Thank you to our visitors

A big thank you to Mr and Mrs Bahra who came in to school today to tell us about their visit to India.
All the children found what you had to say very interesting - they have been talking about it all day!


I will put some pictures into the Class 3 area of the website over the weekend.

Welcome to our visitors from India.

Our visitors arrived in Birmingham on Sunday morning at 8.00a.m. They had been travelling for 24 hours! Their hotel room wasn't ready so they visited my house for a cup of tea and to freshen up.
Then we went for an early lunch. After that they said they'd like to go into the Bullring in Birmingham.
Off we went for some retail therapy.
They were pleased to check into their hotel at 3.30 pm.

Yesterday, delegates representing four schools from the Punjab in northern India visited Moor Hall School.
The children did a fantastic job by welcoming them with music. The delegates were very impessed by the singing and playing - especially the younger children who played the violin.

Many thanks to all the staff who worked so hard with the children to make our assembly a success.

The assembly was followed by a  tour of the school. They said the art work around school was impressive and it has given them lots of ideas to take home with them.

They left Moor Hall School at 12.30 for lunch hosted by Mrs. Allen at Whitehouse Common School and to meet The Lord Mayor and his wife the Lady Mayoress.  Again the children welcomed them all and enjoyed singing and dancing for them.

We are delighted that Mrs. Gagan Bedi will be spending the rest of the week in school with us here at Moor Hall. She is from Saupin's School. This is the school I spent time in during my visit to India and is our Global Partnership link school. Gagun will be spending time in each class. The children will be considering environmental issues and how we can further develop our links together. 

Mrs Gore's Adventure - the Video!

As we all know, Mrs Gore recently visited India along with some teachers from other schools in the Four Oaks Cluster.

She experienced some of the culture of India, saw the Golden Temple and watched the ceremony of the opening of the gates in Wagah - the border between India and Pakistan.

She also visited some of Moor Hall Primary's link schools - Saupin's School and Milennium School, where she watched performances by teachers on National Children's Day, and some superb presentations by children in lessons.

Watch the video below to see the highlights of Mrs Gore's adventure!

Thursday in India

I had a lovely day in school today. I saw art, science maths and EVS which is Environmental Studies. I also went to Baking Club and saw them make chocolate cake. The Internet is having problems tonight so this is short and sweet with no photos. This time tomorrow I'll be waiting for my flight to Dubai and then onto to final flight to Birmingham. I'm not sure how I'll cope with the cold and damp!

Wednesday in India

Another busy day in India, but at least the sun has been shining. I'm going to miss this lovely weather! The day was spent in school. I spent the morning with senior managers talking about our timetable at Moor Hall, and how we deliver lessons. The Head Teacher is AB Situ or AB Sir. He is quite a character and amongst other things owns a farm and wants to breed Bantom hens. The morning was very intense but really interesting. There is a huge contrast between the way we teach and the way the schools in Chandigarh teach. Sir was particularly interested in our differentiation and the way we taught subjects. In India the children have literacy, maths, Hindi, Science and P.E. every day. They have art twice per week along with ICT. The children go to school every other Saturday for half a day. School starts at 8.00 and they go home at 2.00. buses take the children home - almost to their door. If their parents work there is usually an adult - grand mother - at home when they get there. The children often have after school activities like sports or music lessons. They must pay extra for this. There is maths homeowork for them every day and other subjects take it in turns so there isn't an overload. All the classes have more than 30 chldren in them. the Y1 class had 43 and the Y2 class had 37. There is no classroom assistant. I saw some lovely lessons and the Y2 children acted out a play about Mahatma Gandhi. I have added a photograph of the young man who played that part. Mrs. Collins and Y5 so lovely to get your comments. Here are the answers to the questions you asked... 1. No I haven't been in a tuk tuk yet, ... not sure I will ... if you joined the traffic here you'd understand! 2. We are staying in a hotel quite close to all our schools. The beds are very comfortable. 3. I'm not sure how many children are in class 5 but will have a better idea tomorrow when I go and see them, and I promise to take a photograph of them for you all. The children are taught in English, and this can be aproblem for some children whose parents don't speak English at home. 4. Mr. Nek Chand did live amongst his recycled garden. the ceiling of his home is made from a pattern of stones. You can see this in the photograph I posted yesterday.

5. They have a teacher of Hindi who comes into school every day. I watched a Y1 class playing a game to support their phonics activities. 6. I am very sorry to say that I haven't met a Bollywood star. However one of the schools has had Kangana Ranaut as a student along with Kapil Dev who used to play cricket. For those who are interested, I think we may visit the Chandigarh cricket ground on Friday before we go to the airport. 6. The Golden Temple was fantastic. We did go inside, thakfully it was arranged for us to go straight in and not queue up . We were taken inside and up the stairs to where the oldest book the Guru Granth Sahib is kept. This is a very spiritual book and we were able to see it. 7. Would I go back to India? Without a doubt! Mrs. Collins you would love it, I'm not sure I'm up to taking 30 children however, it took a great deal of time and effort sorting myself, Miss Kaur and Miss Wood out this time!! It's our last full day tomorrow. I'll add my final blog tomorrow before I arrive home safely on Saturday. Finally Y5 you will be pleased to hear that I have told everyone I meet to vote for your song. When is the closing date?

Tuesday in India

Another busy day. Miss Wood, Miss Kaur and I went to the DAV School today. We were welcomed by a group of army cadets. We went into the school and one of the students presented us with a garland of fresh flowers and we had a Puja ( a red spot on our foreheads as an expression of honour). We spent the day looking around the school and talking with students. We observed a maths lesson - very different to the ones at Moor Hall. We had our photographs taken and it seems we may appear in a newspaper tomorrow. Miss Wood is already famous and has had her photograph published! We saw some of the younger children who were also involved with a maths lesson - counting chicks, and very small children who were tired after lunch and having a rest. This afternoon we went to Rock Garden. It really didn't sound very exciting. However, I couldn't have been more wrong! The whole area has been created from recycled products like broken crockery, sacks of cement, old cooking pots. There were birds made from broken bangles and walls made from old plastic sockets embedded in concrete. It really is a fascinating way to use broken things. The gentleman who created it is called Nek Chand. He began building it as a result of the partition between India and Pakistan and the fact that he was left with nothing. We were invited to meet him. He kindly invited us into his home - which is in the Rock Garden. He has won a prestigious award and travelled all over the work to talk about his design. Finally today we were invited into the home of Nina Mimani who I have been emailing. Her mother-in-law had made samosas for us and then showed us how to make them. We then made our own and ate them. Yum!

Latest News and Children's Work!

We have several updates on the website this week.

First up we have a new newsletter - dated 14th November. This newsletter covers our recent goings on in school, including our entry into the Y-Factor competition and Pennies for Pudsey day on Friday. It also covers Mrs Gore's adventure to India with other staff from around the Four Oaks Cluster. You can read our latest newsletter on the news page of the school website, or by clicking here.

The second addition to the website today is some great artwork from Years 3 and 4. Both classes have been exploring the use of primary colours; Year 3 with art inspired by Sean Scully and Year 4 with repeat patterns. Year 3 have also been experimenting with blending using oil pastels!

Take a look at their yeargroup work pages to see their latest art:

• Year 3 Work
• Year 4 Work

Monday in India

Do you have an analogue watch? If you turn it upside down you will see the time in India. So it is currently 12.20 a.m. here and 18.50 pm with you! Today was a busy school day. The whole school celebrated Children's Day. This is a day given to children by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru because he loved children. He is known as the Architect of Modern India and was the first Prime Minister following Independence. It is held on his birthday. He was educated at Oxford and is Mrs. Indira Gandi's father. On this day the teachers entertain the children in all kinds of ways. Some schools close for half a day (in the afternoon). There are races and competitions. In Saupin's School the children held races against the teachers and also a three legged race. Mrs. Glare would have loved the part where the Aero-modelling Club launched their model plane round and round the recreation ground. First one hawk (sorry but not sure which sort) then another hovered above watching the plane. I was glad they didn't swoop! I met the Founder of Saupin's School today. Mrs. Saupin Ma'am. The children call the teachers by their first name and to show respect add ma'am at the end (or sir if it's a man), so the teachers are Nina Ma'am or Jasmin Ma'am. I wonder how our teachers would feel about it? The children make party hats and can win prizes. We also went to the Millennium School where the teachers - ladies and gentlemen danced a traditional Punjabi folk dance. The children were very excited and tried to guess who their teacher was because they were dressed in traditional dress. We went shopping this evening too in the local area Sector 17 and Sector 22. Mr. Winter, we are about 5 minutes from the cricket ground where the semi final of world cup was held. I will ask the children the questions as soon as I get the opportunity. Tomorrow is another early start - up at 6.00 am - hmmm not sure 5 hours sleep is enough!

Sunday in Amritsar

We finally arrived in Chandigarh on 12th November at 17.30. We were greeted by representatives from our schools with lovely flowers. We spent the evening with the Principle of Saupin's School and his colleague who I have been in touch with. Her name is Nina Mimani. By the time we went to bed we had been awake for about 33 hours!
It was a very early start today at 4.45 a.m. in order to visit first Jallianwala Bagh (which means Fire Place). It is the place a massacre took place in 1919. Then on to The Golden Temple in Amritsar. It was quite an experience. The number of people who visit on a Sunday is unbelievable. They queue for hours to get inside. What was more unbelievable was that we were taken through without queuing. It was fabulous.

We were then taken to the Pakistan border at Wagah which is named after a village near-by. A ceremony takes place here each day, where the border is opened for 30 minutes. People are able to watch. We were given seats right at the front. We were also able to meet up with our other two colleagues who are staying outside Chandigarh.

We arrived back very late and it is now 12.40 a.m. and I need some sleep.

School tomorrow.

I'll add more tomorrow to let you know how I got on.

Class 4 & 5 is there anything you would like to me to ask the children you've written to when I meet them? Add it as a comment at the bottom of this page.

In the photos you can see us leaving at Birningham Airport in Friday, The crowds at the golden ?Temple - taken from the top of the tower, myself and Miss Wood at the Golden Temple and me touching a part of Pakistan with my finger!

Mrs. Gore in India

Global School Partnerships

Tomorrow I am going to India as a representative of Moor Hall School. The funding is through the British Council and the objective is to develop further the partnership we have with Saupin's School in Chandigarh which is the Punjab - North India.

I am going with 4 other teachers all from local Four Oaks schools and we return next Saturday 19th November. I arrive on Saturday 12th November at 16.30 (it will be about 11.00 a.m. in Birmingham).Follow my Blogging and look at the photographs. I hope to be able add some posts from about Monday onwards - when I'll be working in the school itself.

Mrs. Gore

Indian Visitors May 2011 Video

Moor Hall Primary is proud to be tied with schools around the world - this year for example, class 4 have been writing to their penpals at Saupins School in India.

Back in May, we had the privilege of having three visitors from India arrive at our school. We welcomed Ms. Meenakshi Ahlawat (Sacred Souls' School), Ms. Jaspal Gill (Bawa-Lalvani Public School), and Ms. Lalita Nandel (DAV Model School) into our school and held an assembly for them.

Our special guests told the children about life at their schools in India, and then our pupils played musical instruments and sang for them.

Watch the video below to see some highlights of the day!



Feel free to leave a comment below telling us what you thought of the day!