More progress at the School

Fran showing the Principal and staff the new laptops

Frances, a colleague of Gav's, has been out in Sri Lanka for just over a week now and has been helping out at the Village School.  Her primary job has been to set up three laptops which were donated by Cleeve School near Cheltenham in the newly created computer room, funded in part by the Dragon School in Oxford and their Dragon Sale in 2011.

Pupils getting to grips with technology

The school now has three laptops, internet connectivity (anyone fancy sponsoring the ongoing monthly commitment to pay for the dongles? - £10 a month would do it!), and web cams, and we are now paying for a part-time IT tutor. The pupils now have the best chance of studying for IT exams and of course, improve their English skills at the same time, which is a major step forward in terms of the kids' education and their future career opportunities.

We also hope the connectivity will improve regular communications from the school which has been understandable difficult being 6,00 miles away.

Fran has also spent a lot of holding conversational English classes with children as well as introducing them to IT and from what we hear, the kids adore her.

Learning is fun!

In her first email, the Principal said "This is my new e-mail address, I am so happy to have the opportunity to create an e-mail account, with the help of Frances. We are so happy about her visit, and the children are so happy with the new computers. Today the children have worked together with her happily."

So, as ever, thanks to all those who have helped make this remarkable achievement happen.

A Bunch of Thanks from the Village School

We recently received the following email from the Principal of the Village school in Ratmalana. 

Note from the principal: 

To Dear Don  & Della,

Hi How are you... Hope you are doing good. We are very pleased with the renovations and repairs done to our primary section. It was such a ill ventilated room, often getting wet for the rain. There was very little security. In short it was not a pleasant place to work in. When the School reopened for the New Term the Children were thrilled when they saw a clean class room with the nice furniture and clean walls. The Teachers too were very pleased.

Not only that, we were able to arrange a section for the Science room and the Library. Now everything is kept neatly in its place and the Teachers are maintaining the place well. We were able to separate a section for Dancing too. The computer room is ready and we are waiting for our computers. The Directors who came on inspection were very pleased with the maintenance and security of the School. They made a very good remark in the Log Entry. So Thank you so much, all this is because of your help. The attendance too is good and because of the extra Teachers we are able to keep the children occupied when there are absent Teachers. The Teachers paid by you are doing a good job of work and the Children too love them.  

Our Children took part in a Drama Competition at Zonal level and got the First place. They also took part in an Art competition organized by the Municipality and they won Prizes. There were places for recitation and speech. We were very encouraged by these achievements.

So Thank you so much, all this is because of your help.

Hope to see you all soon.. Tc... May God bless you !

Principal

St. Marys Village School