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IGCSE AFFILIATION |
Our efforts in steering SAI International School towards a great future is forging ahead towards its predetermined goals. Our intention of introducing the International curriculum frame work to the School ethos has finally reached its destination. We are proud to announce that we have received affiliation from the University of Cambridge to implement the IGCSE syllabus in the school. We are proud to have been a school in the state to be bestowed with this honour. Students opting to appear the school finals from the IGCSE Board will have an edge over the others in making a mark in the International scenario in terms of enrichment in all the fronts.
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Fowey Primary School, UK – Class I |
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SAI International School, India – Class XI/D (Commerce) |
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16 June 2009 – 1.40pm |
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Despite a heavy study load, students of Class XI/D (Commerce) delighted in taking part in a video conference with young children of Fowey Primary School in the UK to teach them about temple heritage of Orissa.
Fowey Primary School had often interacted with younger SAI-oneers in video conferences last academic year; and so when their teacher was presented with teaching her class of spirited 5 year olds about Mandirs and Hinduism she turned to us for help and guidance, as they live in a fairly remote area of the UK and a visit to a Mandir was simply not possible.
Working in two teams, our Class XI/D took up the challenge of bringing their culture to life for the children by preparing powerpoints to introduce the beauty and majesty of historic and world renowned temples right on our own doorstep. The children listened intently as Mukund Agrawalla told the history behind the Jagannath Temple and tried to describe the feelings behind every Hindu who makes the pilgrimage to Puri for Rath Yatra. The photograph of Lord Jagannath idol created quite a stir in the little children and they all jumped up to get a closer look, nearly knocking over their teacher’s laptop in the process!
Pictures of the Sun Temple were then shown to the children who ‘oooohed’ and ‘aaaahed’ over them in such an adorable manner as Adil Karim moved on to talk about the legend of the sun God and his temple shaped like a chariot with its intricately carved wheels and statues. |
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Unfortunately, a glitch meant Namrata Behera was unable to tell the children about Lingaraj Temple but the remaining pictures have been e-mailed to the children together with a few researched facts so they can discover for themselves about this temple’s beauty and history.
A little time had been allowed for a question and answer session and the 16 year old SAI-oneers were amazed at the depth of thought in the inquisitive minds of the young British children when faced with answering their questions of “Do you wear shoes in a mandir?”; “What type of lighting do you have in them?”; Do you have a religious book like our Bible in your mandirs?” and “Do you have graveyards like we do at our churches in England?”.
All too soon it was time for our students to wave goodbye and return to their books as their little British friends headed off for their Sports Day with an energy and enthusiasm that made us feel exhausted for their poor teacher! Now we cannot wait for next week when we meet again to talk about temple culture, priests and pujas.
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22 June 2009 – 1.40pm
Fowey Primary School, UK – Class I
SAI International School, India – Class XI/D (Commerce) |
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It was the 2nd time the young children of Fowey Primary School in the UK had met with our SAI-oneers of class XI/D Commerce and they were already armed with many questions relating to Hindu culture and temples..
Anakan Rai, Ronak Agrawal and Somnath Banerjee had prepared a powerpoint presentation on Jagannath Temple and the upcoming festival of Rath Yatra to show the children. Just as they were about to start, a shout of excitement came from the British children and they started to point to something off camera. Once the children had calmed down their teacher, Mrs Sully, explained they had seen the new chicks on the monitor in their classroom. Their school has a nesting box in the garden and they had placed a webcam inside after a mother bird had laid a few eggs. The children had been monitoring the eggs in the nest but over the weekend they had hatched!
Mrs Sully, managed to angle our video conference camera so we could view the new chicks on their monitor. The picture was a little fuzzy but nevertheless, it was still technology at its best to think newborn chicks in a nest in the gardens of a school in the UK were being viewed by us here in India in real time! |
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The senior students of Class XI/D started their presentation with a short introduction to Jagannath Temple in the pilgrim town of Puri and explained its importance during the festival of Rath Yatra. It is difficult to describe the exact feelings of each Hindu as he sees Lord Jagannath and his siblings being pulled through the Grand Road on their elaborate chariots but the little children of Fowey Primary School seemed very interested indeed.
 They loved the images of the idols and were quite amazed at the number of people present. Even the images of the temple kitchen and mahaprasad were of interest to them despite the quality of the connection being a little poor at times.
The senior SAI-oneers did a wonderful job of
presenting and patiently answering all
questions, and are now eagerly waiting to
see photographs of the children’s artwork on
what they have learned from them, together
with their own craft model of Lord Jagannath.
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