ACT- Report of 2014-15

Anugriha Charitable Trust Report Academic year -2014-2015

A special event:

Kumbabhishekam of Lord Vidyaganpathy, a once in 12 years event,on the 26^th of January. The kumbabhishekam was attended by all the children, some of the parents and a few visitors. The pooja was quiet and heart-warming. Everyone felt His Presence. Indeed, while we see and feel all His working every day, those two days were special. 

Academics

The academic year began with all the children coming in on the 10^th of June full of joy and fun and looking forward to a new year. The teachers were all there ready to take on their charges.

The first half of the year was spent in serious academics – completing the syllabus and books set out by the Tamil Nadu board. The second half – the time when the children find themselves – was both fun and interesting for both: teachers and children.

As always, last year too, the children were given 5 clubs to choose and sign up for. Art was a big part of every club activity.

The language club took our breath away: 7 children translated stories from English to Tamil. They illustrated the books themselves. They included parts of Winnie the Pooh, Moose goes to School. Maheshwari,who translated the story “Forgive and forget”said, “I did not know I could draw so well”.  Like coke, there were by-products!

Arms and weapons of the two world wars, with an emphasis on how transport changed the ways of war, the theory of Creation seen through the Big Bang and the Advaita philosophy, using shapes to do art-work on rivers and their influence on human occupation and pursuits, were much enjoyed and appreciated. They had a chance to showcase their work when we had visitors.

The year saw Raghavan’s mother take Tamil classes for Ashok – a child from Mumbai who has come to learn with us. Ashok has made great progress – if you heard him you’d think him a native.

Aruna’s mother took classes in embroidery, chess and caroms. As part of the geography club, she also had a few reminiscence classes on her travels in the Himalayas and the rivers there.

Skype:  special classes:

This year we had some very special classes. They were on Skype.

·         RajaniShridhar conducted music classes – the children were most thrilled to learn from her. Not only do they know her, the fact that she could conduct a class from Dubai was interesting.

·         Padmapriya – again from Dubai – conducted classes on Vedic maths for some of our brightest.

·         SushilaNarayanaswamy[from Mumbai] conducted discursive sessions on Learning Discretion. The class led to reading of Martin Luther King Jr., Mandela and a short comparative study on Gandhiji.

·         Nirupama [from Alberta] conducted classes for teachers on teaching physical geography and how to seamlessly incorporate technology in teaching.

Besides learning in class, the children made various field trips to understand their history and science lessons. For history, they visited TanjavurBrihadeeshwara temple, the museum and the old palace. A special trip to Darasuram along with the children of Oyster Learning Initiative gave them a fine feel of the Chola culture and architecture.

We had pyjama party for the young ones: the first, second and third standard ‘checked-in’ one afternoon, spent the evening in play, had a fine dinner, watched a movie, star-gazed using a small telescope and Google sky map, giggled themselves to sleep, woke up before the teachers, got fresh, had a fancy breakfast of bread and cakes, prayed at the temple and after some more games dragged themselves home. The teachers too had a great time talking and playing through the night. The question the senior kids had: Why not us also?

Honour of the year

Govinda, one of our students who refused to leave school at the eighth standard, stayed with us to complete his 10^th and 12^th through NIOS. He was sure that he wanted to be in art. Over the years we had him intern, travel, visit and work with other artists / schools that needed an art master. Last year, on completing his 12^th he wrote an entrance exam and is now at DJ Academy of Art and Design at Coimbatore. He is doing well and has topped his class in both semesters. This summer he was atVapi with two of his college friends painting the ceiling of the reception area of Lumens school. It was so good that the architect has invited him for such work every possible holiday!

Appeal: we are looking for sponsorship for him – even if partial - to fund this child through the next three years. We have personally seen him through the first three semesters.

Festivities

As with every year, the school celebrated every major festival.

Janmashtami saw young Krishnas trying to break the pots hung high in the games shed ‘Utsav’.

Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated with more than a hundred flowers - all from our own campus – and modaks.

Teacher’s Day saw the senior class teach the younger ones. They took on the act seriously and very firmly refused any suggestions / advice from teachers. On the evening of 4^thof September, they readied the class rooms, did up the posters and other items of ‘decoration’. The next day they went to class with all their teaching materials in hand. All adults were asked to take the time to ‘laugh and be merry’. But the teachers could not resist and so watched classes in progress. They were conducted most professionally.

SaraswatiPoojawas,as always, full of devotion and joy. In traditional style, children were blessed and given their books by their teachers.

This Christmas was a big hit. For a while now we have been buying books for the library from an importer of books. This time he brought a truck load of books to school and told us to choose. Our school hall of about 1000sq feet was stacked with books. We bought books as Christmas gifts for the school library, for the children and for the staff. The books were so good, we decided to buy a set of them for 40 government schools.

Holiwas fun again. This time we had nontoxic, organic colours. This is one festival where no controls can be exercised or expected. Teachers were happy targets being slower and more disciplined J

Visitors

June / July: SangitaaAdvani and her two lovely daughters visited us. The first few days went in getting to know the children; they then arranged for some classes. The request was to talk of their travels. The children learnt a lot about London and other European countries. It was the first exposure to an I-phone. One can imagine the ooohs and aaahs and a few questions asked re the cost. Ahana went back and wrote about her visit to the school in the DNA newspaper.

August: Shridhar, Rajani and Swarashree visited us with the clear purpose of sharing their days with us. So while Rajani taught the children a few bhajans, Shridhar conducted a leadership course for 20 of our best. Team work was the fundamental and children were taken through the process step by step with great humour and gentleness.

But the last day took everyone’s breathaway. Swarashree performed a ballad in Kathak. It lasted an hour and the children sat in utter absorption. When the performance was over there was a collective sigh. It was an extraordinary performance.

On August 15^th, Independence Day was celebrated with Mr Raghuram of DainikBhaskar. He conducted a short and interesting workshop on ‘Do good – it will go a full circle and come right back to you’. As always, our ‘senior’ students of the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th standard attended the talk. For days after that the children recounted to the younger children the various incidents Raghuram had cited.

Kirsty Joy Minton who had come with a 6 month visa as a volunteer, from the UK, decided to stay the whole academic year. So in August, after a few hundred visits to the local police office, she got a year’s visa. A loud cheer went up and she resumed conversing, singing, teaching English. She was taken aback when her English was corrected with Tamlish that our children are experts at. By the time she left this April, she was as good at Tamlish as our kids had got in English.

September saw the return of Miriam – our German volunteer two years ago. She wanted to “reassure myself that Shikshayatan is still there exactly as I remember it.” Two weeks flew by; the children revisited their German with her and she surprised the whole school by saying that she had chosen to study Tamil as her secondary subject at her University. So Tamil books were brought out and the whole school took to talking to her in Tamil.

October was time with Becky. Becky, a friend of Kirsty’s, visited for a week. A photographer by profession, she taught the children to use a camera. They talked of lens and focus by the end of her visit. It was also the time for Halloween. Masks were bought and made and the children had a great time frightening each other. Becky is now synonymous with Halloween and camera.

December, for Christmas, Jan and Narendra visited. Friends of Kirsty, they were fun. We hope to see more of them as they live in Dindigul. They volunteer with an ngo that works with orphans or one parent child.

January saw a number of visitors to coincide with the Kumbabhishekam. Neela and Venkat came bearing gifts for all the staff. Mani and Saraswathi – Aruna’s uncle and aunt – came bearing sweets for the school and flowers and fruits for the pooja. Sushila and Narayanaswamy – Aruna’s sister and brother-in- law – came bearing even more sweets for the occasion. Vasudevan and Vidya – Raghavan’s brother and sister-in-law came with gifts.

Murli and Tanuja – cousins of Aruna – visited too. Murli had been with the IAF and now flies Spicejet. Eyes popped open and for a while a lot of kids wanted to be pilots. Tanuja is a Bharatnatyam dancer who uses her hands and eyes as she talks even daily conversation.

March brought holi with Anu – Aruna’s niece – who works with Washington Post. The children were more interested in throwing water and colours at her than in learning about her work.

April was Hanspeter’s month. He arrived on the 18^th with his son and daughter. He is a trainer with Coverdale Germany and Managing Director of Coverdale India along with Raghavan. He spent two lovely days with the teachers and the children with small workouts on leadership, team building and group games for and with children. We think he enjoyed this as much as the children did.

Our special programmes

This year, with the parents of our children being more literate and aware, we conducted a half day workshop for them on “What to play with your child during the holidays”. They learnt a lot and like any parent anywhere were eager to go home and play with their children. Since the games were either language or math based it was simple enough for them. We taught them to make games themselves so that they would not have to spend hard earned money.

When they told us that they wished their children had more books to read we suggested we could ask the bookseller to make another visit.

We are very proud to state that they bought story books worth Rs.30,000/- on that day.

Our outreach programmes:

Last year, our teachers conducted a summer camp for children of other schools. The idea was to make teaching practices of Shikshayatan known in local circles as also a small pocket money for the teachers – that would not be expected at home. The summer camp was a huge success and gave enough pocket money for the teachers to take a 3 day trip to Mysore. The arrangements were made by Shubha and Shashikant who also took care of their food and part of their travel. The money thus stretched and shopping was possible too. For a few of our teachers, this was their first train travel. Said Kalai, “I sat at the window and didn’t take my eyes off the passing scenes outside…”

Our teachers went to Spice Valley School, Bodinayakanur [350 kms near the western ghats] and KVR Convent at Kattur [5kms away] to help troubleshoot learning challenges such as language building, spelling, math tables and reading. The teachers there are now following our teaching practices effectively; there is a marked improvement in the learning curve and reading programme has been accelerated. She thanked us warmly. Both have called us to send them to their schools again; no small achievement for aspiring young girls from the village!

Veludayar High school where we are consul have made their mark in the Xth standard exams with more than 15 students being declared State rank holders; and 497 out of the 520 who appeared, passed; more than 60 scored 100/100 in subjects. It caused great enthusiasm and during the summer vacation, special classes were conducted for teachers of the 6^th standard. A number of children having ‘finished’ their elementary education join the school at the 6^th standard. Only a few truly qualify for the class. Every year there is a great chasm between expectation and reality. This time the teachers wanted to take it on headlong. They went back from the teacher ed programme armed with lesson plans, teaching materials and determination.

This year too, we had a special teacher ed programme for teachers of Shikshayatan, Oyster Learning Initiative [Thiruvarur] and Lumens school [Vapi, Gujarat]. It was a ten day programme that ran from morning to late evening. The aim this time was to create ‘kits’ for every topic – making a teacher classroom ready. We were invited to work with Grade XI and grade XII children next year. We also held classes for students of Veludayar, B.Edcollege on creating effective teaching materials and the art of conducting a good class.

All of this was possible only because of your faith in our work – a thought that gives us impetus to grow and commit ourselves each year to do better for those in our care.

We thank you and wish that we remain always worthy of your trust.