Even In Lockdown - School Is Great

Innovating and persevering through lockdown to keep our Khelo Rugby teams focussed and engaged. In the end knocked off course by Cyclone Amphan.

by Shiv Singh

Set at the beginning of 2020 our theme for the Month of May was ‘School is Great’. Much of our monthly theme work is set up and planned for delivery outdoors and in groups from across our communities. School is Great has often also featured a rugby tournament to raise awareness and give a focus. This year none of that was possible, no problem, change of plan!

We've been having lots of virtual meet ups since coronavirus lockdown began so we decided to take this route for School is Great. Though the majority of the children we work with do not have online access we attempted to set up small groups to push the theme as far as we could into communities. Coaches organised and encouraged phone sharing and borrowing. We began with an online workshop for 5 coaches, the plan was that these 5 would then each deliver a similar session for 5 groups each, working with each group to extend access as best they could.

Discussion points were decided by the first group, pictures and slides worked out and notes created. This project would be delivered in Kolkata, Saraswatipur and Bengaluru.

Shakti Nag from Khidderpore delivered 2 sessions on School is Great for 12 young leaders, one group from Kolkata and one for Bengaluru. Shakti used the zoom app and explained the theme to the young leaders using a presentation. He felt using visuals helped in getting the attention and made a better impact. He encouraged everyone to share their thoughts and got positive feedback for his sessions. This was also good English practice for Shakti which he used to deliver the session in Bengaluru.

Sonam Shaw did the workshop with 12 young leaders divided into 2 groups. As all the young leaders didn’t have online access, Sonam did the workshop in an open space following all the social distancing norms. She used drawings and examples to explain the theme and build the discussion. She kept everyone attentive and made them share their personal experiences which helped in building rapport. Sonam made sure all the safety measures were strictly followed.

Subrata Bhowmick did the workshop with 4 young leaders from Jain Kunj using whatsapp video calling. To make everyone comfortable and open up Subrata started his session by sharing stories from his own school life. The group discussed what they liked and disliked about school and talked about how they can do better in their studies and encourage others to do so also.

Sandhya Rai used zoom to deliver her session to 5 young leaders from across Kolkata. Sandhya explained the importance of school using a presentation. The session was very interactive and everyone shared ideas that they could use to discuss School is Great with children in their own communities.

Lachmi Oraon and Rima Oraon from Saraswatipur conducted their workshop with 8 young leaders each. They made notes from the workshop and used it for the delivery. They used Hindi and Sadri to discuss with the young leaders the importance of school. They got positive feedback from the young leaders as they understood the idea of the discussion and participated actively in it.

In total we managed to involve around 70 young coaches for the workshops. Feedback was positive with most of the youngsters taking part reporting that they understood and appreciated the School is Great message. The coaches leading the workshops have also identified that being involved in these workshops will help them in future to plan and make sessions with the children more interactive. Good results all round, only knocked off the rails once the cyclone struck, we'll be back!