My visit to The Swaminarayan School , London

I pondered whether to wear a Sari or to wear coat and trousers ? Finally thought while in Rome do as Romans do!
I opted for the western outfit .

It was a wet cold wintry day the 21st of November 2007, London .But my spirits could not be dampened since I
was looking forward to my day at The Swaminarayan School , London .I was received by Mr Manani the Head of
School (HOS ) . A poised tall man , with soft voice and pleasing manners .During my short stay of an hour and
half I got to know more about him. It was revealing to see that Mr Manani was a real team player who worked
with the team . Later when he took me on the school tour I observed that he was humble enough to pick up one
odd banana peel from the floor and put it in the dustbin himself ! He didn’t ask the students to pick it up .

After a short exchange of greetings and niceties I was taken to the Early Years Section first . I was presently
surprised that the natural lighting , size and feel of the classes were very similar to that of our school. They were
big , spacious, colourful and full of children’s work. Mobiles hanging on a string across the room - of paper
skeletons which children had assembled , the kites that they had made ;learning corners ; big 3 D replica of a Post
office etc. The display boards were placed all along the walls again very telling about the kind of work that was on
. The display boards by and large displayed students’ work . Although the products which the students had
created were the result of the same learning opportunities , yet each and every product was different and
unique. A clear indication that the school provided a nurturing, enabling , enriching environment to let the
children work and learn on their own and that too at their own pace.

I recollect one such display- board based on the theme All About Me which displayed – different faces on paper
plates with different materials ( sharp eyes, curly hair , straight hair, long and broad noses ,different face cuts, lip
sizes, chubby cheeks etc ). Children were asked to look at themselves into the mirror , observe their features and
create the mirror image that they saw of themselves , with the materials provided . The work done by the children
was really very insightful since it revealed how each child was able to critically appreciate himself/herself and put
his/her observations on the paper plate . When I asked the teachers as to how they assessed these kinds of process
oriented tasks they said that they made a note of the kind of responses the child made while s/he looked at the
face in the mirror , the concentration , self talk , modifications made , etc. So , without having actually seen the
children of Reception class ( Grade 1) I was able to get a clear glimpse of the children , the learning opportunity
and process of assessment . It raised my curiosity and I wished I could have got a chance to see the kids in action.

While at the Prenursery - . I saw small tables arranged in circular fashion . Lego toy puzzles all ready on every
table , the teacher at the computer deeply involved in her work . Ready to take the next class . Often I had heard
Ms Anya Kashyap ,HOS , share instances about what it was like to teach in schools abroad and more so in
London. She said that while she was there she would find herself saying to children “ Would you like to do this
…..? ’ The choice was entirely left to the children , so the message was let the children do what they want . When
the Prenursery children came in from games , I got to see this class in action, I saw the same approach was
followed ie the children were taking charge of their own learning.

While I was still observing the Prenursery class in action my eyes instantly stopped at the graphic organizers that
were displayed on the display board . I asked the teacher as to how the Circle Web or the Flow Chart was done
with such a small age group of 2 to 3 year olds. She very promptly took out sets of documented sheets where
pictures had been taken of learning about BLUE colour thorough the Circle Web. The flow chart had been done
with children in the context of the sequences of events of the day at the school by placing of photographs in the
right order, that too , I was told , that they went slow by having the children place one event per day. I had missed
this in our toddler section and as I shared my experience with the teachers at AHS in the toddler room, I was
pleasantly surprised to see the Circle Web had been done with the little one ! The topic was Trees .

My next class was KG . Here I was drawn towards the documents on one of display boards , where the entire
learning objectives for the term were displayed . I asked the teacher since different students were at different levels
of proficiency, how did they ensure that the learning objectives were met ? To this she drew my attention towards
the bands in the document which depicted what the children must do ,should do and could do . It was interesting to
note that like us they also worked on developing differentiated lesson plans..

As we passed the corridors of the Junior school I saw children of a class watching a programme on the TV , in
yet another , the literacy teacher was taking children to the computer lab for some ICT related task .The Design
and Technology lab was very like our own . To quote a product which I could immediately identify were the photo
frames for which Coca Cola bottles were used as stands, coincidently our children had done it too !!! I could
identify with that setup as it was the same as ours.
 The point that I want to make is that children are children , no matter in which part of the world they might be .
When children are provided with enriching learning experiences they immerse themselves in their work . They
then come out with their innate capacity to create and the child like novelty and newness is reflected in their
work. All that we need to do is to provide developmentally appropriate and varied learning opportunities to suit
individual learning styles , trust them and leave the rest to themselves . This is the semblance I saw between our
school and their school . In yet another class I saw a one- on -one class for a student taking a literacy lesson. It
seemed that this child needed more focused classes .The school labs were the place where all their science lessons
were held. Mr Manani took special interest in showing me the Labs since he taught science to senior children.

While still at the Junior School premises I saw that the display boards showcased a lot of written work , from
journal entries, to letter writing to story writing , etc .I once again noted that in the Junior School too in every class
there were children at different levels of proficiency and each and every child’s work was displayed .

I was repeatedly requested to join them for lunch at the school canteen . Since I was more keen to get the most out
of my visit and still there was so much left to see and know, I decided otherwise .I enquired about the ratio of
students to teachers ,which , they said was 1 : 8 in Early Years . I asked whether I could see the assessment
records of the children. To which Mr Manani very graciously agreed and soon brought a document titled the
Evolution of Assessment Records. It reflected how the earlier records had a lot of qualitative remarks . Since , it
was very cumbersome for the teachers to record these remarks they shifted to more of specific graded evaluation
along with essential qualitative comments . My attention was drawn towards the Student’s Self Evaluation Form
which I had been hunting for quite some time. I did get a copy of the same too!

I asked the HOS as to what did he have to say about Indian students who migrated to London in present times .
He promptly said that they were very good in their knowledge base but in process skills and confidence the
children of their school were better off . He asked whether we teach literacy through the phonic method to which I
said yes. They also enquired which Board we followed and I informed them the International Primary
Curriculum ( IPC ) from Early Years to Grade 6 and eventually CBSE for exit exams. I further said it was the IPC
curriculum that we were transacting that brought me to visit their school.

My visit to the school , surely was a great learning experience and very insightful too ! Since I went with the spirit
of humility and my purpose was solely to learn .

Back home , while sharing my experiences about my visit to the school I emphasized that a lot of things that we
are presently doing met international standards . I was delighted that what we are doing at our school was
similar to theirs specially with respect to the teaching practices at their school . However we are different in that we
do not miss plugging in the Indian context as well as content , which focuses on conceptual clarity . So our
children at AHS have best of both the worlds !

The greetings of Namaste Visitor by the students still rings in my ears as I fondly remember my visit to the
school. I should have worn my red and grey silk Sari after all , I was in my own right an ambassador of my country
- India.

Geetika Kharola
geetikakharola@yahoo.co.in