Work trip to Thailand with KAPE

I was invited last minute (literally 8.30pm the night before we left at 6am!) to join KAPE - Kampuchea Action for Primary Education - a local NGO - which Ali, Paola, Cookie, Jeltje & Williem work for to go to Thailand on a 4 day trip to look at some outstanding schools there. To gain some knowledge and insight to the way they work and to see if we can take anything from there and implement it over here in Cambodia in our local education projects.

These pictures aren't in the correct order as there are so many of them, however the schools that we saw were very different but all have great qualities about them. Two of them had great vocational training - from making soap, making pots, gifts to cooking and gardening. One was so focused on the children and the environment for learning - many ideas that we could take away and try and involve in future projects for kids in Cambodia.

This privately funded NGO school was an inspiration into how schools should be, not just here but around the world - totally focused on the children, an inspiring place to learn with a great Code of Conduct for the teachers - all children are encouraged equally and all feedback is positive.

Above is the list of students in one class and below is their weekly schedule - so creative..

I would of loved a ceiling like this in my classroom when I was younger...

Mind Mapping in this school was used a lot to encourage the kids to think and then also to evaluate themselves after their learning.

Educational decorations everywhere.

These are the classrooms for the older children.

As always on arrival to all the schools there was a welcoming ceremony which included pinning flowers on all of us, food, drink, singing, speeches and of course dancing.

Pot making

Cooking demonstrations and classes

Dolls made out of recycled materials and mats made out of straws.

Mushroom growing classes...

All these art works are made up out of rubbish - bottle tops, scrunched up paper, bits of tin, etc...

Classic Thai Kick Boxing performance - which was amazing.

All in all it was a very interesting trip, I also learnt a lot about the Cambodian educational system as I went with 25 other people that all know the system from different perspectives. So it was a real eye opener for me and am really appreciative of KAPE for inviting me.