A good Friday for us all

We took every resource we had to school today which included loads of additional card and stationary bought locally last night. We have mastered the art of cycling with full back packs and baskets overflowing. And yes Natasha has a new bike! I am sure we must be a talking point as we plough through the traffic every day.Claire sings songs from Mamma Mia , Natasha always looks calm and dignified and I talk for Scotland to every poor cyclist who draws up beside me at traffic lights.
We arrived at the gates of Say Ta Nar to the heart warming welcome of the whole school and immediately went underneath the house to spend some time and share gifts with the kindergarten.

Thank you Primary 1 for your card and presents

We talked to the children about Pirniehall nursery and infant classes and handed over their pictures and gifts of pencils and an interesting incense mobile! Claire and Natasha had fun showing the little ones how to use their chunky calculators and there were lots of smiling faces and an excited air in the kindergarten as we returned upstairs to teach.

We love our calculators!!

The upper school were on alert waiting for us and within minutes they were engaged in pairs talking and planning their writing on the whiteboards that we had introduced earlier.

Children fully engaged in their writing on whiteboards.

They produced great Say Ta Nar booklets and drawings that we will be sharing with Pirniehall in the new session. Claire has now taught three great songs and it is amazing to hear how well they are singing them already. Pho Cho arrived at this point with Neesha and the baby.The good news was that all was well and everyone clapped and hugged at the relief of seeing this lovely family looking happy and together again.

Claire in full flow!

Claire's new toys go down a storm!

We were encouraged to continue with our planned day and after eating a tasty lunch made for us by the tireless and resilient Neesha , we started the afternoon session. Natasha demonstrated a lesson based on the work of Matisse using pastels and charcoal and the children created lovely art work which is now proudly displayed in school.They then enjoyed participating in active langauge games to develop their word skills.

Loving the different Art and Language games

While this was happening I chatted to the older pupils and discussed the stunning photographs they took last year of their homes and local community. They all received a Nothing Special booklet with some of their published photographs and were excited to see themselves in print. Pho Cho helped explain about our Eco project and that we wanted to find out more about SayTa Nar and their Global footprint. We handed out cameras so that they could start capturing images that represented how they take care of their environment to compare with our ongoing work at Pirniehall.

An interesting Eco discussion.

At the end of the day Pho Cho played guitar as the children sang enthusiastically to their Scottish teachers before leaving for the weekend. See you Monday teachers!

The baby enjoys the music too.

Teachers were heading for the laundry and to update the blog. We have an exciting weekend planned with lots of early starts and although we are exhausted we will enjoy every experience.

Singing a Pirnie favourite - We like!

Working with the children is a highlight

We hopped on to our trusty bikes and arrived at Say Ta Nar weighed down by calculators and books we planned to use. We were met by a distressed looking Pho Cho who told us that his baby son had been taken to hospital after a clinic visit. Neesha was already staying with him and Pho Cho was anxious to join his family. He apologised profusely about leaving us but we fully understood and urged him to go. We were now in charge of grades 4,5,6,7 and 8 for the day! Claire and Nastasha were well planned for the morning as we knew this was an allocated teaching slot. All day teaching on day one was more of a challenge than we had expected as we had only brought some of our resources. However Pirniehall teachers think on their feet and the whole day was soon organised. Claire and Natasha were keen to engage children in active learning and working in pairs and groups rather than whole class teaching.


The children loved the calculators

As the day progressed the children received their calculators and enjoyed some challenging activities and of course they were delighted to take the calculators home. They played with them excitedly at lunch break.They learned two great songs that are Pirniehall favourites and were soon singing with gusto lead by Claire.


Trying something new - group discussions.

They went on to a listening and talking task in pairs, modelled by the teachers and in groups discussed and asked questions about Pirniehall booklets prepared by Natasha and Claire with their own classes . They wrote letters based on these discussions and produced lovely related art work. Phew! A lot of teaching for one day. Thank goodness we had our interpreter who was invaluable and a great grade 8 pupil who translated well for us. The children were marvellous and were so interested and creative. They showed their love of learning and were clearly loving the novelty of having their Scottish teachers all day!


Children are fascinated reading and discussing life at Pirniehall.

Lunch was interesting without Pho Cho and Neesha but I decided to help out serving the rice for 120 children and took the job seriously as I was worried about my big portions and running out but all was well. Not such a quiet lunch room today!


Head Teacher serves lunch! A special moment with his Scottish teacher

The children left at 3.00pm with their usual 'see you tomorrow teacher' and I decided to go on the bus taking the children home. It was wonderful to see where the children lived and get a sense of their community.The children and parents were at all times so happy and smiling and the children clearly looking forward to school tomorrow.


Children returning home


Mum collects child from the bus 'See you tomorrow teacher!'

Claire and Natasha and I jumped on to our bikes feeling exhausted but with a real sense of achievement. We think we will be in charge of these grades again tomorrow so are off to our favourite internet cafe to debrief and plan. We will not talk about Natasha's pedal falling off her bike...twice!

Tickety Boo!

Everything has gone so well on our long journey to Mae Sot with no delays and baggage retrieved safely in Chiang Mai. Or as Natasha would say `everything has gone tickety boo` which has become our new catchphrase. We travelled Edinburgh to Paris to Bangkok to Chiang Mai and then the final six hour bus journey to Mae Sot. We had no time to make a visit Dr Thein Lwein school in Chiang Mai as we had to catch the one bus leaving for Mae Sot , but hope to fit it in on our return.

Pirniehall meets Say Ta Nar

Pho Cho, Neesha and their children along with our interpreter met us at the bus station and we were all excited to see each other. We all headed for our newly found accomodation as our original hotel had ,out of the blue , decided to paint their rooms during July! Luckily our artist friend had contacted our interpreter to save the day and she organised alternative rooms and bikes. We appreciated this thoughtfulness! I kept this little surprise from the girls until we were sitting calm and relaxed with a caffe latte in Paris airport. C`est tres bien! Wait till they see the rooms!

Is this it?!

Say Ta Nar school had an unexpected holiday as it is a religious festival and is opening again just as we arrive. Perfect timing and another tickety boo moment! We then went on an evening walk to orientate ourselves and found a favourite restaurant from last year fondly referred to as `Canadian Daves`, run by Dave and his lovely family. He told us he knew we were coming because he had read the blog. We were very impressed and felt like we had arrived.
Next morning we were awakened by the happy builders and were soon met by Neesha and some of our students who brought us our bikes! My family will be waiting with bated breath to see how their mum manages without them , as Lewis always kept a protective rear guard to keep an eye open for potential hazards, shouting encouraging words like `watch out for the truck` or `you`re too close to the motorbike`. Alan kept us right with directions and Calum just enjoyed a kamikaze journey through the traffic every day. I think I`ll surprise them but watch this space as I have not been on a bike since last year. Claire and Natasha seem quite confident as we head out into the traffic to have breakfast with Pho Cho`s family at Say Ta Nar.

Breakfast at Say Ta Nar
How exciting to arrive at Say Ta Nar! Successful first bike journey and a delicious breakfast with our Burmese friends. We talked animatedly about the children and the school to catch up on news and talk about our own teaching projects. Pho Cho has 120 pupils now and an additional teacher increasing their staff to five. He has added new resources including a new computer, whiteboards , with Pirniehall support. He looks forward to our teaching input and has allocated us plenty of teaching slots. We then handed out some of our presents to the family who are always so gracious and happy to be remembered.

Pho Cho likes his Scotland T-shirt

It is good to be able to share our 'Nothing Special' photographic booklets that reflect the communtiy in both Pirniehall and Say Ta Nar.

Team Pirnie are returning to Say Ta Nar July `09

Welcome back to our Pirniehall blog as the next intrepid team prepare to visit our partner school Say Ta Nar! Team Pirnie take over from the Gillespies who had the privilege of working with our Burmese children last year.

We have been awarded a British Council grant to allow us to continue with our successful Global partnership projects. Claire and Natasha who teach at Pirniehall , look forward to travelling to Mae Sot and sharing in this exciting work. I`m happy to say they will soon be blogging so watch this space! We travel to Thailand tomorrow!



Team Pirnie - Claire Mitchell , Mary Gillespie and Natasha Millar

Visit to British Council Bangkok

With my cousin outside BC Bangkok

At the end of our stay in Thailand we had the opportunity to have a meeting with representatives of the British Council Bangkok, organised by the Director John Whitehead. He had set up a generous morning meeting with Pred Evans, Director of Education, Matumon Katerenchuk, Education Partnerships Manager and Kewalin Lomwong Education Partnerships Officer. They were an impressive team who showed interest and enthusiasm for the schools partnership and were keen to hear all the details about the time we had spent in Say Ta Nar in Mae Sot. Team Gillespie talked enthusiastically about the children, Headteacher and teachers and the great learning experiences we all shared. As well as talking about the positive curricular developments we were also able to share concerns about the future of the Burmese children who were stateless and had no rights. We were able to talk about issues like future funding for the Burmese migrant schools and highlighted Hlee Bee school whose funding ends in October.

During the morning discussions the team asked lots of questions about all aspects of the visit, took notes and were keen to be involved and explore different ways they could assist our global partnerships.

The British Council team were so positive and interested that we all left feeling very good about the meeting and believing that there would be ongoing communication. Lewis has been asked to write about his Mae Sot experiences for the Asian Dialogues programme.
Since arriving home we have exchanged emails with the team and they are keen to keep in touch.



Remembering 8.8.88
To mark the 20th anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma in 1988 we joined many other supporters, including politicians, in an amnesty internatinal campaign on August 8th at the City Chambers. We all joined together to form a large saffron ribbon and had a minute silence to remember the political prisoners and the continuing struggle of the Burmese people under a brutal and oppressive dictatorship . This was happening in different locations across the country. We then went into the City Chambers and watched a special performance of a powerful and memorable play called The Burma Play: A comedy of terror , performed by the northern international theatre company. It is on as part of the Edinburgh Festival at St John`s church on Princes Street and it is a must to see. Here is an Amnesty International link showing photographs of the saffron ribbon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amnestyscotland

Auld Lang Syne from Say Ta Nar

Just listen to Say Ta Nar singing Auld Lang Syne! We couldn`t believe it but just loved the sentiment. Our final day at school had arrived and we were all feeling quite emotional. This had been such an intense week full of great learning experiences but had been mainly about building friendships and linking two great schools.

Two artists will be working with the children , one here in Mae Sot and the other in Edinburgh on a joint project involving etchings and printing. These will be made up into a book that will be available for all to share . The Burmese artist came along this morning to work with the children at Say Ta Nar telling them an imaginative story about a chair in Edinburgh made of Burmese wood and then each child chose from a selection of Burmese photographs to etch and write about . Some of their stories are poignant as well as inspiring and the childen concentrated hard on the etching which is not an easy task. Watch out Pirniehall it will be our turn in September! Hle Bee children had been working with the talented artist the day before and Sheila, Fiona and Murray came along with the printing materials and to share in the experience. Their school was closed for the Bhudda holiday but Say Ta Nar is mainly Muslim so the school was open. We got to see some of the celebrations as they passed the school

Hard at work on the etchings

Pho Cho and I sat down at his computer and drew up our mutual agreement on our next steps for joint curricular work which we both signed and each have a copy of. Pho Cho agreed to speaking to Pirniehall staff on video and I look forward to sharing his message with everyone in the new session.

Headteachers sign their agreements

A glimpse of Bhudda Day celebrations

The children handed the cameras back in and I will develop them in Scotland and send them their copy of the finished posters to match ours. Both schools can then display them. We had a lovely afternoon singing, playing games and had a chance to watch Pho Cho`s message to Pirniehall on television. Everyone sat watching mesmerised and bemused.

The children were engrossed playing the dominoes we brought.

Alan had scoured the shops for 110 types of different treats for the children. He had to wait for over an hour in one shop as the staff ran round other stores finding the right amount. But the children really enjoyed the end result.

Goodbye teacher, see you tomorrow

Kindergarten waiting patiently for the bus home...our final view as children head home.

Farewell notes particularly for Lewis and Calum

Final cycle ride...where did they all disappear to?

Come on mum...where are you? We handed our bikes back ages ago

A fond farewell to Say Ta Nar for this year. The children and staff made our visit memorable. I`m glad this has been a shared family experience as we will all be able to look back with great memories and talk together about these special children. Huge thanks to Alan for videoing and being the organiser/events manager/guide around Mae Sot and Lewis and Calum for taking all the photographs/videoing/being in school every day/sharing with and learning from the children. They both have a school full of friends (some wanted to come home with them!)

We now head off to Krabi island and Bangkok to complete our time in Thailand. We will leave Mae Sot at 7.00am and arrive at Krabi for 10.00pm...I`m sure Alan gets special rates with `Marathon Holidays`. We will have travelled by Tuk Tuk, long haul bus, taxi , plane, minibus and longtail boat (only access to Railey from mainland) in one day before we arrive at our hotel.

Nothing will compare to the special time we have just shared with our Burmese friends and we look forward to our ongoing friendship.

Here is a sobering link to You Tube which gives valuable background information about Aung San Suu Kyi , leader of theNational League For Demcracy, who is under permanent house arrest in Burma and helps us keep focused on the terrible loss of human rights that exist for the Burmese people.

Her simple message to us all is `Please use your liberty to promote ours`

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n4xdlxYs5r0

Teaching most of Tuesday

Teaching mind mapping






This was to be one of the busiest days as the English teacher was absent and I took over. It is quite a challenge to be faced with so many eager children who are learning to speak English when the only Burmese you recognise is `hello and thank you ` as well as the problem of limited resources. I decided to introduce mind maps as a way of planning and organising their work and had my boys working hard modelling their own maps and drawing examples on the whiteboard. We all three worked hard explaining and supporting the childen and I was pleased with the end result although quite drained with the sign language and slow deliberate pronunciation. We went on and learned the Fischy song `I`m the only I` which they learned amazingly well and they laughed so much at the actions for dancing and romancing , often breaking into loud clapping. But they were soon singing the song with gusto and I have it recorded to show all at a Pirniehall Gettogether. We tried circle time discussions to encourage them to acknowledge their many talents and strengths , as well as short word bingo which they loved.....we gave out postcards of Edinburgh as prizes ! Just before lunch we were trying out new fun games like hangman and all in all we had a very busy but productive time.











Kindergarten learn the alphabet



The children moved effortlessly from English to Thai and then Burmese language.The kindergarten were practising their alphabet and the boys lead them in the ABC song. You might have noticed the markings on the children`s faces (see smiley face above)) and this is Burmese make-up which also cools down the face. It is popular with children and adults and I was treated to a facial too!





Learning Thai Language and Music

In the afternoon we played back the video to the children of them singing and doing the Fischy actions which they absolutely loved. They had never seen themselves on television.












Watching themselves on television

Children who had been absent for their identification cards had their photographhs taken below by a volunteer from the Help Without Frontiers organisation.


Identification photographs


Pho Cho`s wife surprised us with gifts wrapped up beautifully and inside were Burmese wrap arounds for Alan and the boys and a lovely handbag for yours truly. We were so touched because we did not expect this.

The boys try on their presents


Maybe we could bring this little treasure home?

We left before the end of the day and headed towards Hle Bee school (Forthview`s partner school) and as we cycled in we were met with the familiar sounds of Fischy music being sung enthusiastically by hundreds of children. They were raising the roof, led by Sheila and the Hle Bee Headteacher with Fiona and Murray singing their hearts out. We joined in immediately and Stephen Fischbacher would have had an emotional moment at the wonderful sound that resonated around the school. The children loved meeting Scottish boys as Calum and Lewis introduced themselves. They all shook our hands as they left school and close by parents were preparing traditional Burmese soup for the special celebration next day, Bhudda Day. Another lovely Burmese migrant community working together and sharing a special friendship with a Scottish school. I have a good picture of us all singing together but there are Burmese teachers in it and I dont want to compromise them so will not post it.


On journey home washing hanging out over bushes indicate someone`s home



When not cycling we took a Tuk Tuk