Today was the first day spent at school in Rassandeniya, the school from two years ago. Anna, Rebecca and me went along to the pre-school where we were met by the teacher. In typical Sri Lankan form, she went out of her way to offer us a very warm and friendly welcome. It instantly made me feel comfortable and I knew that I was going to enjoy my time at the school.When we entered the building the children sat down at the front of the classroom waiting for the teacher to arrive. They began their day by worshipping their Lord Buddha. Some children were shy and tried to avoid looking at us whilst others were only too happy to interact with the strangers that had come into their school. In a way, this personified how I was feeling about the entire experience. On the one hand, I was excited about spending the morning with the children. On the other hand I was quite nervous about how the morning would go.

After the morning prayers and singing was over, the children went out and sat down at the tables. At this point the teacher turned to us and asked what we would like to do with all the children. We quickly made the decision that we would sit down with a few children each and do a bit of drawing. We encouraged the kids to learn some English through drawing fruits and animals. I found that some kids were more confident with English and these seemed more comfortable with us as a result. For the other kids, body language became important for them to understand.

We spent the rest of the day having fun and playing games. This was enjoyed by one and all and resulted in the kids learning English nursery classics such as ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ and the hokey-cokey!! The highlight of the day was to see all the kids laughing and smiling. By the end of the day the children were all definitely less shy which, in my eyes, made the day a success.