Day 4 - Tuesday 23rd July

We woke up bright and early today to go on the first of Miss Fitzgibbon's morning runs which are now set to happen every other day. The Indian girls who board at the school get up at 5am every day to study and looked amazed at the sight of this bizarre English custom. The runners found it much harder than expected as it felt like we were running in high altitude and the road was very uneven. We came back for showers and breakfast before heading over to the school for assembly.

We arrived early for assembly and so waited at the school gate greeting arriving pupils. They were astonishingly smartly dressed and many came up to shake our hand and ask our name with beaming smiles, an extremely rare sight at the Emanuel gate when pupils return to school after a weekend. Around 20 minutes later the pupils began to form single sex lines by class without any fuss (!) with the oldest pupils at one end and the youngest at the other.  Although the entire main courtyard was filled we were told not to worry as the whole school was not even in attendance. We were ushered onto the stage and we stood in front of the school choir who sung us a welcome song and their musical director who was on the keyboard. An older pupil led an almost military routine and every child was in sync. The school song was then sung and prayers were said. The headmistress, Mrs Usha Raman, gave a speech welcoming us and asked the school to applaud us by way of thanks. Each teacher had a shawl wrapped around them and was handed a bunch of flowers and each pupil was given a rose. Mr Hunt then thanked Sri Jayendra for allowing us to spend our time with them and I think everyone agreed when he said that we now feel like friends rather than guests. As well as this, we had to introduce ourselves to the whole school (about 3000 people today as many parents stayed for assembly) which suddenly became incredibly nerve-wracking when we took to the microphone. Several pupils had their birthday today so they were sung 'Happy Birthday' and were allowed to wear their own clothes to school. The birthday pupils then came round and offered us sweets from tins they each had. We were a little worried that these were their birthday gifts from the school but felt that it would be rude to decline in front of the whole school. All in all, the assembly was unlike anything we could have imagined. Everyone from Sri Jayendra seemed so genuine in their appreciation of our presence that it moved some people to tears and has made us feel very positive about the next three weeks.

As we weren't teaching during Period One, everyone tried to locate the most shady spot to take their pupils and then prevent anyone else from using it. This plan backfired a little as we were introduced to our classes alphabetically so the early surnames snapped up the best positions. Each Emanuel had about 6 pupils from two 3rd Standard forms (equivalent to our Year 3 so the pupils were 7 or 8). If anyone had thought that teaching was going to be straightforward they soon realised it is far from it. We had to discern their level of English instantly and if it was more or less advanced than we had imagine, we had to completely abandon our lesson plan and think up a new one on the spot. Things were made even more complicated when it started pouring with rain mid-way through our lesson so those who were sitting in the open had to quickly relocate. When the bell went we were all instantly surrounded by more pupils who wanted us to talk to them or shake our hand. Many wanted us to give them stickers and one girl even went round asking for our autographs!

Lessons continued throughout the day. We taught 5th Standard and 4th Standard English conversation and then it was Games for 9th Standard. The boys played Tag Rugby and for the girls Miss Fitzgibbon had devised a 'Stompesque' sequence. This was based on the routines Chilean Miners used to devise using their gum boots to keep them entertained when working. We had variations on 'Stomp/Clap', 'Stomp/Swish' and 'Stomp/Slap'. Although teaching these sequences proved reasonably tricky, when we finally got everyone in perfect timing, incorporating the three sequences into one, the result was quite phenomenal. Miss Fitzgibbon filmed our final attempt and hopefully I'll be able to post it on here at some point.

The end of games signalled the end of school for the day so we traipsed back to the boarding house feeling much more tired than we ever thought we could have after a school day. It turns out that teaching is pretty demanding so we now have considerably more empathy (sympathy?!) for our own teachers! 

By Kimberley