We Nurture Wonderful Human Beings

Purrrrfect

We were blessed with a flying visit, literally, from BBC Big Cat Diary presenter Jonathan Scott, who dropped in on us by helicopter, to squeals of excitement which narrowly missed the helicopter taking off again 'flown' by 50 small aspiring pilots (you might remember from the previous blog that they'd already coincidentally had 'flying lessons'). Jonathan regaled the kids with fabulous snippets on cheetahs, lions and leopards, but his best piece of advice came from his old teacher who told him, 'The best thing you did in your life was not to listen to my advice'. (See the two min movie below, under 'Links').

International Day of Yoga

We celebrated June's International Day of Yoga (IDY) in a big way, with an eight day yoga workshop for Years Two and Three (ages 7 to 10), led by an irresistible Isha Yoga teacher who joined us from South India and who wooed us within minutes of saying Sadhguru School children had a healthy balance of vivacity and attention, and that we must be doing something right not to have supressed their exuberance but at the same time to have kept them engaged with their daily yoga practices - which have been happening since we opened in January 2017. During the workshop the kids learnt Surya Shakti (a dynamic form of sun salutation, which cultivates great physical fitness and strength), played games, learnt about caring for themselves, each other and the environment, drew pictures of what they had learnt, and put together a finale of dancing and singing performed with much aplomb in front of their parents. 

Meanwhile, for each of the eight days, the imperturbable Stina from Sweeden, who has been a volunteering angel in the kitchen, was teaching our kitchen staff such exotics to the rural Western Uganda palate as banana, chia seed (now grown in Sadhguru School veg garden!) and cinnamon smoothie, gooey banana biscuits, date energy balls, pumpkin and coconut soup, hibiscus honey tea, and lettuce, cucumber, parsely and corriander sandwiches (all grown at school) on homemade brown bread. These were all tentatively trialled on the yoga workshop-going kids at the end of their morning sessions, as so far we've been sticking to a fairly conservative menu based on the traditional local diet. We honestly thought they would pull the lettuce and cucumber from out of the bread... but within seconds the sandwiches had disapperared, innards 'n all, and they were begging for more, and we were jumping for joy.

World Environment Day & Recycled Sports Day

Taking heed of the 5th June World Environment Day call to action: 'Beat Platic Polluniton. If you can't reuse it, refuse it', the children had a presentation and video session on how plastics are damaging our planet through irresponsible use; and then got together into their house teams to clean up their local market village, Rwaihamba, where plastics float, bob, ebb, sway, and mulch in a chaotic market sea. This was followed by a Recycled Sports day afternoon whereby, still in the same house teams, they competed against each other using footballs made our of yarns of plastic bags woven into a ball, and obstacle relay races where the 'baton' was two full shopping bags, and obstacles included old car tyres, and a chance to show off their recently learnt forward roll from gym class. This was the first full sports session on our now ready-for-use beautiful hoe-levelled and hand-planted playing field, which we had been longingly watching gestate, forbidden, in her own sweet grassy time. (See the 70 second movie below, under 'Links').

Summer School: Music Dance Drama Week

The week following the end of term was fired up into mornings of music, dance and drama, led by Wanjiru, visiting from the UK and of Kenyan descent, who gave herself wholeheartedly to inspiring the children (see penultimate pics), despite a painful leg injury. In her own words:

'In the school I found the kind of ethos that I sought all my working life; a balance between play and work; creativitiy and information; stillness and activity; yoga and dance. I spent nine intensive days in a valley in Ndali, surrounded by hills, and the children soon started to open up like beautiful flowers in springtime.'

Learning Showcase for Parents

We held a special day for parents from the local Ndali community around Sadhguru School to experience how their children are learning, through methods unfamiliar to them which involve no blackboard or homework. If any of you are a little confused as to what active learning means, I hope the below 4 minute movie under 'Links', 'Learning Through Discovery and Play', will shed a little light.

With love, 

Bliss, Lulu and Jane

Links:

• Learning through discovery & play
• Jonathan Scott Flying Visit
• Recycled Sports Day

The children of Sadhguru School went on a flight of fancy that led to a week of whole school cross-curricular learning about aeroplanes and transport. 

Whenever we hear the hum of an engine in the sky above the school, our younger children often run outside to look at the light aeroplanes and helicopters that fly over us, taking tourists to neighboring Ndali Lodge and the nearby tourist attractions. Drawing upon the expertise of our international students, we decided to build a model Boeing 747, and set up Ndali Airport under the 'Magic Tree'. 

Our international children explained and demonstrated the process of booking a flight to a destination, checking in, and going through passport control and security at an airport, as well as the experience of being on board an aircraft.

Children made passports, researched and planned holidays to destinations all over the world. They made lists and packed suitcases according to climate, weather and possible holiday activities. Children learned about the different systems and respective roles of the ground staff at check-in and security, the pilot and crew, and what it would be like to have a birds-eye view of the earth below. Their play led them to investigate flight and air; to follow instructions to make model aeroplanes from junk materials; create a fair test to find the best paper aeroplane; make parachutes from different materials and draw maps and routes for destinations all over the world.

It was a joy to see how children from the local rural villages of Uganda joined their widely travelled classmates in playful learning, to share experiences, broaden their vocabulary, horizons and imaginations.

In other news, as part of our cross curricular topic on animals, we took Class 3 to Queen Elizabeth National Park to see the wild animals. Although it is just 2 hours drive away, only one child and none of the teachers had visited the park before. In their excitement, all 17 children in the class spent the first hour singing songs of jubilation.

Soon they were at the Equator, which they had studied as part of the geography-focused elements in their topic.Then on to the Queen’s Pavilion for lunch, and a quick history lesson as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had also stood on the same spot in 1954. Here they were lucky enough to see elephants, which they had studied previously in class, as well as Uganda kob and warthogs.

Many of the children enjoyed travelling on top of the cars, taking in the lovely views, spotting animals and feeling the wind in their hair.They learnt how to focus the binoculars that had been donated to the school and were thrilled to see many more large herds of elephants in the craters on their evening game drive and picnic. The cars had also been kindly lent free of charge by the parents of Lola and the Headteacher, Jane O’Leary.

Despite their over-excitement about sleeping in the park’s hostel for the night, the children were up ready at the crack of dawn for their morning game drive where they spotted a lioness resting regally in a tree.

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