Happy Deepavali 2015

The children of Gurukulam join me in wishing you a very happy Deepavali :)

May your life be light up in all ways!

Going down memory lane....the Diwali celebrations of 2004

Mrs June, our first English teacher!

Siri Gopal Kaur from Germany enjoying Diwali with the children with Mr K Ramaswami (dad) looking on in the background

Mrs Sumathi Ramaswami (mom), the kids and myself!

Mrs June, Mrs Kadar Bee our first School Attendant and the children

Building a future for fishermen children in Kovalam - Jacoba's impression of her visit to Gurukulam

Jacoba Van Der Mei, after her initial visit to Gurukulam has been very supportive of the work being done at school. 

Her impression of Gurukulam, in her own words:

Gurukulam school - Building a future for fishermen children in Kovalam

Colourful, loud and bustling, India in short: “organized chaos”. It is this dynamic environment that made me decide to move to India for a year. Leaving the overly structured banking life in London to indulge in a country where flexibility is key. A sabbatical year with the objective to devote time to helping others, from supporting education to social entrepreneurship.

Visiting the Gurukulam “Trust Children” school in Kovalam emphasised my view on the impact and importance of education. I’ve always been in favour of the “teach people fishing instead of giving them fish” theory. But the Gurukulam school has shown me this in reality; the fisherman village children are actually obtaining skills to break the cycle of poverty. Learning English really makes a difference in a country like India, where the local language will most probably not guarantee a decent job in 10 years’ time. From this perspective I dare to say that the Gurukulam “Trust Children” school stands at the basis of a bright future for these kids!

Entering the school, it was an overwhelmingly warm welcome; bright smiles and energetic kids looking at us when entering the class rooms. It was great to see school children being so cheerful. The genuine joy they bring works so contagiously, that I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.

All students are clearly aware of the daily routine. After class they go in small groups to thoroughly wash their hands before having lunch. When they have collected their lunch all will go back to the classroom to neatly place their napkins and sit together to enjoy their nutritious meals.

English medium school

I am very impressed by the way the Gurukulam school manages the day-to-day operations of the school. They have an amazing group of staff, who are all genuine people persons who love to make a difference in their own community.

Every year another class room is added to expand the English medium school another year. They have reached class 10 now and based on the achievements of the staff and children, I am sure the children that graduate at class 12 will be properly skilled. I fully realised that in addition to learning English, these children gained confidence and increased their self-belief at this school, crucial skills when growing up!

This visit to the Gurukulam school has given me a heart-warming feeling. A feeling which increases my confidence that education will make a difference.

Jacoba Van Der Mei

Inter Faith Visits

27 Oct 2015

Our school teaches students to respect all religions of this world. To learn from all of them and understand their percepts.

The students visited a mosque, temple and church. Our teachers Mrs Grace, Mrs Devagi, Ms Revathy, Ms Bhavani, Ms Shifana and Mr Abdul accompanied the children on these visits...

Kite flying festival and competition - November 7th, 2015 @ Gurukulam school, Kovalam

Dear Friends and Volunteers of Gurukulam,

We invite you to our kite flying festival, the first ever to be held at Gurukulam- A "Trust Children " School at Kovalam. This is to be an exciting day where you will fabricate your own kite and then fly it in a competition that will see the best designs win prizes as also the highest flying kite.

So do bring your imagination and skill and let your friends and family tag along, to witness a one of kind event that Kovalam has ever seen.

Please fill out the details required below. Also find attached the rules of the competition.

Wishing you luck and hoping to see you soon.

Venue: Gurukulam school premises at Kovalam village

Date: Saturday 7 Nov , 2015

Time: 1.30 pm - 4 pm

REGISTRATION FORM - KITE FLYING COMPETITION 

Date:

Name of the participant:

Name of partner :

Theme of the kite :

Name of the organisation: 

E mail Mrs Sabita Currimbhoy at  sabita.currimbhoy@trustchildren.org with your details.

Rules

1. The participants can chose his/her own partner 


2. Only one partner is allowed 


3. This competition is open to school students, staff, friends and volunteers of 
Gurukulam. There is no upper age limit.

4. Rolling shield is given to the best design and one more is given to the longest 
flying kite 


5. All participants will receive a participation certificate 


6. No Manja (ground glass) is allowed 


7. No “dealing” or cutting other kites.

8. No upper age limit. Minimum age limit of 8 and above.

9. All materials required to make the kites should be bought by the participants 


10.The Kites must de designed and made in the campus on the Festival

day.

Rebecca and Stefi visit Gurukulam

Rebecca and Stefi from the UK, visited our school.

Rebecca  currently works for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare in Oxford as the Sustainable Specialties Manager.  Her previous position was as a policy analyst in the UK Government’s Department for Education.

What she felt about her visit:

• The thing I was most struck by was the ambitious vision of the school and the breadth of the curriculum offer.  From the moment we entered it was clear that the school is a vibrant and dynamic place.
• When working with children from low income settings it’s tempting to focus exclusively on desk-based learning. I think it’s a good indication of the vision of the school that so much thought has gone into making subjects interesting but also that the children are offered projects and other activities to make their experience interesting.
• One of the problems children from low income households face, that is often overlooked, is that they’re unable to access interesting experiences such as sailing.  Your school’s provision of such a good range of extracurricular activities seems to me to be one of the many ways in which the principal and teaching staff are taking the disadvantages that the pupils face very seriously.
• Talking to the principal it was very evident that he has a great deal of knowledge about how to make the school a good place for staff and pupils.  I was struck by his focus on building confidence in the pupils (“discipline without hurting the feelings”) and supporting his staff to develop.  The school felt like a kind place, the kind of environment where emotions are settled so that young people are able to learn more easily.
• It’s clear that English language teaching is a big struggle - as I understand it is in many Indian schools.
• The coupling of older and younger children seemed like an inspired approach to discipline and also peer-to-peer learning.  I’m thinking of mentioning it to the head at Rosa’s school.
• Stefi and I had a chance to chat to the student psychologist who’s working with the children. I was struck how seriously mental health is taken by the school but also reminded of how useful it is for staff and pupils to have the chance to meet other people from different institutions and disciplines. 
• It was only after our visit, seeing the state of some of the other schools, that I realised how much attention has been given to the physical environment of the school.  It was well decorated and very clean and tidy.

Learning through singing!

Our music teacher has all our tiny tots enjoying their singing...

Watch them singing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZwohjI3cm0

Watch our kindergarten students enjoying their rhymes...

https://youtu.be/VMXkjWkx-Cs

Our School turns Techno

29th Sept 2015

Our school turned to "Namma Vuru Foundation" and "Classle Knowledge Pvt Ltd" for smarter educative tools for the children.

Principal, Mr Rajeev's, words on the "Live books" being brought in:

Gurukulam A Trust Children School is one of the first Schools to sign an MOU with Classle and Namma OOru Foundation for an interesting Self paced learning Device – A thumb drive that will be compatible with Android mobiles and I Pads and PCs to help the Children learn the lessons taught in the school every day 24/7 whenever they feel like revising the text books of State Board syllabus The pilot project is backed up interesting exercises based on the learning done in the school The students can sync in the progress at School which will be monitored by the Principal, Teachers and even Parents. The exercises are auto graded and self paced For example a student of Grade VI after finishing his exercises can access further exercises of Grade VII and so on. This is a tool which will go a long way in identifying the student’s interest and challenging the prodigies of even a particular subject and encouraging the Child’s curiosity. We are indeed proud that this will create more stalwarts like Ramanujam and CV Raman right from Grade VI. All the thumb drives are sponsored by Namma Ooru Foundation and the Software backed up by Classle.com This MOU was signed between the Principal Mr. K. Rajeev, Mr Vaidhyanathan, CEO of Classle and Mr. Natarajan, Founder of Namma Ooru Foundation on 30 / 09 / 2015 followed by a demonstration of the various uses and advantages of the Self paced Learning Program to the teachers of the School 

Rajeev, Principal

CEO of "Namma Vuru Foundation", Mr Natarajan and their team organised a workshop for our teachers on their new initiatives in smart education.