The Church of St Mary The Virgin in Lapworth have raised £700 to help send three students from the University of Warwick to teach at a rural school in India.  The three University of Warwick students Hayley Pope, Letitia Bryan and Jessica Vickerage will leave in a few days  to teach English to students of Laksh Farm School at the village of Mangar in India.

Hayley Pope said “This felt the natural progression for me in light of my experience of working in schools in England. I chose to study at Warwick due to its reputation as one of the top teacher-training universities in the UK where I have had the luxury of having the latest technology to teach young people in schools.

I am looking forward to learning a great deal from teachers in India. I think the challenge of working with limited resources will have an impact on the way I teach when I return to the UK. Moreover, I am looking forward to seeing how the Indian Education system differs from the English system.”

Letitia Bryan said that she  “Hoped to draw on my experiences teaching at a rural school in South Africa a few years ago”. “We will use lots of practical work inside and outside, with sport, arts and craft, helping students and teachers to converse in English and putting what they have learnt into practice. This is the best way to learn a language and to understand it.”

 She adds:

“We are going to prepare ourselves to continue teaching with relatively simple materials so that teachers can carry on effortlessly even after we have left. These materials will include flash cards, paints and arts materials. So while we will keep the materials simple, we will try to ‘think out-of-the-box.’ I would like to focus on some of the teaching around the farm itself and incorporate gardening into lessons. There will also be various school trips or visits we can make, or even nature walks, and then we can discuss our experiences. The focus is on communication, as well as learning.”

Jessica Vickerage, has already spent six months teaching in Darjeeling during her gap-year in early 2007. She says: “We have been shown pictures of the farm, and been given a great deal of information about the actuality of Laksh. I have decided that more than any other teaching method, I desperately need to take several packets of blu tac with me so that I am not in want of adhesives. I intend to cover the school walls with as much of the children’s work as I possibly can. I hope that apart from fulfilling my role as a teaching assistant to the staff at Laksh, I can arrange and take art classes so that I some can ensure that I cover the classroom walls with students’ works before I leave.

The students have also been given some materials and T shirts by the bank Santander to use in the school.

Link to news item on fund raising for project by The Church of St Mary The Virgin in Lapworth  at:
http://www.lapworth.info/stmarys/currynight.php

For further information please contact: 

Peter Dunn, Head of Communications
Communications Office, University House,
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 8UW, United Kingdom   
email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk 
Tel: +44 (0)24 76 523708  Mobile/Cell:  +44 (0)7767 655860

Pr69 22nd July 2010