Rainbow Primary School

Even though we are still in the cow shed, we just received an award from the Center for Organizational Development for excellence in education. The Lions Club of Jubilee Hills put us on their “Permanent Projects” list! The SSA decided to “adopt” one of our special needs children, including paying the bills for their medical care. (See post, "Almost a Cinderella Story") A previous post (see post, "Happy New Year! A Big Donation from ISH") was on the unexpected joy of received a donation from the International School of Hyderabad for our new school building. Finally, the Chirec School, another private school nearby, is in the process of “adopting” us. Imagine what we can do in a real building!! This is what it is like to be a mature school, rather than a start up. We really are moving into the second phase. Construction is actually, really started. We have organization, management (working on that), and resources. It is a real school! Every morning, I woul...

It is pretty funny that the school is still in the cow shed. But even with all the physical challenges, the school just won “Best School” among the cluster of our local schools (Madhapur, Kothaguda, and Chanda Naitana). I wish I could say that all the schools in our cluster were doing OK, but they are really struggling. They do not have a chance to compete with the Rainbow School because they do not have the resources that the Rainbow School has. However, there is more to this than just lack of resources. The other week I spent a long day at the Mandal Education Office. A small gathering of bright and shiny teachers was there working in the mandal’s teacher resource room. The room has some chairs, a blackboard, and a table. There are also some old textbooks (paperback) stacked against the wall. There are several big windows with good views of the surrounding country. But there is nothing in the way of “teacher resources.” No charts to take, no stacks of chalk, no blocks or globe...

In "Building and Engineer News," we are still not even close to getting over Hari's transfer. He was our engineer at the district education department. He was the best! However, Raja Rutnam, his new replacement, is well on his way to a solid place in our hearts. We are all looking forward to working with him on the new building. Construction is still stalled. We're in a catch-22. There is a law requiring 3 feet of setbacks on all sides of a government building. There is also a law requiring all classrooms be 10 by 20 feet minimum. We have 130 square yards...still...after 1 year of trying for more land! Which means we have to get a waiver for one of the two laws and I sure don't want to shrink the classrooms. We tried for four months to get a waiver on the setbacks. Everyone was REAL nice, but no one would but a waiver in writing. The stalemate must be broken next week, so there will be more "Building and Engineer News" then. Site pictures ...

The hip, fun parents from the Parents' Committee of the International School of Hyderabad presented Usha Rani with a check for 30,000 rupees today! This check represents the proceeds from the ISH Christmas Bazaar. It is a very big honor to be considered a worthy investment by the ISH community. Thank you Parents' Committee! The funds will be used to purchase chalkboards for all the classes and desks for the fourth and fifth standard students. It was a lovely, unexpected pleasure to get the call from Carole.

We had multiple parties over the past few weeks. But first, there were exams. Here is fourth class meditating before the exam. All the students and teachers meditate before every school day, which is pretty cool. For a blase Westerner like me, it is just the sweetest thing to see every morning. Most schools in our area do this. After exams, we pulled out every donated toy we've ever gotten and had a BLAST. I can't believe the pictures! Then the older kids made"Big Book" story books for the little ones. Look at his face, Ramesh is just glowing. He loves seeing his words "in print" on a big book. Our last party of the season was the teachers' party. We all wrote letter to ourselves to read every holiday season detailing our goals for our families, ourselves, and our school. Then, for a "present," we made a card for each person, one for Usha Madam, one for Divya, etc. Then everyone else wrote wrote something nice about that person on ...

Today was the day! Construction began on the new school building. The Naandi team and the teaching team held a pooja for Ganesh, the good-natured elephant-headed god who is said to remove obstacles. The part of the ceremony where coconuts are broken in front of Ganesh is particularly important. Both coconuts broke on the first try. The teams went wild. This was very auspicious! Look at Happy Mr. Bhartee, our engineer from Naandi! And here is the construction crew with the first piece of real action. They are leveling the lot for the foundation and structural pillars.

These two were caught outside their huts, doing HOMEWORK! Love that!