Month: September 2017

September also saw Lydia’s Place become a space that was available to the children. They enjoyed the fact that it was a much more free and fluid space (we were using water based paints for the art classes…) It also proved really popular for the children to learn maths through the Numicon method. They could gather around tables and engage in learning with each other. As mentioned above the space was also ideal for the organising of the workshop for teachers. There is a TV in the room which is used for showing some educational videos, but they love when we put on Charlie Chaplain… It’s also the space for craft work and using the Kindle Tablets. We hope to put in a white board next Sept, it will be a sort of break out space from the formal setting of the classrooms…

After our visit to the rural districts, we anticipated about 5 or 6 students might register at the school. We were genuinely a little shocked and of course delighted when day after day new students turned up at the gate of the school asking to be registered.

Over a period of two weeks 22 new students enrolled at the school. The majority of these had arranged to stay with relations living in the town. A number had been accompanied to Ambo by an older sibling and were renting small houses close to the school. (Some of the student sponsorship money goes towards paying the cost of rental accommodation for the rural Deaf children).

We had a slight concern about whether the new and the old students would mix together. However, within a few weeks nearly all of the newcomers had settled in and new friendships had been formed, these friendships have only been strengthened over the school term. Unfortunately a couple of the children found it difficult to adjust or their parents missed them and so they returned home. We are hopeful that we might be able to welcome them back some time in the future.

 

One of the biggest joys of working at the school this year has been the opportunity to observe the children from the countryside discover themselves at the school, begin to use signs and build friendships, to discover a language that allows them to learn and access subjects such as maths and English etc.