About the Organisation: Initially based in a house in
Chennai the school soon outgrew the number of pupils and Maria started major fund-raising activities to get enough money for a new purpose built school. It was such a major achievement when the new school building was inaugurated in September 2006 with the chief guest being the Swedish Honorary Consul. Trustees, Teachers, Parents, Friends and representatives from some of the larger donors also attended and the children entertained everyone. As Maria says, "the new school is a huge success!!! It is a miracle come true!"
Who they are: Almost 10 years ago, an ex-patriot couple from Sweden came to
Chennai. Whilst Mikael took up work in the IT sector, his wife, Maria started to help at an Anglo-Indian School and orphanage. As an experienced teacher she identified there were many children starting class 1 (age 5/6) without any pre-schooling. These children found it very difficult to cope compared to some of the children from better homes who had 2-3 years pre-school experience. With a student teacher ratio of approximately 1:60, there is no provision for special needs and it is impossible to see, meet and help every child. In order to give these underprivileged children a head start in life, Maria started the nursery school in 1999.
What they do: The School is now educating over 150 children and has capacity for growth. They do partially follow the British curriculum, they have smaller classes and an aim to attend to every child. All teaching is done in English except one lesson a day, which is in Tamil. The school started as a pre-school for 3-5 year olds with only 8 children, but during the last four years there has been a rapid growth. Today the school caters to 155 children in classes 1 to 4. Some children come from homes that are a little better off, those who can afford higher fees help sponsor the lesser privileged children. The children that stay on after primary are mostly those who cannot afford to pay school fees in other schools. Some of them are dropouts, that is they have left other schools for various reasons, some have learning Tamil. The children who leave after pre-school and start class 1 in other schools tend to do very well there.
Some of the children have learning difficulties and would not get the needed help anywhere else as the Indian education system does not provide support in this area. Often they just want to stay at Little Lambs because it is such a different school!