SUTTON VIEWS - Sutton Valence School

Senior School’s Passage to India
Two teachers and nine students from the
Senior School returned after the Easter
holidays from a two-week trip to India,
helping to teach underprivileged children
The tour was led by Assistant Head of Sixth
Form, Mrs Kay Andersen and Head of
Physics, Dr Richard Lindley.
Flying into Delhi, they visited the Neerja
Modi School in Jaipur, one of the country’s
leading independent schools, which has
been linked with Sutton Valence for the past
two years.
Although the pupils who attend the school
are from relatively wealthy families, Neerja
Modi also manages a separate school
offering free education to 500 lower-caste
Indian girls.
It was there that our students helped to
teach the children, and took part in a variety
of workshops, including turban and sari
tying, chocolate making, Mehindi hand
decoration, and Rangoli, a traditional
method of floor decoration used during
festivals.
Sixth Former Ellie van Leeuwen said, “The
visit made a huge impact on me, in particular
seeing how eager the pupils were to learn –
they really want to do better for themselves,
and were motivated to work hard.
However, I found the contrast between
wealth and poverty, with shopping centres
side-by-side with slum neighbourhoods,
difficult to cope with. But the trip was
inspirational in many ways, and I definitely
want to go back”.
During the visit, the pupils presented the
school with 17 bicycles, from a £600 fund
they had raised from a cake sale and penny
race.
They also took time out to visit some of
India’s most famous tourist sites, such as the
Taj Mahal, Amber Fort and the Brahma
temple in Rajasthan, visited a tiger
reservation and went on a camel safari.
Ellie van Leeuwen
12 Sutton Views