A year like no other at the Bayon School

A year like no other at the Bayon School

by | 24 Dec 2020 | Agroecology training, Bakery and pastry school, General education, Health, hygiene and food, Primary school, Secondary school support, Social and families support, Sustainable agriculture and environment, Vocational training

As the year 2020 comes to an end, so does the school year for our primary and bakery/pastry schools. It has been a complicated 12 months, during which our students and teams have been seriously challenged. We have had to adapt, reinvent ourselves and act quickly in the face of a crisis, the impact of which no one could have foreseen. Even though the situation is far from being “normal” again, we have come out of it stronger, enriched and eager to keep innovating in order to provide a better education for those in need.

Let’s look back at the actions and successes of our schools

In September 2019, we welcome our 6th class of students at the Pastry School with 26 young girls; a number, which has been constantly rising since the opening of the school. The new laboratory intended to free up space and reinforce our bakery teaching is almost finished and we are delighted to be able to start the new year in optimal conditions to train more and better. In 2018/2019, we manage to self-finance almost 55% of the school’s costs, thanks to the Coffee Shop’s income, and we are doing our utmost to welcome tourists and visitors to do, if not just as well, even better. The hygiene teaching program is reviewed with a food safety specialist and English classes are reinforced with the launch of a partnership with the Australian Center for English.

pastry-student
des enfans mangent à la cantine

In October 2019, 232 students are enrolled in the Bayon primary school and 120 middle and high school students continue their studies, whilst being accompanied on a monthly basis by our teams with educational and social follow-up. The primary-aged children discover the new sit-down breakfast with a hot meal from 6:45 a.m. The art-culture-sport program is reinforced with traditional puppet classes and one and a half hours a week are dedicated to sports. In February, 30 pupils participate in the inter-school sports championship and win 2 medals; a very proud moment for all involved! Support classes for pupils with difficulties continue and the project for a building dedicated to small group teaching is on the road to completion.

In November 2019, the number of “farmer” families in the Bayon increases to 11, as three new families join the vegetable garden project. This project allows these women farmers to earn additional income and 90% of the vegetables bought for the canteen are now organic.

Cooperation with the association Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (For a Child’s Smile) kicks off and together we launch a major collaborative project to create a field for experimentation in agroecology. Projects such as planting fruit trees and medicinal plants, building above-ground cultivation tables, creating compost and installing an irrigation system mean that this land will become the home to our future agroecology school with its first 10 students in January 2021. At the same time, and in partnership with the NGO Vivre de sa Terre, the 10-month training of the future teachers starts and the team fine-tunes the curriculum.

Une agricultrice montre ses cultures

From December 2019, the families receive a visit from our medical and social teams to assess their sanitary conditions and medical needs. 156 families are interviewed and a major study is conducted to define an action plan to be implemented with our families.

Adapting to the Covid

On March 9, 2020, all schools in the country close their doors and, by the end of March, the last repatriation planes send the last remaining tourists back home. Our students return to their families and our younger pupils are kept away from the school. Disheartened at the beginning, we have to react quickly to help our families face this crisis, not knowing how long it will last.

enfant porte un masque à l'école
des légumes et du riz sont distribués aux familles

All the vegetables produced by the farmers are bought by the NGO and distributed every week free of charge to the families of our pupils, who are no longer being fed morning and night at the canteen. Our social team visits the families at home to analyze the impact of COVID on them: those identified as being in great difficulty receive rice. Distance-learning and very small group-teaching starts in April and in July we receive a donation of smartphones to improve access to online courses for our pastry students. Our teams put in motion the different projects: redesigning the website, painting the walls of the Coffee Shop, studying the situation of our alumni pastry school students, launching a database to regroup all the social, medical and pedagogical information of the students, training for the farmers and precise monitoring of the quantities of vegetables, which just keep on increasing.

tous les enfants de l'école primaire

Bounce back and move forward

All of these actions have made it possible to accompany our families and maintain a pedagogical follow-up, avoiding, as a result, too much delay with the school programs. Some families returned temporarily to their home villages to work the land as they had lost their jobs. The Cambodian people are proving to be resilient and strong in the face of this crisis and we hope that economic and tourist activity can resume as soon as possible to recreate jobs for those who really need them.

photo de groupe de la 6ème promotion
Education Throught Artistic Awakening In Primary School

Education Throught Artistic Awakening In Primary School

by | 17 Sep 2020 | General education, Primary school

Gilles, our artist with a big heart is back in Bayon School. Thanks to him, and for the 5th year running, 3 weeks have been dedicated to artistic projects with the children in the primary school. This year saw the completion of a mural fresco on the wall of the infirmary, the creation of a green wall and the decoration of the new shoe racks. Read on for more details of these fabulous projects, which have proven very popular with all involved. Gilles, who has been retired for several years now, is passionate about art; he has been visiting us every year for the last 5 years in order to share his passion with the children and to awaken their curiosity.
This project is very close to our heart at Bayon School as it fits in perfectly with our desire to develop a participative education and learning experience, combining theoretical knowledge with personal development and know-how through various extra-curricular activities which we have recently introduced (PE, Apsara dance, traditional Khmer puppets and arts & crafts). For three weeks, all the pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 6 took turns to express their imagination for a magnificent end result!
Last year, Gilles oversaw three different projects whilst he was here; painting the wall of Elodie’s Canteen, making a toothbrush rack for all the classrooms as well as a fabulous cardboard model of the primary school, which was unfortunately damaged during the month of the monsoon just after he left.Gilles and our volunteers had been thinking about new projects which could, this time, be durable over time: this year’s programme includes a striking mural fresco on the wall of the infirmary, customisation of our new shoe cabinets as well as a green wall using only recycled materials. Let’s looks them more closely:1. Mural fresco for the infirmary
For the first week of this creative workshop, the children gave the walls of the infirmary a complete make-over. The children really enjoyed reproducing the drawings provided by our very talented Sreyleak, former student of the very first intake at the Pastry School, who now works with us in the Coffee Shop. This first stage needed precision and rigour to achieve such a wonderful end result, to the great delight of Jean-Pierre and Michèle, our volunteers in charge of the infirmary and the health projects.

2. Decoration of the Shoe Racks
With dozens of small shoes discarded in front of the classrooms, the primary school looked a little chaotic and so we thought it was time to install shoe racks in front of each class. These were then brought to life by Gilles and his little helpers!

3. Green wall with recycled materials:
Last but not least, volunteers and staff joined forces to collect all sorts of recycled materials, producing an interesting mix of bicycle and car tyres, coconuts, plastic bottles and wooden planks. A touch of DIY here and a coat of paint there… and our green wall was born.


Everybody of all ages took part in the project and enjoyed themselves immensely. It was with emotion and stars in his eyes that Gilles left the school and the children. We have an inkling that, once settled in his seat, he was already thinking about the projects he could organise next year.
Thank you Gilles!

Our champions’ exploits

by | 16 Sep 2020 | General education, Health, hygiene and food, Primary school

Set up in 2018, the sports programme at the Bayon Primary School has developed rapidly over the last two and a half years. Every week, our pupils practise different sports at school and participate in matches as well as an official regional school competition. Discover our champions’ exploits in pictures.

In February 2018, we decided to introduce weekly PE (Physical Education) lessons for the pupils from Grades 2-6 and recruited a qualified PE teacher; this was in line with our wish to offer a different pedagogical approach, based on the children’s individual needs (complimented by arts and crafts lessons) whilst expanding the traditional PE programme at the school. Since October 2018, we have extended the lessons to Grade 1 pupils. In order to continue to offer a high-quality PE programme, we also increased the number of hours in the weekly timetable 2019-20 from 40 minutes to one hour and 20 minutes.

Chuon Dorl is our qualified PE teacher, who followed a training program with the association Kampuchea Balopp, which promotes sport in Cambodia).

PE lessons are important as they allow our pupils to develop skills which are not always taught in the other subjects:

  • Team spirit
  • Self-confidence and the idea of surpassing oneself
  • Value of hard work and effort
  • Respect for others and compliance with the rules
  • A sense of initiative and responsibility
  • A senses of commitment.

These lessons are also the time for the children to let off steam and enjoy themselves whilst discovering different sports and fun activities.

At the beginning of the school year 2018, the primary pupils were all given a PE outfit of shorts and a T-Shirt, flocked with the logo of Bayon. These will be renewed in 2020. Furthermore, Bayon School has invested in the installation on the school premises of goalposts and a sand pit for athletics, as well as buying smaller items such as cones, bibs & balls.  Thanks to these investments, the children can now try out all sorts of sports: football, volleyball, long jump, high jump, running.

In 2019, Bayon School participated, for the first time in its history, in the regional school championship, which was organised by the Government for various different sports: football, basketball, volleyball & athletics. Bayon had football teams in the Boys, Girls and Mixed Teams competition.

In 2020, Bayon participated once again but with more children; 30 pupils overall took part, with the Boys’ football team and the mixed athletics team competing in the high jump, long jump, sprint, running, relay and a type of Pentathlon. Before the big event, our champions underwent specific training sessions and participated in two football matches against other primary schools, both of which they won.

In 2020, and for the second year running, our football team unfortunately did not manage to get past the first round, but we are not giving up and are already preparing next year’s competition with great enthusiasm. Our Athletics team, on the other hand, was more successful in their first participation with excellent results:

  • 1st Place in Boys Long Jump
  • 3rd Place in Girls’ Relay
  • 4th Place in Girls’ High Jump
  • 4th Place in Girls’ Sprint
  • 4th Place in Girls’ Running

The school championship is the only chance that many of our pupils have to participate in real competition conditions. It is most certainly a long-awaited event in the school calendar and they represent their school colours with tremendous pride. The popularity of the activities and the progression of the children in such a short time really underlines the importance of the sporting activities at the school and showcases its success.

For the school year 2020-21, Bayon School plans to continue investing in its sporting infrastructure, in particular a volleyball court, the renovation of the sand pit and the purchase of hurdles. In addition, we would like to register pupils in different sports in the school championship, giving more children the possibility to compete, the aim being of course to participate and have fun… whilst trying to bring home as many medals as possible!

New director for primary school

New director for primary school

by | 16 Sep 2020 | General education, Primary school

Vantha HEM – On the right

 

In November 2019, after a rich and diverse career, Vantha HEM joined the Bayon School as headmaster for the Primary School and he has easily integrated the team. Read on to learn what motivates him and what he has been working on for the last 8 months.

Vantha, can you tell us briefly about yourself?

I am 42 years old and I have one child. I started my career as a school teacher before taking over as headmaster of the Ta Pen School (NGO Le Don du Chœur). I then worked for FRIENDS International as project manager for the reintegration of young dropouts before joining Water for Cambodia as deputy manager and head of operations.

What has struck you the most since arriving in Bayon School? And what do you appreciate the most since starting work here?

Its location! The school is located in a really exceptional place with all these gigantic trees. I have also been impressed by the fact that everything is given to the children to ensure that they can study in a good environment (canteen morning and midday, school supplies, uniform, …). I am touched by the atmosphere within the team of teachers and the solidarity between them. I also find that the pupils show great respect towards authority and the teachers. As a whole, the children are all quite honest.

What was the first thing you did?

For me, it seemed essential to get to know the children, their background and their families, in order to understand better the global project of the NGO. At the same time, I got in touch quickly with the local authorities (village chiefs, monks, …) to introduce myself. The school now participates once a month in an inter-school committee.

How do you perceive working with children who come from very poor backgrounds & whose families are very often unable to support them?

It is true that the pupils of the Bayon School are, for the most part, left to care for themselves. I worked for several years on the reintegration of young dropouts and so I make use of that experience as well as that of the current Bayon team. We work with a committee which summons the parents whose children miss too much school or who are no longer invested enough in the programme. It can be complicated to get the families to understand the importance of education. When the children fall behind and grow older (after Grade 6), it becomes delicate as they search for odd jobs to help support their family.

After eight months as headmaster of the Bayon Primary School, can you tell us about some of your achievements?

Firstly, some things have changed in human resources. Sothea has become the administrative manager and Loan the maintenance manager. Their roles are essential; I am training them and encouraging them to take on more responsibilities. The full team of teachers now takes part once a month in training programmes to help them with their teaching methods and the creation of their curricula; they are all very happy to participate. We have also implemented internal training with « school demonstrations ». Once a month, a teacher spends half a day in the class of a colleague to observe, pick up some good ideas and then introduce them in his/her own class.

We have also worked on the school surroundings and safety. I have requested that the APSARA authorities cut down the dangerous branches of dead trees and we have planted several areas with flowers and plants.

Lastly, as I was saying at the beginning, I have been working on promoting good relations between the monks from the pagoda and our team members. We are on their land and it is indispensable that we work together to ensure the future of our school.

A last question: how do you manage to keep everybody motivated during the COVID-10 crisis?

At the beginning, we split the teachers into two groups to ensure social distancing. Some worked from home, whilst others came to the school to tidy up, decorate the classes and review the preparation of the lessons. Very early on, we set up distance learning for the pupils with work they could do at home. They come in groups of 5 at a time to pick up documents which they then bring back the following week. This system requires a great deal of organisation by the teachers. We are all hoping that we can reopen the school very soon.

 

Bayon school – Dealing with COVID-19

by | 16 Sep 2020 | Agroecology training, Bakery and pastry school, Coffee Shop, General education, Health, hygiene and food, Primary school, Secondary school support, Social and families support, Sustainable agriculture and environment, Vocational training

It has now been close to four months that COVID-19 has spread across the planet. Even if Cambodia has officially registered very few cases and no deaths, the country has not been spared and its population is suffering from the loss of jobs and the lack of tourist activity. Bayon School is doing their best to help the families during this unprecedented crisis.

Support the families – The first urgency

Since mid-March, no tourist has been allowed to enter the country and the large majority of the hotels, restaurants and spas have closed, leaving thousands of workers with no jobs and no compensation from the Cambodian government. Many of our families have been affected, losing their primary source of income which allowed them to meet the basic needs of 8-10 people. Furthermore, the children who used to go to school were being fed breakfast and lunch at the canteen, one thing less for the parents or grandparents to provide. Now they are at home and need feeding by their families, adding an additional charge.

Faced with this critical situation, Bayon School reacted quickly. From Week 1, all the vegetables grown by the famers invested in the Green Project were bought by the NGO and then distributed free of charge to the parents of our pupils. This guaranteed a salary for these women farmers and the insurance that the children would continue to eat healthy vegetables. In addition, our social teams studied the families very closely and we started distributing rice to those in desperate need from the second week after the school closure. Special thanks to our donors and the company AMRU Rice for their precious support, which allowed us to finance the rice and vegetables.

Closure of the Pastry School and Coffee Shop – What happens next?

At the Pastry School, we had to send our 26 students back to their families and, as a result and out of obligation, close the shop. The Coffee Shop of the Bayon Pastry School, opened more than 4 years ago, covers 50 % of the budget required for the pastry/baking training programme. Its closure means a significant loss of income for the NGO, which we have been able, in part, to compensate through the generosity of our donors. After two weeks of adjustment and holidays for the catering staff, we put in place several projects in preparation for the re-opening: inventory, storage, planting in the gardens, painting the walls, Spring cleaning, … In the end, the team was very busy. In addition, Sokhouern and Sokly developed a brand-new range of bread with no fewer than 10 new references for sale in our future bakery. They had the time to test new recipes to ensure a wide range of products that we will be able to offer the hotels and restaurants once they can re-open. Finally, since the end of April, the teachers have put in place online lessons for our students, who, each day, receive videos and telephone calls to keep them up to date and help them revise their lessons.

Social follow-up, survey and report

Our social teams have been very committed during this period. They worked firstly on identifying the families with the most difficulties in order to help them in the best way possible. This crisis has also given us the possibility to take a big step back and analyse the impact of our actions on the children and their education. A further study was led with the alumni of the Pastry School, with the aim of updating the details of our former students, analyzing their career paths and reviewing their situation one to five years after graduating.

And our communication?

We have launched the huge undertaking of redoing the website for Bayon School. It will be revealed soon! And we are trying, as best we can, to stay in touch with all the friends of Bayon School, who, we know, stand by our side. An enormous thank you for your help which has allowed us to manage this crisis and help our families as much as possible. We hope to reopen the schools very soon and see again the happy, smiling faces of our pupils as they play outside.

“SBEK THOM”, KHMER SHADOW THEATRE

“SBEK THOM”, KHMER SHADOW THEATRE

by | 12 Dec 2019 | General education, Primary school

Sbek Thom is Khmer shadow theatre featuring two-metre high, non-articulated puppets made of chiselled leather. Dating from before the Angkorian period, Sbek Thom, along with the Royal Ballet and mask theatre, is considered sacred. Dedicated to the divinities, performances could only take place on specific occasions three or four times a year, such as the Khmer New Year, the King’s birthday or the veneration of famous people. After the fall of Angkor in the fifteenth century, shadow theatre evolved beyond a ritualistic activity to become an artistic form, while retaining its ceremonial dimension. Since 2008, it has been inscribed by UNESCO on the list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
(source : unesdoc.unesco.org).
At the Bayon School, we believe it essential to carry on with this tradition and including it in our programme of extra-curricular activities is an integral part of this process. After developing our lessons of sport, arts & crafts and Apsara dance, the introduction of lessons of Khmer puppetry allows us to link history, creativity & teamwork.
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Before all else, we would like to introduce Tob Leang, our new puppet teacher at the Bayon School. Tob Leang studied the history and creation of puppets for three years at the Bambu Stage, a social entreprise based in Siem Reap, which aims to highlight young talent through crafts and traditional Khmer culture. He joins the Bayon team today in the hope of passing on his knowledge to the pupils at our primary school.
Our project is ambitious as we want to put on our first Khmer shadow theatre presentation at the Bayon School at the end of the first semester. There are of course numerous steps to integrate beforehand:
WEB-IMG_1451
• First learning step: hold and learn to use the tools required to make the puppets as chiselling the leather is a complex technique to master. All our pupils will learn to select the tool, which is best adapted to obtain the desired shape of the puppet.
• Once this step has been mastered, it is time to make the actual puppets. Using a small chisel and a hammer, the children learn step-by-step how to trace straight lines, before moving on to making their first samples. Taking into account the dexterity required by the pupils, the team at Bayon have decided to start the puppet-making lessons in Grade 2 (7-8 years old)
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• Once the little puppets have been made, there remains one essential step, and not the easiest! Memorising g the scenario and learning how to bring the puppets to life to ensure a successful presentation.
Tob Leang spent a long time working on this scenario before arriving at Bayon; it requires a great deal of attention and concentration from the children, as you can see from the photos!
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At the time of writing this article, the children have made tremendous progress and most of the puppets have already been made. For news on the presentation at the end of the semester, you will have to wait until the next newsletter at the end of March!A very big thank you to Fondation Insolite Bâtisseur – Philippe Romero, which finance this project and enable them to set up this new complementary class.