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So much has happened since
Nell's first visit to the school in 1997. Keep up to
date with the latest developments here on our
Newsletters page.
In 2000 the school doubled in
size, with two classes now running, the third room
becoming our staff room. We also took on our second
teacher.
In 2001 the land behind the
school was purchased to allow for expansion, and we
partitioned the nursery class to accommodate our
third class. In 2002 the foundations were in place
ready for the construction of our new school to
begin.
In 2003 the construction was
well under way. Classes one, two and three duly
moved over to the new building in 2004 leaving the
old building for our nursery/reception class and the
top juniors.
In 2005 the construction of the
next floor began to accommodate two more classrooms
and a library. Local volunteers from the village of
Pokharatok helped to dig trenches for our water
project, the cesspit was created for the new toilet
block, and the tap area was prepared ready for the
water supply.
In 2006 the construction of the
first floor was complete. The school name was
attached to the railings on the first floor. The
ground floor toilets were complete, and the
staffroom moved to the first floor. The old
staffroom will be converted into a library during
our next visit. |
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 Autumn Newsletter 2011
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Hi from Nell, Den and the Charity Committee.
Here you can see the picture of Den and I dressed for our Nepali wedding ceremony. What an amazing day we had! All the staff came down to greet us and share this very special moment, along with most of the children and some of the parents. Next we had a wedding band that arrived in full chorus at the hotel and we, along with the staff, children and parents, followed the band up through Gorkha and on into the village. When we arrived at the school we were met by the press who interviewed us about our work over the last 10 years together.
When we arrived at the school we found that the steps had been completely rebuilt (we knew Reg Gray, would be really pleased to see this as he had been worried about the more haphazard style we had before) and there was now a fence around the top to improve safety. This work was sponsored by the local government which was very pleasing to hear. We have also heard that they will sponsor a classroom block for the lower school as our original building is now in poor repair. Unfortunately the new building will not house the nursery so we still need to think about how we will be able to fund the repair or demolishment and rebuild of that building.
We have been trying to get funding for our staff for the last 10 years and we are pleased to say the local government is paying funds for two teachers into our school fund. It would be better if they would take them on completely as this would include paying their pension. We are currently paying an additional 10% into the provident fund to support a pension for each member of staff. Kamala recently passed her SLC exam and is now teaching in KG. Kamala was our cleaner and cook, in her spare time (which was tiny) she went back to study before school so that she could get her qualification.)
This is likely to be the last year we can keep to £15 sponsorship as we wish to continue supporting children with tiffin (lunch) which is rising in cost. We have currently been able to keep to this rate by getting a better deal on material cost and keeping the tailoring rate the same.
Thank you for all your support this year. If you have not set up a standing order for your sponsorship payment here are our bank details: LloydsTSB Basildon Branch 30 10 52 Gorkha Learning for Life Account number 1041098 (some banks want 8 digits so you have to put a 0 at the front). We are currently trying to establish a paypal link on the website.
Thanks again for your support this year
Nell, Den and all on the committee
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| Spring Newsletter 2011
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Thank you to all of those who have already paid their sponsorship money. As only half of this money has so far been received, we would be grateful to receive sponsorship money from those who are still to pay. We still have some unreferenced payments, one of which was made in Corringham, so if you think one of these might be yours please let us know as we are unsure which child the sponsorship is for. Also, the new school year is about to start so we will be looking for further sponsors for the children starting in our nursery.
To keep our school in line with Nepali regulations we have initiated our own school development plan to improve various aspects of the school. As a result of this we are hoping to purchase the following items in the near future for each of our classrooms. Bookshelves, cupboards and desks for our teachers. If anyone would like to sponsor the purchase of any of these items please get in touch.
Future fund raising events are the Folk and Blues Night on 14 May and the annual Folk and Blues Festival hosted by John and Fiona which will take place on 30 July, from 2pm to 2am! A new event is the garden party which will run from 2pm to 7pm on 3 September at High House in Horndon. We will be entertained by a storyteller as well as live music, and henna hands and food will be available.
Thank you for your support!
From all at Gorkha Learning for Life
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| Autumn Newsletter 2010
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This year we have had several successful fund-raising events including the 4th annual Folk and Blues Festival thanks to John and Fiona. The proceeds of this event entirely funds Bishwa, one of our teachers, for an entire year! Due to the success of our first wine-tasting in March we are back by popular demand and will be holding an Australian wine-tasting evening on the 3rd December at the Woolmarket. We will be entertained by Paul Berry, our favourite Kentish didgeridoo player and the evening will be hosted by our resident wine expert and pommie Dave Bruce. The tickets for the evening will cost £10, and this covers cheese and six wines.
During our latest visit to the school the children were as always very grateful to receive their gifts and we are hoping to have links from our website to videos and photos of the children happily receiving them. Some of you will be receiving a new child sponsor card as over the last academic year some of the students have left our sponsorship scheme as they have moved out of the area. Additionally, those of you with children in classes 1, 3 and 6 will be receiving an up-to-date photograph of your child. We are hoping that we will be able to continue these year group photographs so that you are able to see your child growing up. This will be funded by your gift aid contributions.
As a committee we have reviewed the government education policy in Nepal. Although we are not required to follow these standards we feel that it is important that our children and staff should have the same opportunities as those in government-maintained schools and as such we are looking into the price implications of the recommended resources with a view to funding these in the near future.
In the New Year child sponsorship will be due and will remain at £15. However, we will be reviewing this figure for 2012. We will be holding our annual Burns Night on 29th January and the tickets will be £15 for a three-course meal as well as music, dancing and Burns poetry. Please see our website for the latest news and events to come in 2011.
Thank you for your support
From all at Gorkha Learning
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| Newsletter, Summer 2010
- 24 July 2010 |
We hope you are all having a lovely summer!
Secondary Education
We recently received class data from Sarita our headmistress, concerning both the children still studying at Shree Krishna and the children who have gone on to secondary education. We are very pleased to report that we have our first children that have passed class 10 and have progressed into SLC, which is the final Nepali school year before college. These children are Dhruba Pariyar, Sabin Sirmal and Sajana Pariyar. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them all on their success and wish them luck in their final school year.
Overall, we now have 66 of our children continuing their studies at a local secondary school.
New Kindgarten Class
In line with other schools in Nepal, we have decided to open a kindergarten class due to the increased numbers of children in our nursery class. This is the equivalent to a reception class in the UK. We are looking forward to decorating and resourcing the new class, and giving the new class the same opportunities as our nursery children. Whilst we are in Gorkha, we will be researching the possibility of building an additional classroom to accommodate the new class (as it is currently being held in the clinic!), as well as a re-build of the current nursery class (which is part of our old building).
Student Photographs
Whilst we are visiting the school this summer, we have decided to photograph those children who are currently in classes 3 and 6, as part of our new plan to update your child photograph when they reach important stages in their school life. We will also be working with some of the other nurseries that we support in Gorkha, to facilitate improved usage of the resources that we have provided.
Manakamana
We will also be meeting up with Ram Punt from Manakamana school for the deaf, to discuss ways in which we could support their work.
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| Newsletter, Spring 2010
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Sponsorship
Thank you to everyone who has already paid their sponsorship money. We are hoping to send the money out on the 18th of March in order to have the school uniforms purchased in time for the new school year which starts on the 18th of April.
Teacher Fund & Volunteers
You will all be pleased to hear that our teacher fund is now running well. We would like to thank Kelly and Mike who have paid for Ram this year. Kelly and her friend Lisa went out to Nepal in September and helped at our school. In addition to this they were able to work alongside staff in two of our nurseries, providing extremely valuable assistance. Volunteers are always a great inspiration to our nursery teachers - if you are interesting in helping we would love to hear from you.
Burns Night
Over £400 was raised at our annual Burns Night. For the first time we were privileged to have a traditional piper who led us in our celebrations - we would like to thank Allison for making it an extra special evening. Due to the devastation in Haiti we decided to organise a raffle to support the earthquake appeal and raised £126. Our thanks go to everyone who attended and to all those who contributed to a very enjoyable evening.
Wine Tasting
Our next event will be the Wine Tasting evening on 27th March. The first of our wine tasting evenings will have a French theme and we will taste six different French wines accompanied by a selection of French cheese. Our wine guru for the evening will be Monsieur DNeill, and we will also be joined by Les belles dames de danse de Horndon.
Sponsorship
We currently have 45 children in need of sponsors - we are pleased to report that we have been able to keep the price down to £15 per year.
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| Newsletter, September 2009
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Unclaimed prize
The grand prize draw held at the Folk and Blues Festival still has one prize as of yet unclaimed - the Round of Golf for two. If we still have it in December we will put it into the Folk and Blues Night draw.
For an extra chance to win this exciting prize, please e-mail us suggesting ideas for this website - we will enter you into the prize draw!
Sponsorship
Child: We still have children available for sponsorship at £15 per year.
Teacher: Thank you to all of you that have added finance to our teacher fund. We are still looking for new sponsors to join syndicates - we currently have a deficit budget of £497 in this fund.
Volunteers
We run a volunteer scheme and are continuing to accept volunteers to work in the nursery classes in Gorkha. If you are interested or want more information on this or any of the sponsorship schemes please get in touch.
We currently have two volunteers, Kelly and Lisa, working in the nursery classes in Nepal and hope to have a report from them for the next newsletter. A big thank you is sent to them both from all of us at Gorkha Learning for Life.
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