Follow Up: Read, Read!

Thanks for your comment Bri, it was the most brilliant week we got the library done and it was such an incredible experience for all involved. The children at St. Therese, Torquay raised close to $9000 in the end! (My favourite fundraising initiative was by Yr 2 students who invented a new product called ‘mighty cleaner’ mostly made from bi-carb soda, they bottled it and sold it, making a $27 profit all if which was sent to India!)

The library is complete, we bought over 2000 books, 5 digital cameras, 5 video cameras, puppet theatres- with puppets and loads of literacy games. The room looks amazing! Classes have already started in the library and the resources are also being used by nine of the outreach schools as well. The teachers ran workshops all week with local teachers and students covering photography, literacy- the big books were a huge hit, they also did PE classes and introduced the kids to many new games- one of the teachers commented on how he felt like a celebrity here, teaching the kids “new” games like “simon says” and “heads down thumbs up” which he would definitely struggle to get the interest for in his yr.3 classroom at home!

We still have about $3000 remaining which will go a long way here, we have set up a chance for children of the two schools to speak over skype and come up with a proposal on how they think some of the remaining money should be spent. There is also talk of a new art room (you interested in coming over?)

I will post some photos here but some of the teachers also kept a blog during the week if you are interested in checking it out: http://sttorquayindia.edublogs.org/

A fabulous experience to be part of- big thanks to the families in Torquay for their generosity!