Sri Lanka - October 2022

Ayubowan! Three of our staff team, Mr Walker, Miss Oram and Mrs Haynes joined together with the charity Ocean Stars to visit our partner schools and projects in and around Batticaloa, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka over half term.

As a result of the pandemic all our visits to Sri Lanka had to be postponed and it was October of 2019 when we made our last visit. Needless to say, all of the community groups and schools were pleased to see us return. During the course of the week, we engaged Sri Lankan students in a wide range of activities, in which they would not normally have an opportunity to participate.  Students were very happy to learn more about life in the UK, and about being a teacher or a student in a British school. We especially enjoyed hearing the talents of the Vipulananda Samba Band, who have developed into amazing performers, after our school donated a samba kit in October 2014, seeing students at the Deaf School in Batticaloa thrive, despite all that has happened during this time, and being so warmly received by all our friends in Sri Lanka after what seems an incredibly long period of time.

A group of 21 students will join us when we return in 2023 - this group has already been hugely successful in fundraising for our partner schools and will be planning lessons to deliver whilst in Sri Lanka. We remain indebted to Dilanee Bunter of the charity Ocean Stars for her support, encouragement and direction in helping our school to join together with schools and community groups across Sri Lanka.