In Goa

Apologies but once again I am having internet troubles which has slowed down my blogging. On Thursday Charlie and I arrived in Goa after a very long and delayed train journey. We were picked up and taken to the house of Martin and Beena who run the orphanages here in Goa. After a welcomed cup of tea and a chatch we were dropped to the YMCA in Panjim where we were staying. In the evening we walked to one of the local restaurants which I remembered, from my last visit to Goa, did excellent food.

The following morning we were collected by Terrence and taken to the 'Rising Star' school where most of the children from the orphanages are educated. I was very interested to see what improvements had been made since I was lat here in August. It was good to see that a basic school uniform had been introduced. This is black trousers and a light blue polo shirt with the school moto ' Learning together to build our future' written on it. I was so pleased to see the school rules we had developed were displayed at the front of the school and each of the classes had a star chart in them. The teachers have found that this reward system works well and they are also continuing to use the star of the week certificates and reward badges that I designed for them. They have included phonics teaching in their weekly timetable and they will need to be given more training to help them develop this area of the English teaching. Charlie and I met with them for an hour after school just to discuss how they thought the school was going and what they felt they needed more help with. They suggested speaking and listening activities, and group work as areas they wanted to develop. One of the areas we noticed needed improving was their support and extension work for children in the class. It was very obvious that some children were not being challenged. Unfortunately they have a weeks break over Christmas which I was not aware of. This means the training time available to me is very limited. I now have many ideas in my head as to ways the school can now move forward but they need lots of resources such as reading books, information books, and maths resources and literacy resources.
After school on Friday we visited each of the homes and spent some time with the kids. Most of them remembered me from my last visit but I could not remember all there names. Once again I felt that the children still need more guidance in the activities that they do at homes. The smaller boys, especially, spend most of their time just wandering around and playing with sticks and stones etc. There was a big Christmas card production line going on but it would be great to help some of these children develop more creative, musical and sporting skills while they are at the homes. There would have to be much training on looking after equipment as many of the children are lacking ability in this department. The girls are much more easily occupied and they are more resources available to them. Most of them enjoy sitting and drawing or writing in their school books. This is where Charlie and I discovered that some of these children are more able in their studies than is currently recognised. Some of the older boys attend a local high school so they have lots of homework each day. Many of them spend their time making things and one boy, Roschan, should excellent creative talent. If he had access to wood and tools then he could be learning carpentry in his spare time. I have introduced two new games to the older boys - four square and wall boys. So far they have been playing them every day that I have visited. They do get a bit competitive and even lining up causes arguments. Later on I will post some pictures from the homes in Goa and explain some more activities in Goa including our trip to Baga Beach on Saturday.