International Links

Ashgate’s Support for Topsia During the Coronavirus Outbreak

You may have heard on the news that the Indian government enforced a very strict lockdown on the country with only 4 hours of notice on 25^th March. This is having a dreadful effect on those living in poverty in Kolkata’s slums, including Topsia where our link school is. Most people there earn very small wages doing simple jobs or running small businesses. Being unable to go out to work will mean families are left with no money and no food. 

We’re sure some days you are finding it tough to be stuck inside, away from your friends and family. It is tough for everyone in different ways, of course. But have a little think about what it might be like in a Kolkata slum. 

They will not have food stored in their cupboards and won’t be able to get a supermarket food delivery. They may have only one room for their whole family to live in and no outside space. They won’t have toys, games, TV and the internet to keep them entertained.  They won’t have school sending them activities to do so they can keep learning and keep busy. They won’t have cleaning products or soap to help keep themselves safe. They won’t have doctors and hospitals like our wonderful NHS if they become ill.

The Cathedral Relief Service, which supports the teacher training programme we are involved in, have made a plan to take basic medical supplies and foods (like rice, lentils, sugar, milk and oil) to 1600 families in the slums but they needed money to be able to do this.

At Ashgate, we raise money each year to support Topsia school and, as we had some money saved up, we have decided to send some to Kolkata to help them in this time of need. This way, we can support our friends in Topsia and other children around the city.

We hope you think this is a good way to spend some of the money you raised on your sports day! Here are some photos of the support packages beginning to be delivered.

Keep safe and keep smiling!

Mrs Patrick and Miss Donnelly

Ashgate Primary School, with support from the British Council and Derby Diocese, is linked with two schools in Kolkata, India: St Thomas’ and Topsia.

St Thomas'

This link, established in Autumn Term 2015, has resulted in much collaborative work between both Headteachers (Mr Seargent and Mr Debroy from St Thomas’). Miss Donnelly enjoyed her time teaching in the school in January 2017 and returned for a brief visit with Mrs Patrick in 2018. Most recently, Mr Debroy visited Ashgate in October 2019, as part of a longer visit to the UK. He spent time with a range of classes, particularly doing Q&A sessions about his school and pupils. This was really valuable and interesting for our Ashgate children.

Topsia

In January 2018, Miss Donnelly and Mrs Patrick visited Kolkata again and formed a new link with Topsia school, an informal school in slum in one of the poorest areas of the city. The headteacher, Rabia, tutors up to 60 pupils aged between 2 and 10 in a room the size of a small living room. If they can learn enough English, they have a better chance of being accepted in a formal school. Money raised by Ashgate purchased full school uniforms, shoes, lunch bags, water bottles, a shoe rack and ceiling fans for the school.

In January 2019, Mrs Patrick visited Topsia again and was also involved in teacher training days for approximately 45 teachers from Kolkata's slum schools. 

The latest updates are from Miss Donnelly during her January 2020 visit.

Saturday 1st February

It’s sports day! Our  sponsored sports day at Ashgate helped fund today’s sports day in Kolkata. Over 520 children attended which is a huge deal as many have never left their neighbourhood. I’ll let the photographs do the talking for today. 

Friday 31st January

A short day in school today. Not all the children come to school on a Friday but those that do finish at 12 and head straight to Friday prayers. 

We started the day with toast and jam just like at Ashgate’s breakfast club. Then a quick maths lesson followed by me showing the children the video of you singing ‘walking in the light’. They loved watching you! They tried their best to learn the chorus. Do you think they’ve done a good job? 

Thursday 30th January

Today has been a rainy day. I’ve lived in England nearly all my life and I have never seen rain fall so hard or fast. I’ll never complain about the rain in England again!

Another great day of joint planning and sharing ideas. My focus was on different ways of teaching emotions. It was very difficult to pretend to be sad or grumpy because I was having such a good time. Some of the Indian teachers were teaching me how to write in Bengali and in Hindi. The two words in the photo below say the same thing. Can you work out what they say?

Wednesday 29th January

Today we visited a rural area called Diamond Harbour. Despite the torrential rain, we received a traditional bengali greeting, watched some fantastic bengali dancing and watched two budding dancers in the making. 

All schools in Kolkata have been closed today so that children can celebrate a festival in honour of the Goddess of Education. Can you find out the name of this Goddess?

Tuesday 28th January

Today I went into Topsia school to teach. A head teacher from the UK and the head of CRS came to observe my teaching - for 4 hours!!! The children and I soon forgot they were there and had great fun learning the value of numbers, shapes and colours, guided reading and we even had time for a song or two. The journey to school Is quite long and you see some interesting sites along the way. Can you find out which football team the goat supports?

Monday 27th January

Today has been a great day! 

All the English teachers and Indian teachers got together to share ideas and work together to plan some fun lessons for school tomorrow. I worked with a group of teachers looking at different ways of teaching plurals, a and an using the book Dear Zoo. Can you guess what animal I’m pretending to be in the photo below?

Sunday 26th January

Hello from Kolkata!

I have had a busy and tiring first weekend in Kolkata. I arrived at lunchtime on Saturday and it’s been non-stop since then. I’ve visited Kolkata’s newest tourist attraction to see models of the 7 wonders of the world, I’ve been to a special extended Republic Day service at St Paul’s Cathedral and I have been on a river cruise to see the Republic Day lights. Below are a few of the photos I’ve taken so far -  RESPECT tickets for anyone who can name all 7 Wonders. 

Scroll down to see updates from January 2019.

Saturday 19th January - 8pm

What a fabulous way to end the week! Today we organised a fun day for all the slum schools. There was a magician and a puppeteer who made the children laugh.

Then they joined in with loads of sports day style games! The children all dressed up in their finest clothes and had a wonderful time!

They were given breakfast and lunch too but, because they are kind and careful with food, many of them took their food home to share with their families. Fortunately, they didn't save their ice creams as they would have melted!

It was lovely to see the Topsia children having fun in a large, open space because they don't normally get chance to run around in the fresh air. It was sad to say goodbye to them and Rabia at the end of the day but I've had a brilliant week with them.

Friday 18th January - 7pm

I’m writing this sitting on a bus. It’s dark outside except for when we pass through little towns. In those places, market stalls line the road with light bulbs suspended here and there over their vegetables, clothing or other goods. It’s very busy with people shopping, meeting their friends, having their beard trimmed or travelling home. In fact, it’s so busy that we just had to stop for about half an hour because our big bus couldn’t squeeze round a corner at the same time as a truck coming in the opposite direction! 

I’m on this bus because I’ve been on a day trip (most schools close on Friday and open instead on Saturday so today is the weekend) to the Sundarbans which is a five hour bus journey, east across the country towards Bangladesh. It’s a very long way on the busy roads but it was quite an adventure. Unlike Kolkata, here it is lush, green and quieter. The children have room to play, the adults farm the land to grow vegetables and rice and, although it’s still a very poor area, people have fresher air so a healthier way of life.

On the journey, I was wildlife spotting - I saw cows, cats, dogs, sheep, goats, chickens, kingfishers, egrets, birds of prey, ducks and a snake, mostly roaming free! The area is also home to crocodiles, monkeys and occasionally the Royal Bengal Tiger! We saw some of each but they weren’t wild - they lived in some enclosures. 

When we disembarked, we took a walk for about 1km to get to a boat. We climbed aboard and chugged down the river for about half an hour. It was misty but I could make out fishing boats in the distance and there were mangrove trees on both sides of the river. Mangroves are swamp trees that grow in water and mud. The river is tidal because it’s near the coast so sometimes they’re in water and sometimes not. When the river floods, villages near the trees flood too. It’s one of these villages that we went to visit today, and specifically a primary school of 120 children. 

The boat approached the river’s bank which was made of thick, gloopy, grey mud. At first, I thought we would need to take off our shoes and squelch through it, but then some men appeared with extraordinarily large bundles of straw on their heads. They laid the straw up the bank, forming a path from the boat to the flat area at the top. One by one, we jumped off the front of the boat and made our way up. 

Next we processed in a long line through an area of dried, cracked mud, then climbed a bank and stepped through a hole in a high fence. For a while, we then walked past big-leaved banana trees, potato plants, rectangular rice paddies, houses made of straw or brick or wood, and farm animals tethered to their owners’ land. It was so quiet and peaceful.

Eventually the noise of children could be heard and we rounded a corner to see a large crowd of colourful saris and dresses and some older children in school uniform. Some children stood on either side of the path and threw petals to welcome us. Two little girls had wet clay on a flower head and daubed everyone’s foreheads with it as a traditional sign of welcome. 

After a few short speeches, the hot and hungry children headed off home whilst we were led to an upstairs classroom with a large hole in its corrugated metal roof. I found out that, when it rains, school must stop. There were benches with tables attached but nothing else hinted that it was a classroom. The hosts laid on a generous feast for us and we ate until we were full.

Afterwards, it was time to head back to the boat and to the bus and that leads me to now!

It’s the fun day with 500 children tomorrow! I hope you have a great weekend too!

Thursday 17th January - 10pm

Day two of the teacher training was today. It was similar to the first day but with different English activities. One of my favourite was Twister phonics where different sounds or words were written onto the mat and you have to put your hand or foot on the right ones! 

I enjoyed doing my One is a Snail activity again in the afternoon. At the end of the training day, it was time for some singing including the world premier of the Ashgate India Choir singing Just Like Me! The teachers loved it and I was really proud!

I said earlier in the week that I would take some more photographs of the streets for you. I have been trying to all week so here are a few. 

Every step brings something new and interesting to look at - good and bad. Fresh vegetables, varied market stalls and busy workers on the one hand. But, on the other, stray dogs, very poor or disabled people and lots of litter. It’s sometimes very sad to see. 

The other thing about Kolkata is that it’s always very noisy. Even now, from my hotel room, I can hear lots of horns honking away, people shouting, crows squawking and, now and then, people playing very loud music. Thank goodness I remembered to bring earplugs with me!

Thursday 17th January - 6pm

I’ll send the day’s proper update later but I thought I would show you this photograph. It’s very said but it is reality: it is of some slum homes on a railway line near where one of the link schools is. It’s not the Topsia area - I think their houses may be a little better than this, although I don’t know for sure. Maybe take a moment to be thankful for what you have.

Wednesday 16th January - 11pm

It’s been another marvellous day! This morning, as I said, I was at Topsia. Again we did loads of songs and fun activities. They used their new buses on pencils to learn some prepositions. (Actually some of the buses didn’t last long because the children were so excited to have their own pencil!)

They played snakes and ladders and they absolutely LOVED the puppets we bought them which helped them learn to blend sounds. 

I played them the video my class made of themselves acting out the story of Handa’s Surprise in with stick puppets. The children really enjoyed it! 

One of my absolute favourite parts of the day was when I took some of the older/more able pupils to one side of the room for a while and did some maths with them. I used the One is a Snail book (which they could read!) and showed them how to add. ‘Harder!’ they said! So, instead of making the numbers bigger, I turned them into missing number additions like 4 + ? = 12. This blew their minds! They guessed all kinds of crazy numbers and so I taught them how to work it out. It was a lot of fun and I think it was probably their first ever attempt at problem solving! 

If you read yesterday’s post, you may remember I asked if you thought the children would appreciate the gift of a orange. (I asked because I think that you would probably not be very impressed if that was your gift.) Well, I’m pleased to say they absolutely loved them! Their little eyes lit up very excitedly when we gave them out at the end of the day. They remembered that there were oranges in the Handa’s Surprise story. Some of the parents put their arms in through the bars on the windows to try to get one too.

It was sad to say goodbye to the children at the end (though I’m hoping some of them come to the fun day on Saturday).

This evening we had a very special time at St Thomas’ where I saw Mr Deb Roy who visited us last year. In a court yard of fairy lights, flowers and music, we were served a traditional Bengali meal. My favourite part of the evening, though, was that I got to dress up in a sari!

Wednesday 16th January - 2pm

I have just a few minutes back at the hotel before I head out for the afternoon. I have spent the morning at Topsia which was brilliant fun! I’ll tell you more later but I just wanted to show you this photo of the children smiling after just doing their first ever problem solving activity - missing number additions! I hope you smile this much when you do your problems solving this week! 

Tuesday 15th January 11pm

Today was another long but very rewarding day here in Kolkata. We spent all day teaching the Indian teachers. In the morning, they were split into two groups: teachers who need help learning more English and teachers who are confident with English and ready to learn more about teaching phonics. Just like last year, they were all incredibly excited and focused and enthusiastic! It is great that this time last year they knew no phonics and they’ve tried hard to keep using them all year so that now they are ready to learn more. I’m fact some of our activities were a bit too easy for some people! I was responsible for keeping everyone organised, keeping everything running on time and, of course, taking photographs. Here are some photos:

Here’s a picture of the lunch!

The afternoon was maths. The teachers learnt activities for each of the four books I shared pictures of before I left. Mine was One is a Snail - remember all those little plastic animals? I focused on showing how they could add, take, times and divide using the animals and number/picture cards. Here, they don’t seem to do any problem solving so it was interesting to introduce the idea of missing number questions, missing operation questions, linked number sentences and some word problems. I think their brains were aching by the end! It was also challenging (for me) because my groups didn’t understand much English so I had to explain by showing them, using just key words. There aren’t any pictures really because I was delivering the sessions. Here’s one that someone else took.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow when I will be back at Topsia. Mrs Clayton and I have been busy sticking their bus designs onto pencils for another Naughty Bus activity. We have also been to a market to buy 60 oranges as gifts for when we read Handa’s surprise! Do you think they will think they are a good present?

Monday 14th January - 8pm

Today was brilliant because I went to Topsia! It was lovely to see the teacher, Rabia, again and wonderful to see the children too. I recognised lots of them and they remembered me too. They were sad that Miss Donnelly wasn’t there but enjoyed her video message and liked meeting Mrs Clayton and Mrs Beckett who were there too. 

The thing that made me SO happy was that, since our visit last year, the children have made such a lot of progress. This time last year, a few children knew a few colours and numbers in English and they knew some rhymes but weren’t necessarily singing the correct words. This year, there are several older children who can READ ENGLISH! They have worked so hard on learning phonics we introduced that all the children know some, even the 2 year olds! They have remembered all the songs that Miss Donnelly and I taught them and even the youngest children are able to recite Bear Hunt and Brown Bear, Brown Bear which we spent time learning last year. It was such a lovely day!

There were 54 children there today and they all loved the stickers and lollipops I brought them! I was amazed that, even though they were incredibly squashed, their behaviour was exceptionally good. They didn’t complain or push or get fed up with each other and they joined in every activity, the older children looking after the younger ones. We did some activities about a book called The Naughty Bus and we also taught them The Wheels on the Bus.

Don’t they all look so marvellous in their new school uniforms we bought? They are very keen to look after their shiny shoes - they name the tops, tie them together when they put them on the shoe rack and they definitely don’t play football in them!

After school, in the late afternoon, we visited a pottery village where there are hundreds of clever craftsmen who make statues for display in homes and for use in Hindu festivals. Inside, they make a structure of straw (or bigger ones are fibreglass and wood) then build up layers in straw mixed with mud. They mould the shapes over several weeks, adding more and more layers of clay mud. Eventually they are painted and sold.

Tomorrow is a teaching the teachers day! I can’t wait for them to receive the fantastic story sacks we’ve made for them!

Sunday 13th January 10pm

Well it has been a busy day! This morning we attended a service at the cathedral - a huge church like the one in Derby town centre. 

As last year, we shared the service with some squirrels and pigeons! After that, I had a meeting then we went to a presentation made by the Cathedral Relief Service (the charity I am working with) which was very interesting. I learnt that they try to provide three services - education, health care and empowerment of women and children. They work in 9 slum areas (very poor areas where people don’t have proper houses or clean water) of which Topsia is one. Their big education goal is that they need their schools to teach children enough English that they will be accepted in a better school. This, in turn will give them a better chance of getting a good job.

After that, we had lunch with the staff of the charity then another meeting at the hotel. Then we enjoyed a sunset boat ride down the Hooghly river to a visit a temple. On the way, I saw a freshwater river dolphin, just once as it jumped out of the water! At the temple, it was incredibly busy with thousands of people, especially families.

Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside because a service was going on. A very weird thing happened though - lots of people wanted to have their photograph taken with me and the other members of my group. Here is one!

I also thought you might like to see some of the money here in India. Their currency is called the rupee. There are 88 rupees for each pound. Maybe you can work out how much some foods in England would cost in rupees.

Saturday 12th January 10pm

I’ve spent a lot of time on a bus today, looking out of the windows at the street life of Kolkata. Unlike us, people here live their lives on the streets even if they have a home. I was trying to think of the best way to describe it. Imagine a busy road in Derby - let’s say Ashbourne Road where school is - but then imagine that the traffic is made up of tuktuks, cycle rickshaws, bright yellow taxis, cars, mopeds, bikes, buses and lorries, all squashed together, honking their horns, trying to be the one who gets to where they’re going the fastest. But then, on top of that, imagine that all along the pavement there are people shaving their faces, people, eating dinner, people washing clothes, people buying and selling things, people washing themselves, people hanging out with their friends, people washing their dinner dishes, people drying their laundry... everything and everyone, everywhere! I haven’t got many photos yet to show you but I’ll keep trying!

We visited a Jain temple in the afternoon which was beautiful with colourful mosaic and mirror tiles on every available surface. Have you heard of the religion, Jainism? If not, why not see what you can find out about it. Out of respect, photographs couldn’t be taken inside (you may find some online) but there is a video of the complex where families - often dressed up, often in red - come to spend time together as well as worship.

Saturday 12th January 11am

Hello! I have arrived in Kolkata at last! We have been travelling  for 21 hours! Here’s a picture of my aeroplane meal which was my first curry of the trip:

I learnt a cool thing on my journey...if you take a British clock and turn it upside down, it will show you the time in India! Maybe you can test if it always works and let me know. 

I only managed to get 1 hour of sleep on the plane so there’s just time for a quick nap before we have to leave the hotel again - zzzzzz!

Preparations for this year's Kolkata visit!

On Friday 4th January, I met with the other 25 or so members of the team who are travelling to Kolkata this year. Everyone was very excited! We have spent all year preparing resources for the schools and organising a training programme for the teachers. I have been involved with the maths training mainly. The maths group  have made 80 story sacks (4 per school), each including a book that links to maths and all the resources the teachers will need to help them teach the children! Here are pictures of each sack. Ashgate has been responsible for buying and making the One is a Snail sack including lots of cool little plastic animals! Don't they all look great?

Amongst other things, we have also bought some lovely puppets for the Topsia children. I'm not sure if they will have ever seen one before!

My suitcase is nearly packed and I just have some Handa's Surprise lessons to organise this week and I will be ready to go bright and early on Friday morning!

News!

This week we had the great news that the money we raised with our sponsored walk last year has now been spent on the children of Topsia school. They all have a school uniform (including a warm jumper, socks and shoes), a lunch box, a water bottle and a rucksack. We have also funded a ceiling fan and a shoe rack. 

Scroll down to see updates from the 2018 visit.

DAY 7

Today was Republic Day which is a national holiday. It commemorates the day the Constitution for a newly independent India came into effect so people decorate everywhere with flags, play loud music, parade around the streets and gather together with their community to celebrate. Some groups, like the band in this photo I took late at night, moved around crammed into the back of a truck! Schools are closed too!

Instead, we went on a veeeery long bus ride to a rural area. On the way I spotted some kingfishers and some giant water monitor lizards from the bus! (Google them!) A school has been set up here recently and the children who attend it are the first generation in the village to ever go to school! I found out that because the adults have never had chance to learn to read or write, they have to sign their name with a thumbprint.

The school was a bit like Topsia except the room was larger and, instead of being in a noisy, smog-filled city, it was in a peaceful, green village. Because it was Republic Day, the children were in their fanciest clothes and some wore traditional costumes. 

When we arrived, we were given a rose and flower petals were sprinkled over our heads! Then we watched a ceremony where the children and some other members of the village gathered to pray for the country and to hoist the flag. This job was given to Reverend Anita who you may have seen at Ashgate. As the flag lifted, lots of golden petals fell out of it! The ladies in the middle of this picture then sang for us.

After this, we were invited inside to watch the children perform dances and rhymes in English and Bengali. 

Later we had the chance to walk around the little village. There was rice drying out on the ground, cows wandering free, washing drying on the straw roofs, woman washing clothes and cooking equipment in pools and children playing. We saw lots of the local people too. 

Before beginning our veeery long bus journey back, we took a boat trip in the Bay of Bengal. This photo was taken from the boat. I spotted some river dolphins but they were too quick to catch on camera!

DAY 6

I did lots of writing to explain these photos but then my web browser crashed and I lost it all! So enjoy the photos! 

St Thomas'