Sri Lanka - October 2023

We were delighted to be able to return to our partner schools in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka in October half term, this time with a team of 21 students. Our trip is organised jointly by Calthorpe Park School and by Ocean Stars, a local charity working with young people and community groups in Sri Lanka, set up after the 2004 tsunami.

The team visited many Buddhist and Hindu temples, saw elephants at close hand in the elephant orphanage and in the wild, went tea picking at a tea factory and enjoyed the most amazing train ride through the tea plantation of the Sri Lankan uplands. 

They enjoyed trying a wide variety of Sri Lankan foods from both the Sinhalese and Tamil traditions.

During half term, our students and staff taught in our partner schools, delivering lessons they had being preparing all year to students from preschool through to secondary school. Our students were so committed and enthusiastic in their time in schools - as many of the students we work with tend to spend all of their time in the town of Batticaloa, the trip created some unforgettable memories for them and for us. 

Many of our students have talked about how the trip changed their perspective on life, that they have returned valuing things differently, and for some, it has even shaped what they would like to do in the future.

We look forward to working with our partner schools during the year, sending work our students have done, meeting with them to share our work online, and preparing for a return visit in 2024.

Ross Walker and the Sri Lanka Team