A New School...

Last Friday (11th) we had the director of a school in the slum, come to us for a meeting, and to see our community centre. She is from a tiny pre-school which caters for children aged 3-8.  She would like us to help them with their integrated schools programme - the children go to school for 4 hours either in the morning and afternoon, but the government have introduced this new scheme where in the opposite time the children are not in classes they are doing 'extra curricular activities'. So the school would like us to help them out...sadly we are only able to help out one morning a week - but it is better than nothing.

This Friday (18th) we went to the school to finalise details and look around the school. The school is tiny, but really nice, and a lot different from what I had been told about the education system here in Brazil. It was yet another meeting all in Portuguese for me, and I understood most of it, but it made me really tired!

The school will be coming to the Lighthouse on a Thursday morning. The children will be between the ages of 6 and 9 years old. They will be able to play in our park, do sports/games on the small sports court, and will also have a classroom section - were we will look at morals, and values based on the Bible. But we can also do other activities like: puzzles, reading, art etc...

Here at the Lighthouse we really try and cover five areas of development: spiritual, physical, intellectual, mental and emotional - so we will be offering these children a variety of activities.

So....look out for another update on how the first day goes with the school coming. They will be coming on the Thursday 31st March, and I am really excited!