Sunday 20th January - Last Day 

Early start to the airport (5.30am), very mixed feelings. I have made some wonderful relationships with members of the group and with all the Indian teachers and all the wonderful  children I have had the opportunity  to work with especially in Dum Dum. But I am also looking forward to seeing my family and everyone at Stanley St Andrew's.

See you all on Tuesday.

Saturday 19th January - Schools Celebration Day - Sports Day 

 Today, we have over 400 children from our Cathedral Service Relief Schools attending our Celebration Day - Sports Day. The day is being held at St. Thomas' Boy School, Kidderpore, Kolkata. We started with a magician and a ventriloquist, the children never stopped laughing and it was a wonderful way to start the day. We then organised the children into groups and organised them into the 7 stations of activities including football, Duck Duck Goose and parachute games.We all had a picnic together, the children had curry and ice cream.  We all had an amazing day, we had lots of fun in the sun. It was a lovely day to finish a fantastic week.

Friday 18th January - Trip to the Sunderbans

A very early start to the day, ready to go for 7.00am for our trip to the Sunderbans, tiger spotting and a look round a CRS project. After a 4 hour drive we arrived at the Tiger Sanctuary, with us all asking the same question were we going to see a Bengal Tiger. Yes, Yes, Yes!!! There it was prowling round  his cage. This tiger had been rehoused in the sanctuary due to losing his home. It was a good distance away, see if you can spot it in the picture! and the white crocodiles, these were amazing but looked very different being white/cream in colour. Also on the way back to the bus we saw a baby monkey and her mum.

We then went onto a boat to take us to a CRS school project which is only accessible by water. This was interesting, we arrived to see a number of people waiting on the mud bank. We all looked at each other thinking the same question, how are we going to get off the boat and walk up the mud bank? As the boat was secured, a number of people came over with a pile of hay on top of their heads. Very interesting!!!! They started to pile the hay over the mud bank to cover an area, so we could walk off the boat, it was amazing to watch. We walked through an area of mud and trees and was told by our guide that usually the area would be under water when it was high tide and during a number of months it is not open to people because it is too dangerous.  We arrived at the school to see a big crowd of school children and their families waiting for us. They welcomed us by throwing flowers over us, singing songs and saying prayers. We had lunch together and discussed the plans for the future of the school. We said our goodbyes and went back to the boat. On the way back to the Tiger Sanctuary the boat took us close to the river banks to see if we could see a wild tiger but no luck 

We got back into the bus for another 4 hour drive but it was well worth every minute because it was a very interesting day and it is always nice to see another CRS project up and running.

Thursday 17th January - Day 2 of CPD - professional development with the Indian Teachers.

We started the day with a couple of songs and then went into  literary. The focus being phonics. I was using fishing rods to fish for phase 2 sounds. We had to catch the fish and then say the sound, describe the sound picture and then write the sound. Using lots of different ways to repeat the sound. We then moved onto expanding simple sentences using connectives (FANBOYS) and writing sentences together and independently,  thinking about past, present and future tense. The Indian teachers were very good at this. We then had lunch and then moved onto Numeracy. The focus was using the four different operations and looking at problem solving using number story books and apparatus. 

We then finished with another two songs which included our school song 'Kingfisher look what I can do? - which you can see in the video/film section on the website. I was so proud to see our children singing their song. The  Indian teachers loved it  😍❤️❤️

Wednesday 16th January - Day in school

We arrived at Dum Dum and the children were so excited, so was I. We went outside to play parachute games but I forgot about all the dust. The children were having lots of fun making waves and running through the parachute that I didn't notice the amount of dust in the air.  We just carried on because we were having lots of fun. 

We then played with the skipping ropes and this was funny because they found it tricky to jump over the rope when it was moving.  They were much better at skipping on their own.

We then continued the story of the 'Bear Hunt' by playing ball games using words like over and under, to continue using the vocabulary from the book. So the children but the ball over their heads and when it got back to the end of the line that person went to the front and so on.

The younger children did similar games with the two students I had taken with me to Dum Dum and they used the story spoons, they especially liked how we had written them in English and Bengali. 

We then went to visit Mother House which was really nice and peaceful after such a busy full day. I went last year but it is such a lovely place I wanted to go again, it is a place you can go and reflect on many things. 

After, we went for a meal together and I tried a dosa which is a pancake filled with potato and vegetables, it was very yummy😋😋😋😋😋😋

Tuesday 15th January - CPD day, teaching the Indian teachers phonics and numeracy.

Very busy day today teaching the Indian teachers phonics and numeracy. They have worked really hard over the year to implement phonics into their daily working day and we have seen such huge improvements with their phonics and the children's phonics. I was really pleased with my session today and they seem to really enjoy it. We have also made a song which kingfishers made, and I will be showing them this on Thursday and hopefully I can get them to do the actions with me.

Monday 14th January - First day in school 

My first day in Dum Dum today, feeling nervous and excited. I can't wait to see everyone. I was very welcomed when I arrived with Ingrid, Katie-Maria and Hannah. We went into the classrooms and the children were waiting for us, they were sat beautifully. We gave our presents out and then started out activities about the 'Bear Hunt'. The children made their own bear masks, movable bear characters and we acted the story out using masks. The children loved all the activities and had lots of fun. 

I'm really looking forward to Wednesday to go back and show them some amazing outdoor games and super numeracy skills. 

Sunday 13th January - Cathedral, CRS Team and a river cruise.

Today we started at the Cathedral, we sat through the service which was beautiful especially when they spoke about us and said prayers for us. It felt so lovely to be part of the whole service.  After this, we went to plan, our two days with the Indian teachers focusing on numeracy and phonics. 

CRS then showed us a presentation  about themselves and all the wonderful  projects they are involved in. 

We then all went on a river cruise down the Ganges. This was very interesting because when we arrived I could see the boat, this was the boat we thought we were going on last year but we didn't. I couldn't believe my eyes  🙄The river was very calm and beautiful and Stanley had a whale of a time ha ha ha . Someone in the group also spotted porpoises but unfortunately I didn't ☹️ Visiting the temples was an eye opener , the place was very busy and loud, but the temples themselves were astonishing. We had dinner on the boat and then came back to the hotel to get ready for school tomorrow. I can't wait be I'm also I little nervous. I hope they like the story, we are going on a bear hunt🐾🐾🐾🐾

Saturday 12th January - Day 2

We then drive to the hotel and had time to freshen up and have some lunch - curry and nana bread. Yum Yum

We then went to visit a 'Jain Temple' it was so beautiful. We looked around inside which was astonishing , so much detail had been used to give every last piece of mosaic its own unique place in this wonderful building.

Can you spot Stanley visiting his friends the peacocks?

We then went for tea and decided to make it an early bed time because we were all tired 😴💤😴💤

Friday 11th January - Day 1 -travelling day

We set off at 8.30 in the morning and arrived in India (Kolkata) around 7.30 on the followin g day. We flew from Birmingham Aiport, with a short stop at Dubia. In Dubia we needed to  jog or run to our next plane In case we missed it.. Luckily we were OK and managed to board it on time. This then took us into Kolkata and the CRS Team were waiting for us.

Our last group meeting before flying to India

Not long to go before I fly to India to our link school in Dum Dum. I am a little nervous knowing I will be teaching in school and teaching phonics and numeracy to over 40 Indian teachers. I hope they enjoy what I have planned and especially watching a song that I have worked on with Kingfisher Class (check out the video section of the website).

I had my last meeting on Friday with the other English teachers to go over the last details, worked through our planning and check we have all the resources we need for the trip.

Thank you again for all the wonderful donations I have been given to take with me. Your kindness of gifts and words have been very kind.

I will keep the website up to date most days (depending on the internet) so you can enjoy the journey with me.

Thank you to parents for providing items on our 'wish list' for Dum Dum.  I have put some items in BOLD which have been given and are ready for the trip to India. 

If you would like to contribute to our 'wish list', could you please bring the items into school before Friday 21st December (last day of term) Thank you again.

I (Mrs Davies), have the privilege of returning to India in January to our link school in Dum Dum. I am also happy to say that Rev Ingrid will be joining me on the trip.

I have been to a number of meetings with other colleagues to plan and organise what we are going to teach. There are over 30 of us going and we have decided to continue developing English and Numeracy. Our focus for the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) days will be to develop the teaching of phonics and number to over 40 India Teachers.

My days in school will also cover these areas and I will be focusing on ‘We are going on a Bear Hunt’ covering phonics, sequencing, arts, crafts and role play. Mrs Adshead has made me story spoons to re-tell the story of ‘Bear Hut’, they are absolutely amazing and I can’t thank her enough.

I am going to teach number through games using a parachute, snake and ladders, number shapes and number dominoes.

I have been working with a number of child producing short film clips to introduce themselves to our Dum Dum children and hopefully I can bring clips back too. I have also been teaching Kingfisher children simple songs to then share with the children in Dum Dum.

This year I would love to take a number of resources with me and I hope you can help me to fulfil this. By either donating an amount of money or purchasing the item yourself and letting me know, so I can update the wish list.

I will be keeping the school website updated on my journey which starts on the 11^th January 2019. So keep watching.