Education

It is quite literally  - What We Do!  Alongside our counterparts in Nepal  our passion for Education, Education, Education is limitless and we enthuse our students with the same philosophy.  The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, clearly state that quality education  'is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved. When people are able to get quality education they can break from the cycle of poverty.'.  This is something that we instil in our students and community at Birkdale and work together with our partners in Nepal to achieve.   It is also one of the reasons our Nepal Partner Projects align so closely with educational goals, as areas like improved health and agriculture become achievable through education.

During our time in Nepal the Birkdale students deliver, what is essentially a holiday style activity week.  The time of year means that the Nepal National exams have just finished and the hard work of the Nepalese teachers has culminated .  This presents Birkdale with an ideal opportunity to interact in the school without disrupting the national schemes of work.  Our students create activities that have purpose and enjoyment, things that they are passionate about, find fun and can easily turn in to a game.  We do not presume to teach  to the Nepalese curriculum  but do recognise that English language skills are highly valued in industries such as tourism, which provides one of the higher wage employment sectors in Nepal.

Our students and staff from Birkdale are always enthusiastic and over the years a range of fun activities have worked there way into the school yards of Kathmandu.  Birkdale has a particular passion for science and this is  particularly well represented in the Nepal Partnership Projects, Nepal Health Checks and Increase The Yield.  These projects are founded in education and not only target areas of need but are also designed to incorporate good scientific practices that students and staff teams engage in.  Education is key to development and we share in this belief with our Nepalese friends.

It is hard to quantify what we do, so here is a bullet point summary of Nepal teams year.

Teaching:

• Pairing up with another Birkdale student, they will begin work in September thinking about lesson activities and what to teach.

• Design 4 activities; one will be the NHC's, one will be a Pen Pal letter linked with letters written by students from Birkdale, one will be linked to health in general (dental or germ hygiene and finally they will create a lesson activity of their own design.

• These lessons are prepared and tested out at a training weekend in January, adapted and then let loose on Birkdale Prep School students, where our 6th form Nepal team will really learn how to handle a crowd.

• Finally, when we are in Nepal there is nowhere to hide and our students jump in to action and have a brilliant time with the Nepalese students at schools like the Peace Garden School and Noble School.

Sports Day

• At the Durga school in Lumbini, Birkdale students deliver a classic sports day, a range of activities and fun.  A fun day all round.

Nepal Partnership Projects

• All students help with the NHC's, which is a classic scientific data collection activity.

• Some students will opt in to do further fieldwork on the ITY project, sampling and analysing data samples to search for agricultural improvements.

All in all, it is hard to summarise the educational opportunities that the Nepal team participate in.