Chumkriel Language School

New uniforms for the Scholarship Class

2008-10-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

At the start of the academic year we provided new school uniforms to the Scholarship Class.

Football teams lunch

2008-08-09T03:35:00.000-07:00

Both our football teams (under 18s and under 15s) had their first victories recently. To celebate we put on a lunch at the CLS Learning Centre.

New rain coats for the Scholarship Class

2008-08-04T03:05:00.000-07:00

Through generous donations and sponsorships we have been able to supply good quality rain coats to the children in our Scholarship Class in time for the onset of the raining season.

New bicycles

2008-06-14T03:56:00.001-07:00

A big thank you to the friends who made it possible for us to provide new bicycles to some of the children who really need them.

Thanks to Lena from Berlin, Sherri, Dara and Patti from Toronto, also to David and Faith from Toronto.

New Benches from Marion and David

2008-06-14T03:23:00.000-07:00

Our friends from the UK donated these seats for us to put outside our learning centre.

Football for Peace

2008-06-12T06:35:00.000-07:00

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut organised a football competition to promote their "Stop Evictions" campaign.

Chumkriel Language School entered 3 youth teams in this 8 team local round robin competition at the very fine Kampot Olympic Stadium. Criteria for selection was height under 1.4 metre but we had to be a little flexible.

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (means 'sugar palm leaf') is a sister organization of Epic Arts Cafe. Their web site is at www.teangtnaut.org

New Handwashing facility

2008-06-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

CLS, through some generous donations have been able to provide Chumkriel primary school with a hand washing facility.

Previously the children at the school have had no place to wash hands after going to the toilet or before eating. We hope that by encouraging the children to wash hands regularly, unnecessary illness will be reduced and attendance at school will be improved.

Hanna and Saophon have been giving hand washing lessons to all primary school classes and we have committed to providing a regulay supply of soap.

We all miss Miss Mitzi

2008-06-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Mitzi spent longer than she expected here.

Its great when we have folk stay for a while and get to know us all. Thank you Mitzi for staying a while and being such a wonderful support to us all !

And also to Chris (2 from left, last picture) - doing such a wonderful job supporting us from Australia - we expect to see him back here next year.

Sumi's Light

2008-05-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Sumi came back for a visit and we showed her the lighting she made possible in Mr Rekha's classroom. Many thanks Sumi for being a wonderful supporter of our school !

Khmer New Year 2008

2008-05-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

A couple of new bikes for two in the Scholarship class

2008-05-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

Through some generous donations from friends we have been able to provide bicycles to two members of the Scholarship class.

Sandy asked each student - "Will you keep coming to English class " - both replied with a resounding "YES !" and their parents assure us they will encourage them in their studies.

A big thank you to the donors who made this possible.

Workshop

2008-04-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

We held a workshop with the teachers from the local state school. We wanted to hear the local teachers ideas for priorities for the Learning Centre. The workshop was well attended and everyone participated well, contributing ideas and showinf enthusiasm for the project.

Health and hygiene came out as major priorities along with a desire for traditional music and dance.

Papier Mache day at the Learning Centre

2008-03-13T04:10:00.000-07:00

Sign

2008-02-22T22:56:00.000-08:00

We've finally got the sign on the Learning Centre Building. Inside, Mr Dara has done a great job creating the "Nation, Religion, King" banner with the Royal Family pictures.

Opening, Kabobs, Reading and Drawing

2008-02-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

On 15 February 2008 we opened the Learning Centre. Hanna having just arrived back from Australia to take up the day to day running of the centre got things underway with some reading, drawing and craft activities. We are all very pleased with the students enthusiasm.

Would you like a Kabob ? These are little plastic wallets made from recycled rice bags. Our friend Karin created a great package for us with templates, samples and instructions for making them.

Drawing and reading activities also went down well, especially with the younger students.

Interviews

2008-02-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

We handed out questionnaires for parents and children to get their views on how our learning centre could support them in their education. We asked children to come along today and discuss their answers so we can listen to their ideas directly and assess the effectiveness of our questionnaire.

The questionnaires that we used can be reviewed at the following links:

Student Questionnaire
Parent Questionnaire

Painting the CLS Learning Centre

2008-02-06T19:28:00.001-08:00

We've finished painting the learning centre building and now we start to think about decorating - maybe some murals.

CLS Site Re-design

2008-02-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

We've put a new look and feel on the main CLS web site. Please let us know what you think.

Chumkriel Learning Centre

2008-01-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

We planning to open a drop in learning centre at Chumkriel. We have a temporary location on the school site and will pilot for six months while we investigate funding for a permanent location This is a big step forward for CLS and could make a huge difference for the children there. Let us know what you think of the sign we are thinking of commissioning.

Here are a couple of photos of the temporary building we will set up in:

CLS versus MJC

2008-01-05T23:26:00.000-08:00

Today our football team had their first friendly game in their new kit (their second ever 11 a side match). It was very hot but the lads didn't seem to tire to much. We scored in the first minute then MJC equalised after about 40 minutes. Final score 1-1. Hopefully this will be good preparation for the Kampot wide tournament on 20 January.

End Year Party Pictures

2008-01-04T02:26:00.001-08:00

Our students all gather under the marquee

Our dignitaries gather on the stage

Cat and Dara made a sign for us

Two students raise the Cambodian flag while everyone recites the national poem

The Chief of Commune makes a speach

Some of our young singers perform

A solo performance

Three legged race

Prize giving

The best performing students are given a certificate of merit

The Chief of Police presents awards

Sandy presents some awards

The football team receive their new shirts

After, we eat cake, do the Macarena then head into town for further celebration.

End of Year Party on 30 December

2007-12-28T04:13:00.000-08:00

On 30 December we will be celebrating another successful year at CLS and prsenting some of our outstanding students with prizes. We'll also have songs and games and cake. We'll be sure to post pictures here after the event.

New Volunteer Guidelines booklet

2007-11-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

Lorna and Ruxi did a wonderful job preparing a document for us to hand out to new volunteers. You can review it at:

http://www.chumkriellanguageschool.com/documents/volunteer_guidelines.pdf

CLS Football Team

2007-11-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

The CLS football team is back up and running and preparing for a competition in January. More details to follow soon.

Lights

2007-09-10T03:48:00.000-07:00

The lighting in Mr Rekha's class has always been a problem and more and more he has been finding it difficult to read from the text book during the 6pm-7pm class. Although it is inexpensive to install an extra light, the recurring cost of the extra electricity has been a big issue. At our recent monthly meeting we identified this as a priority problem.

We are very grateful to a friend who made a donation recently that has allowed us set aside funds to cover an additional light in Rekha's room plus the electricity for at least a year.

August monthly meeting

2007-08-29T01:16:00.000-07:00

The minutes from our August meeting have now been published at:

http://www.chumkriellanguageschool.com/minutes/staff/

The focus at this meeting was on improving teaching quality and relevelling some classes was identified as a priority.

Study Trip

2007-08-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

At CLS we want to encourage the children to feel confident about speaking English. Mr Rekha and Mr Sandy wanted to try a Study Trip with some of the older children. We took a tuk-tuk to Kep, went for coffee, walked on the pier, had a seafood lunch and played football on the beach. We gave the children clip boards to write down their observations and they will report back to their class tomorrow.

The trip was very succesful but quite expensive relatively. We hope that in future visitors might like to sponsor a study trip and come along with us.

Here are some pictures of our day out.

The children boght Mr Rekha and Mr Sandy some gifts as a thank you.

Rainy Season

2007-07-27T00:51:00.001-07:00

The rainy season in Cambodia presents us with particular challenges. It is the state school holidays and many students must help their families to plant rice. When the rain is particularly bad it is difficult for the students to get to school. Furthermore, the rain on the tin roofs in the classrooms makes it impossible to be heard at times. Although we produce handouts and exercises to use when the rain comes on really hard there is a cost involved. We also find that with the reduced attendance the income for the school is limited and there is no surplus to provide the small prizes for the best improved students at the end of each month. We would also like to provide the Scholarship Class kids with appropriate school bags for their books as most bring their books to school in flimsy plastic bags which tear and their books get wet.

Teacher Training

2007-07-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

All our teachers understand the need to be innovative in the classroom and we encourage them to improve their skills. We recently held an interactive workshop on Interactive Classroom Activities (Many thanks Amanda !) and this was enjoyed by all.

Joe from the Peace Corps has invited our teachers to join sessions he is giving on English Teaching Methods and a Grammar master class. Joe is an experienced teacher and these sessions are very valuable and will improve our skills and knowledge. Today we started looking at the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. Here are some pictures from today's class.

Classroom Rules/Team Points

2007-07-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

At our monthly meeting in May (minutes at http://www.chumkriellanguageschool.com/minutes/staff/may-2007.html) we determined that student behavior, particularly in some of the younger classes was a concern. We were fortunate to have some experienced volunteers to give advice and we held workshops on reinforcing classroom rules and introducing a Team Points system. This has been very successful and we see significant improvement in student attention and behavior.

Home Visits

2007-07-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Through some generous donations by friends in the UK we have been able to provide petrol payments to allow the teachers to undertake home visits. This is really important for the school as it allows us to get feedback from parents and also promote our school in the local community. Here are some pictures from last Saturday when Mr Rekha visited some of his students with Sandy.

On Monday, our volunteer Richard made some home visits to the Scholarship Class along with Mr Thy. Here are some photos of the families.

Computer Class

2007-07-20T06:11:00.001-07:00

Sandy's computer class continues to be popular with the students and they are learning fast. Most students have never used a computer before and although they love playing games, they are also learning to type and experiencing the internet and email. Thier written communication skills are also improving through educational games.

Here are some pictures of Mr Phon's students at computer class last week.

Dictionaries

2007-05-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

Could you learn a foreign language without a dictionary? Many of our students could not afford to buy a dictionary therefore we began a campaign to try to supply every child who needs one. With support from our friends at Bodhi Villa, we have been asking volunteers and visitors to Kampot to purchase an English-Khmer dictionary for about $2. We have now provided about 120 dictionaries to the children, about 70% of our target. Many thanks to all who helped with this initiative it really is making a big difference.

Here are our voulunteers Chloe and Jane presenting dictionaries to the Scholarship Class.

Yanna helping the children learn to use the dictionaries.

Gift from ASAC:

2007-05-22T03:20:00.000-07:00

Association of School Aid in Cambodia (ASAC) provided a gift of $279 to pay for cabling, uniforms and text books. They also provided 35 notebooks and 70 red and blue pens and 35 pencils.

Here is Mr Takashi Hiramatsu from ASAC chatting with the children when they came to visit us.

7th May 2007

2007-05-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

During May we started computer classes for children at CLS. Children can come to the school office and learn typing skills, email and internet. We are also introducing them to educational games and software

Welcome

2007-04-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the online diary of Chumkriel Language School

The main school site is at http://www.chumkriellanguageschool.com

We hope this blog will give supporters an up to date view on what is happening at the school.

Here are some pictures from our recent party to celebrate Khmer New Year.