18th February, 2014
I’ve been working closely with these wonderful kids over the past two years.
Namaste, and happy New Year. Before I tell you about the work I’ve been doing, children from the Himalaya Lower Secondary School here in Kaski would like to say a huge ‘thank you’.
Your kind support and generous gifts are going towards improving the education, and lives, of so many poor children, like them, here in Nepal. So a big thank you from me too.
Working to keep standards high
Determined to leave teachers with as much help and confidence as possible, I’ve been travelling around the Kaski region, visiting all the schools I work with.
It’s been great spending time with every teacher I’ve come to know so well, talking them through training templates I’ve written for them, and writing new ones together.
By using these templates, they’ll continue to learn and develop their own teaching, and also be able to share that learning with others.
This means that as well as lessons being fun and engaging in their own classes, they’ll be able to share their own good practice with many other teachers, helping even more children get better teaching.
Building on good teaching for the future
Belu, an early years teacher I’ve been working with, teaches her young class using new methods. It’s clear to see how eager the youngsters are to learn!
One thing I’ve noticed is that without good leadership and constant encouragement, teachers here can often get disheartened and lose motivation. It can be the same everywhere, including in the UK.
So, I’m working with ‘key’ teachers, who will take on the extra responsibility of following the progress of other teachers, helping them keep their teaching standards high.
They all seem really keen to take on the new responsibility of training and motivating other teachers, so I’m feeling confident that young children will still be getting the good teaching they deserve after I’m gone.
Helping the teachers share their learning in this way really is the best gift you can give them, as it means your support keeps doing what it’s meant to - improving teaching and giving more poor children the education they deserve.
Strength in numbers
This is Gareth, another VSO volunteer who joined the review meeting. He’s helped the drop-out rate fall from 15% to 0% in his schools, which I find totally inspirational.
You might remember me telling you about other VSO volunteers like me working in different schools across the district?
Well, we all got together and had a final review meeting, with representatives from all the VSO supported schools attending.
We discussed the importance of them taking responsibility for continuing the good work we have started over the past two years, and how they needed to support each other.
It was lovely to see the teachers exchanging phone numbers and making plans together, whilst the other VSO volunteers and I stood back.
This really made me hopeful that the work we have begun will continue to grow and develop after we’ve gone.
Until next time...
I’ve got lots to be getting on with over the next weeks, including training new volunteers that are coming to work in the schools here, so I’ll be able to tell you how all that goes then. I’ll also have the pleasure of introducing you to your next volunteer.
Until then, I’d like to thank you again for your generous gifts and wonderful support.
Beth
