Dear Professor P. J.

Joseph

I am writing to inform you of the very successful visit made by one of your
teacher’s to our school: Mrs Rohini Kanugo.
In fact, the results of the visit far surpassed our expectations.
As planned, Mrs Kanugo spent a week in school in order to further cement the
link which has been established between our two schools over the past 2
years.
All in all Mrs Kanugo’s visit was an outstanding success: due to her very
personable and out-going nature she very quickly settled into our school and
was immediately able to get down to the business of the day. Thanks also to
her total professionalism and to her thorough commitment to the future
success of this project, she was also able to inspire all of us to make the most
of the potential that this school link holds in all the future projects we will be
involved in together.

Before reporting to you what Mrs Kanugo managed to achieve whilst here, I
would like to recap on what we have achieved so far during that time.
Our pupils have exchanged emails, answered questionnaires, done surveys,
including one on the China / Tibet issue during the Chinese Olympic games,
using the Promethean hand-held devices (Active Expression.) The two
schools have also exchanged short video clips on their relevant schools. We
have involved our pupils at both schools in the following projects: a science
project on the environment; comparison of the culture and religions practised
by the pupils of both schools. We also did a joint project on citizenship: during
one of their PSHE lessons a group of our year 7 pupils prepared posters on
the theme: ‘What does it mean to me to be a British Citizen’; they interviewed
one another and recorded their interviews on this theme on Mp3 files. Copies
of this work was sent to TocH school who reciprocated by sending us
examples of their work on a similar theme: ‘What does it mean to be an Indian
Citizen’. (They also sent us photos of the children who had produced the
work.) The two schools have also exchanged data and information on the
theme of global warming and environmental issues, such as pollution
management and renewable sources of energy. For example, our ‘Eco-
Warriors’ (organized by Dr. Aurora Gutierrez-Sosa) sent examples of the work
they had done during the year in school to promote Eco principles into the
heart of school life and for which they had won a bronze award. One of our
pupils filmed her family at her local Sikh temple which was sent to TocH
school; their pupils reciprocated by sending us pictures of one of their local
gurudwaras and of some of their local Sikhs. They told us all about the status
of the Sikh religion in Kerala, as a minority religion. One of the facts about
TocH school that our pupils were surprised to learn was that the school has
mainly Christian children and that their lessons are conducted in English. The
pupils discovered that they had certain things in common: for example, both
schools are for pupils aged between 3 and 18 and both have a House system.
Each day during her visit to our school, Mrs Kanugo met with various
members of our staff in order to begin to plan for future projects. (Each of her
sessions lasted for one hour.)
On the first day she met our Vice-Principal, Mrs Glynis Brown, who gave her a
tour of the school. She then met Mrs Hilary Sackfield, Head of Modern
Languages and Mr Tony Crane, Assistant Co-ordinator of Languages
Specialism who gave her a tour of the Modern Languages department, before
telling her about the department’s community language project: ‘Teach a
friend a language’. During Lunch-time Mrs Kanugo attended a meeting of our
Eco-Warriors club. Later that day she met with myself, Mr John Hofton, Head
of French to discuss and plan our joint French project.
Day two: Mrs Kanugo attended our Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist assembly
where she gave a presentation on TocH school: after the assembly she met
with a group of pupils and took part in a in group discussion with them. As a
result of this meeting we have now set up our TocH club and committee which
will now meet once a week so that pupils can start to prepare their
presentations and video clips that they will be sending to you. Already one of
our sixth-formers has produced a power-point presentation on our school and
Manchester, which I will be bringing with me in October when I visit your
school. This group was led by: Mrs Hilary Sackfield and Mrs Amanda Sexton.
Mrs Kanugo then met Mrs Uzma Asim, one of our Biology teachers to
discuss how a reciprocal project on environmental issues could be set up
which will be embedded into the Biology curriculum. Then she met Mrs Lucy
White, Head of Biology to further discuss this project.
Day three: Mrs Kanugo attended our year 9 assembly and then met Mr
Martin Oldfield, Head of Chemistry to discuss the setting up of a reciprocal
project on environmental issues, again which will be embedded into our
curriculum. She then had a meeting with Dr Aurora Gutierrez-Sosa, to discuss
her work with Eco Warriors and to compare notes with the work your Eco-
warriors do at your school. At the end of the day Mrs Kanugo then saw Miss
Catherine Smith to discuss the possibility of setting up future musical projects
between both schools.
Day four: Mrs Kanugo gave a presentation on your school in our year 7 – 9
assembly. Before giving an excellent presentation about your school, Mrs
Kanugo revealed her first-rate musical talents to us by singing to us, all of
which had our pupils spell-bound. She later met with our Headmaster, Mr
Peter Mulholland. In the afternoon she saw Mr Brad Swales, Head of
Religious Studies Department to discuss and to plan the joint religious studies
project. Finally that day Mrs Kanugo was given a tour of the junior school with
Mrs Bea Schouten, Head of our Junior School. As a result of meeting with Mrs
Schouten, it is likely that our two Junior schools will be involved in a reciprocal
project.
Day five: Mrs Kanugo again, enthralled our year 10 – 13 pupils with her
presentation in their assembly. She later met with Miss Laura Peeling, PSHE
and Citizenship Co-ordinator and found that she came away with some useful
ideas that she will be passing onto your PSHE co-ordinator. Mrs Kanugo then
met with Mrs Alison Salas, to look into how we can ensure the link we have
now firmly established between the two schools can be further enhanced
through the DFID’s Curriculum Project Grant.
All in all Mrs Kanugo’s visit was an outstanding success: due to her very
personable and out-going nature she very quickly settled into our school and
was immediately able to get down to the business of the day. Due to her
thorough commitment to the future success of this project, she was also able
to inspire all of us to make the most of the potential that this school link holds
in all the future projects we will be involved in together.

Kind regards

John Hofton
International Director