Professional Development study visits to India for teachers, trainee teachers and education students

-Professional Development for Primary and Secondary Teachers
-Curriculum development for teacher trainees, or education students
-Experiences of life in India, and explorations of development issues
-Enrichment of many curriculum subjects, particularly Geography and Citizenship
-Gathering resources for specific areas of curriculum coverage
-Broadening the global dimension within schools
-Supported by GLADE, the GA IWC and the British Council

What sort of visits are these?
These study visits are professional development opportunities for teachers from all over the UK who teach about India.

The visits enrich teaching about India by adding authenticity, enthusiasm and experience. The ten day programme involves activities for exploring our locality and its culture, the gathering of resources and artefacts, and creative ideas for the teaching of the curriculum.

The visits specifically developed to support the delivery of aspects of the UK national curriculum for all curriculum subjects and particularly for geography, citizenship, art and RE. For example, during the ten days we cover elements of the geography curriculum involving learning about distant places, locality studies, settlements, development, environmental and resource issues, geographical enquiry skills, creativity in the curriculum. For all subjects the visit will enrich your schools global dimension. For art, we will learn about artistic rituals and mandalas, for RE we will learn about the different religions of South India and visit both working and historical places of worship. Many participants have found that their school are ready to support the funding of these visits.Please take a look at a visit case study to see more information about what we cover during these visits.

Who can attend?
Teachers with different subject interests have joined the study visits from music and art, to religious studies and special needs as well as geography and citizenship. We welcome any teacher who sees the benefit of learning from such a visit and we often design elements of the programme to fit with individual interests and curriculum needs. The programme is re-worked for each visit to suit the key stage and subjects of the individual teachers in the group.

When do they happen?
Two visits are advertised and run every academic year for any teacher across the UK to join, each visit is for a maximum of 10 participants. One visit occurs during October half term and another during February half term. You can apply to join one or either if you have no preference. The recommended time is ten days for a productive visit, the precise dates of the visits will be arranged to suit the participants, but will be based around the half term and depending on the length of the holiday for your school may require three days off your school time table either before or after half term.

Can I send a group of student teachers?
We have groups of student teachers from Teacher training departments and Universities of Education at all times of the year depending on when it fits with your course. The visits follow the same structure as the usual teacher study visits, and we co-ordinate carefully with the faculty staff in advance in order to cover areas which the students would benefit from the most(often with a request for increase in school experience days). We do get very booked up during the October-January time, and July-August, so please do contact us well in advance in order to plan a time to bring your students on a study visit.

Where do we stay?
The visits are based at Sangams residential site which is called The Land, which is on the edge of the village of Silvepura, near Bangalore.

What do we do?
The exact programme for each study visit is negotiated with the group and is based around the group's curriculum interests, every visit is therefore always slightly different. There are many options, for example, for those who are mainly interested in Geography, you can:

-Gather resources for a contrasting locality study.

-Experience daily life in and around the Silvepura village- a changing rural settlement.

-Visits and teaching experience in three very different and contrasting schools.

-Learn about an environmental issue of importance eg: water.

-Learn about local agricultural and farming practices.

-Study the changing nature of the city of Bangalore- a changing urban environment.

-Experience the cultural and physical landscape of the Bangalore area through day trips and excursions to places of interest such as a local farming and spice market, a number of different Hindu and Jain temples, local folk shrines, and nature walks to local sites of interest.

-Cultural Workshops to learn about Indian artistic rituals, traditional patterning, folk dances, festivals and stories.

-Other cross curricular activities according to the interests of the group e.g. an introduction to Indian cookery, an introduction to yoga, an introduction to the many religions of south India, telling Indian folk myths and stories, a session of Indian craft activities, artistic activities relating to Indian rituals and mandala's.
(The images and case studies above give more details some of the activities that have been undertaken during past study visits. Please read the comments from previous visiting teachers to be found by clicking the link to the right of the images at the top of the page.)

Sangam is run by Kiran and Imogen Sahi, and the study visits for teachers are co-ordinated from the UK end by Sam Woodhouse. Kiran specialised in Design (NID, Amedabad.) Imogen Sahi is a teacher of Science and Geography (Exeter, Cambridge) The two of them run the programme at Sangam and are with you throughout the process. Sam Woodhouse is the Associate Consultant for Geography and Citizenship for Somerset Local Education Authority in the UK. She works with Sangam during the preparation, induction and feedback phases of the teacher study visits.

If you are interested in applying to join one of our study visits:

Please download the flyer, further information, a time-line, and the application form from this website. Click HERE for the flier, info and application form downloads. .

Fill in the application form, stating clearly which visit you are interested in, or if you have no preference, say that also. Please also give a clear outline of why you would like to go on the visit, and how you would like to share the learning back at school, or in your school cluster.

Please post your application form by May 15th 2009 to:
Mrs Sam Woodhouse, 4 The Liberty, Wells, Somerset BA5 2SU
(Do note that 10 participants is the maximum number, and that there may be more applicants than places. One criteria of selection may need to be the order in which the applications are received, so early booking is advisable).

Sam will then contact you by the 22nd May 2009 to confirm your place. If you have any questions at any time about either visit, please either phone Sam Woodhouse on 078 123 95912, or e-mail her on samwoodhouse@f2s.com

The preparation meetings:
The two groups will each meet for an essential preparation meeting in late June for the October group, and September for the February group. This meeting will be led by Sam Woodhouse and hopefully a member of a previous group. Sam will give more details of Sangam and their previous group visits, and Imogen will have prepared a suggested programme. The group will share their objectives and choose together the elements of the programme that they would welcome. We will also go through all the practicalities of the visit, to include health advice, travel information and cultural issues. We will also focus on the educational aims and potential of the visit, and action points e.g. what work could be done with classes of children or students in school both before and after the visit, and what resources might be appropriate to bring back.

Please see the time-lines for all the details of the process of joining a group, from this website.