Following the visit to our partner school in Dornakal in October by Penny Fayter, International Coordinator at King’s, Laura Gibbs, teacher of English and Drama and Sean Govan a student we have recently had the pleasure of a reciprocal visit. Joshua Jayakumar, the Principal, Renuka Pokala and Prasanna Jalli, a student, visited King’s, arriving on 27th November and staying through until 8th December. The schools have been sharing experiences of different ways of life, exploring their diverse rural and urban environments and enjoying new ways of learning.
Dornakal is a village in rural Andhra Pradesh and the school is on the Cathedral compound. The DDEM School offers an education through the medium of English to local children from the age of 3 to 16 as well as to children from remote tribal settlements who stay in hostels during term time. There are also other schools on the site run by the Dornakal diocese – the ‘telugu’ medium school, a school for the deaf, a Junior College (6th Form) and a Degree College. Funding for the children and young people is through International Aid Agency sponsorship, and donations, including from the Gloucester diocese.
Both schools are hoping to continue the Partnership and are looking forward to working on joint curriculum projects in the future – to include work concerning Social Justice and Peace and Conflict – looking at the role of girls and women in all aspects of life- through Art, Politics, Literature and Social Studies - as well as Food and nutrition – Sustainable Development and the effects of Climate Change.
Further reciprocal visits are also planned in the future. At present, Josh Carter from the King’s School is spending time out of his Gap Year teaching English at Dornakal and Kiran Devamani from Dornakal is assisting with teaching at King’s. We are also discussing whether a teacher exchange might take place in the future.
The visitors had a wonderful time talking to staff and pupils, teaching telugu – the official language of the region, participating in lessons, taking lessons and enjoying all the Christmas festivities – Carol services, Nativity Plays and the school Christmas Fayre.
It is also a wonderful experience for the students from each school to have spent up to a week being part of a tutor group and participating in all the lessons. Both Sean and Prasanna have loved their time and the pupils in both schools have loved having them. It has brought the partnership to life in a very real way for the pupils at both schools and for Sean and Prasanna these visits will always be a very special part of their lives.