Funded By Fonthill Foundation UK
Naomi Booth :: Friday 19th August 2022 :: Latest Blog Posts
Ocean Stars Trust UK is committed to its mission of empowering children through education in Sri Lanka and providing a high standard of education for our 1000+ children who attend our preschools. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Fonthill Foundation for funding our Teacher Training and enabling us to provide a high-quality educational experience for our students.
Teacher Training is a key part of our work in Sri Lanka. We run 30 preschools and employ 75 teachers so making sure our teachers access current up-to-date training is very important to us.
We run regular training sessions for our teachers during the year at our Ocean Star Lanka Office in the town of Batticaloa. Our teachers value these opportunities to get together and share best practice and network.
Since 2019 thanks to Fonthill Foundation UK we have been able to offer our teachers an annual residential teacher training. This has become a valuable part of our teachers' lives. It gives them an opportunity to leave their villages and come to a safe and secure environment for 3 days and follow a wide variety of workshops and talk on early years education. During the last 3 years, this residential teacher training has played a really important part in our work as our teachers have had to live through the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings and the pandemic.
We recently completed our 2022 residential teacher training event. Once again, this year with a background of lack of fuel, no gas, no power and food shortages we were able to still run our teacher training event. What was indeed amazing was that our all-island teachers were able to come to this event. Teachers from Kilinochchi, Colombo and Yatiyanthota all travelled to Batticaloa. These teachers had been saving fuel for 4 weeks so they could attend the event. Workshops included basic English and nursey rhymes, child psychology, music, home gardening, emotional awareness, yoga and nutrition. The teachers really value the opportunity to be together to share friendship and laughter as well following the training.
Each of our preschools was also provided with a bag of resources to help with their early years' programmes. The teachers also receive a certificate of attendance. This year when the people of Sri Lanka are facing unbearable difficulties and challenges this Teacher Training provided our teachers with a few days of light and hope. We thank Fonthill Foundation UK for funding this valuable and crucial part of our work empowering children through education in Sri Lanka.
