Sponsered Walk.

                       Sundorne School holds an annual sponsored walk to raise funds for

                        different causes the school supports. This year half of all sponsor

                       money raised will be going into our Burma fund so thank you very

                       much all those who who raised money and undertook the 7 mile

                       walk up to Haughmond hill. These students are gathering in the

                       playground ready to set off.

 

                         Leaving school grounds, full of enthusiasm, how long I wonder, before

                         legs start to tire and the shout goes up "how much further" to go?

                                

                           These fashionably dressed ladies are members of staff who have

                           been recruited to act as marshalls  at the first road crossing, a

                           responsible job as getting 400plus children across the busy road

                           can be very hazzardous.

                       

 This road crossing is on a very busy road so we have the help

        of the local police who hold up the traffic to enable the students to

                          cross the road safely.

                          At various points along the route students have to have their sponsor

                          card signs as evidence that they have completed the whole route and

                          not managed to find a short cut!!

                          Some members of staff are a little camera shy, not our Mrs Thompson

                           the head of the art dept who is stiding out raising money for the Burma

                         fund to enable money to be sent out to help our friends in Sunrise

                         School.

                    This is the fantastic view over the shropshire countryside from the top of

                    Haughmond Hill, Quite a trek to the top but I think you will agree, well

                     worth the effort.

 

                           Finally, we all reached the pic-nic area and sat down for a quick lunch.
                       

                             Ready to set off back to school, these two will have a speedy journey

                             back, downhill all the way!

                      One last group photo for this year 7 class before they undertake the

                       less arduous task of getting back down the hill.

 
                            The last of the students are signed out and on their way back to
                             school. The sponsered walk nearly over for another year.

Infants invited to Sundorne.

Infants invited to Sundorne.

                    Children from our local infant school were invited to join our Year 9

                     students in producing some colourful art work for their school.

                  The older children prepared the blank boards with a base coat of
                  paint then added texture by using a sponge to apply different
                 colours.

                         They then chose a character or subject and drew the
                         outline onto the board.

                       

                        The younger children then came into Sundorne School, and
                       once  paired up with a year 9 student they set about
                        completing the boards.

                         The younger children were very excited to be producing a piece
                         of art that would become a permenant feature in their school,

                         staying on the wall long after they have moved on to their

                         junior shools.

                             These are just a few of the finished boards ready for display.

We have 24 in total! Hope they have room for all of them. It's been hard work organising it but the final paintings are brillant and our Year 9 students worked really hard to make sure all the infants had great fun. A big thank you to the Year 9's from the Art Department.

        

Funding Letter from Phar Eh

We received this letter today acknowledging our support to enable Phar Eh to teach art in the jungle. Remember these posts? They will help remind you of his story, click on them to see. 

Phar Eh wanted to teach art but couldn't find any work in the camp so he decided to return to his village which is in an area of conflict, the Burmese people are still fighting the military. He asked Estelle if we would let him have some money for some art materials so he could teach in his village school.

Where is Phar Eh's school?

Sending materials to Moses School

Phar Eh's Internship at Studio Xang

Sundorne School

Shrewsbury, UK

No- 01/2011

6^th July 2011,

Acknowledgement letter

This is to acknowledge receipt the amount of 10,000 Baht in Thai currency from Sundorne School in May 2011. Studio Xang Received this donation on behalf of Saw Phar Eh and Moses primary School in Wha May Day, Papun district, Karen state, Burma.

The money was used to buy art material and equipment, and send it from Thailand to Moses school. This material will be used by Saw Phar Eh to provide a weekly art class for 20 children during one term. Please find details of expenses attached.

Please receive our heartfelt thanks for your kind help. We look forward to continue collaborating with Sundorne School and students in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Estelle Cohenny

Coordinator of Studio Xang

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Tel:+66 53 212 564

Mob.:+66 624 3170

studioxangamcp@gmail.com

Sundorne Dance Festival.

                 Sundorne School hosted its annual dance festival to which we invited
                 several of the local infant and junior schools. Children aged from 5yrs
                 to 15yrs took part and a fantastic evening was had by all.



                 Below are just a few photographs from the many enthusiastic and very
                 talented performances.
                 

Where is Phar Eh's school?

Greetings from Chiang Mai in the rainy season!

I think many of you must be wondering where did all this art material go after it was sent to Phar Eh and the school he now works at in Karen state, Burma. So we thought we would send you some maps.

On this first map you can see how the material travelled from Chiang Mai, to Masariang then accross the border to Burma to reach Hpapun (also spelt Papun) in northern Karen state. Quite a way. It had to sail up and across the Salawin river, then be carried and transported to Phar Eh's school. 

Now where is this school? Well Look at this map below, and seach for Papun, move up north a little. See that soldier? Cute drawn like that, but not so cute in real life,like if you were carrying some school materials and had to answer some of his questions. 

But all you have to do is get a little further up into the dark grey area (hiding area), passed the soldiers. The school is right there. Now what's a hiding area? Agian look at the map: do you see the red houses? These are villages from which people are expelled by goverment forces. Now do you see the blue houses? That's the relocation sites for these villagers.

 

Well I 'm not so great at maths but I think it's obvious that there are a lot more villages distroyed that places for villagers to relocate. So that's when the hidding areas come into play.And the Iternally Displaced person camp (little balck tent). 

Unfortunately, there are plenty of military outposts, these little grey stars through the hiding area making it pretty dangerous. The green hatched areas are held by people who fight against the burmese military goverment. This is called a zone of conflict.

This is where some brave people are trying to run schools so that village kids can get an education. And now, thanks to you, they'll be doing some art classes too. So don't be disapointed if it takes a long time to get some news from there. It'll come, slowly, back across the river, down the roads into our Chiang Mai office where we'll translate it for you and post it!


PS: Aung San Suu Kyi is giving a couple of lectures on the BBC radio. If you would like to listen to the first lecture, please follow thhis link:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00hljtd/The_Reith_Lectures_Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_Lecture_1_Liberty/

We're looking forward to gets your comments and see what exciting things you've all been up to!

 Studio Xang

Sports Day At Sundorne School

                          Sports day kicked off with a parade of all the athletes in their form
                           groups, this is a year 7 form, it is their first sports day at Sundorne
                           so they were a little nervous but excited to be competing.

                             In contrast, this is a year 10 form who are 'old hands' looking relaxed
                             and ready to race.

               

                                      
                                   This is Mr McCarthy, he has the important job of being
                                   the 'starter' for all the track events.

                                  
                                   Field events on sports day  include discus, javelin, shot putt,
                                   a three legged race and the more unusual 'welly wanging'.
                                   Discus throwing requires a good technique and its not
                                   always the biggest or the strongest that throw the furthest.

                          'Welly wanging' involves throwing the welly as far as you can.
                           This can be done by facing forwards and throwing, or,
                           as in the case of this student, facing backwards. This method
                           means the welly has to be thrown up and over the head. As
                           you can imagin direction can sometimes be a problem and
                          wellys have ended up in some strange places.

                                  As stated, it is not always the tallest, strongest, or biggest
                                  that comes out on top. If you can get the technique right,
                                  as this student has, you can beat the rest.

                           'Putting' the shot has its very own unique technique,which, if used
                            correctly,will result in a longer distance being recorded for the
                           throw. You don't have to be strong, but it helps if you can pick
                           the shot up in the first place, and what ever you do ,don't drop
                           it on you toe!!

                           Getting co-ordinated with your partner is the most important
                           element to this race, it takes a lot of practice and if you get it
                           wrong the chances are you will end up flat on your face!
                           The hardest part is keeping a lid on the overwhelming urge
                           to laugh.

Not to be outdone, the staff competed in a relay race against

each other, I have to say they were supprisingly quick and what

was particularly amazing, nobody dropped the baton!

Receipt from Sunrise

Here is a receipt from Sunrise School. It's interesting to see what they will be spending the money on, 14,000 Baht which is £285.00 is going to be used to fix the school computer, buy 250 exercise books and twenty desks among other things. I imagine buying desks really means buying flat wood to construct them from.

There's lots going on here in our Art department:

Year 8 students have been learning how to do basic perspective drawing to try and create a sense of distance.

They have used this skill to develop some creative designs

Year 7 students have been making all sorts of collections for homework. They have now brought these in.

And are starting to construct their own display boxes for them to be arranged in. The plan is to have an installation of them on the stage for the final assembly, all lined up like a wall. We had a practise run in the art department and it looked fantastic.

And finally our Year 9 students are preparing 24 big boards for displays in our infant school. Students have been asked to design images suitable for ages 4 - 7. We have some Disney characters and current cartoon characters as well.