was imparting to them.

There is one photo of Stefhan and Nilushi today, with all the rest showing the training sessions in the morning and the afternoon. Laurent gave the students a free choice in the morning from a number of options for the afternoon session, and they overwhelmingly chose the AI (Artificial Intelligence) option, which I think Laurent delivered superbly. At 67, I have only teetered on the borders of AI, so I may have learned more than anyone else!









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