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Here is the latest newsletter, prepared by our team in Bangalore

These little lights are gonna light up the world!   Greetings everyone!  Here at Building Blocks, we are thrilled to be able to give these children a better chance at life. We take pride in the fact that we open our doors every morning to the next generation of engineers, doctors, police officers, IT professionals, nurses and maybe even the leaders of the future. We are excited to see how far-reaching our efforts and these children will go, and we hope you are too. Here is an overview of all the activities of this month. Parent-Teacher Meeting We have made it a priority to regularly meet with the parents and keep them informed and aware of how their child is doing overall at school, and share areas they have made progress in.  We encourage the parents to be involved in the different aspects of their child's learning and support them in every way possible. Parents also follow a timetable to take turns coming to spend a day at school, where they assist the team with support staff duties - and this way they also get to see what their child is engaged in during their time spent at school.  After the recent assessment tests, all the parents were invited to receive their child's report cards during a scheduled PTM. During this event, they met with their child’s class teacher to hear positive feedback of how their child is doing, the areas he/she has progressed in, and they are informed of learning areas that he/she has yet to improve in over the remainder of the Academic Year. Parents were kindly requested to encourage their child for efforts made so far!  The parents are very thankful for the education, care and nutrition that their children are receiving at Building Blocks and were happy to receive feedback on their child at PTM.  School Assembly at 10 Centers School Assemblies have been recently introduced in all our 10 Centres, as part of the curricular for the day. This is the first activity that the children engage in upon their arrival at school.  All children and staff gather in the school compound where school assembly is conducted. During school assembly, the children recite the  Asathoma song, perform simple group exercises, review the 4 Daily Reminders, are welcomed by the School Manager, and followed by a special presentation by the K5 students twice in a week, after which they close with the school singing our National Anthem. School Assembly helps teachers and children to start each school day with the right tone - by beginning the day with this unified daily practice. This new routine has strengthened the way each school functions. The assemblies are well planned out and conducted with the combined active participation of the students, teachers and manager. They are also used to enhance and highlight various aspects of school activities and celebrations at school.  Gandhi Jayanti Celebrations All 10 Building Blocks centres celebrated the birthday of Mahatma Gandhiji (Father of the Nation) on the 2nd of October. It was a time of fun and learning for all the children. Through themed assembly performances by children & teachers we highlighted our FOUR ’Daily Reminders’ and the connection between Gandhiji’s lifestyle: ‘Be Kind… Be Sharing.. Be Giving… and Forgiving. Many of the K5 boys dressed up in Gandhiji’s attire for the occasion. Parents did an amazing job helping them with this. Also, K5 children learnt songs, quotes and a simple themed skit beforehand, and performed this on the day of the event - which was one of the highlights! Throughout celebrations; the stories, drama, songs, activities, special lunch and more.. the children got to know and understand in age-appropriate levels about the life story, ideals, and accomplishments of Mahatma Gandhi.  “Be the change that you want to see in the world” - Mahatma Gandhi Air Asia Employee Engagement Air Asia Airlines office staff visited Freesia and Azalea centres this month to spend a day interacting with the children. Employees engaged with Preschool children at Freesia, and ASP children at Azalea.   Both visits were organised and conducted by the C.O.O. and Academic Coordinators. They were briefed about Building Blocks India, and respective learning programmes for both groups of children. After a school tour and assisting with learning activities, everyone was brought together for group games and activities with the children, staff and AA Employees, which all enjoyed immensely! The day closed with their team distributing sugar-free snack boxes for all children.  The visits culminated in later bringing K5 children from Freesia, to celebrate Diwali with their entire team, at their newly launched office at Yelahanka. The children had a blast performing for everyone and enjoyed a yummy veg lunch with the AA team. On this occasion, 210 gifts were distributed to Azalea and Freesia children. *Wish cards were filled out by the children themselves, and sent across to the Air Asia team prior to the Diwali celebrations.  Our thanks go out to Air Asia for their contribution in adding happiness and smiles to our children, through their employee engagement sessions!

‘Sunshine for A School’ Volunteers Sunshine for A School is an organisation registered in France. It’s a volunteer organisation working in India, in the field of education, and trying to do their best to support grassroots organisations. They have been sending volunteers to our school every week to help teachers in their planned curriculum activities - assisting children through project-based learning, which they prepare and execute extremely well. Last month, SFAS has also supported our team with play props and costumes for our upcoming Children’s Day show, and have brought to life some incredibly creative ideas! SFAS first started collaborating with our team in Daisy, as the group of French expats were living in the  Whitefield area. Every year, they did Christmas fairs to raise money for the projects they were supporting in Bangalore. They baked homemade cookies, made small things on their own initiative and raised funds to help NGOs where they were directly involved. Their main aim was to support the salaries of teachers. SFAS have supported Gardenia teacher’s salaries year after year for the past 4 years. A BIG THANK YOU to their entire team for everything they have done for our children and schools! Peggy’s Visit to Hibiscus Peggy has been the force behind Sunshine for A School. What she started in a very small way to help our teachers in Daisy attracted lots of attention among her community. We are grateful to Peggy for introducing and kick-starting weekly activity sessions by SFAS volunteers at Building Blocks, to the point where they now have volunteers coming in to 3 of our schools for weekly activities with the children. Recently Peggy visited Hibiscus, as she has moved to Hyderabad, and we are hoping that she will make some waves in that city too and bring her friends to help and support our school in Hyderabad. The Founder, C.O.O, HRM & one Academic Coordinator were also able to be present for Peggy's visit, during one of the team's planned vists to monitor, improve processes and add necessary support required for our out-of-Bangalore centres.  We were happy to have Peggy join us for Diwali Celebrations at Hibiscus - where children were delighted to welcome, meet her, and spend the morning of fun and celebrations in her company! Peggy was thrilled to visit a centre out of Bangalore and witness how quickly the student numbers of Hibiscus had grown, since the launch of Hibiscus in August 2018not very long back. We look forward to Peggy's extended support for Hibiscus students, and thank her for taking the time to visit for Diwali!  Diwali Celebrations This month the children celebrated the Festival of Lights -Diwali! Children show much excitement and enthusiasm in getting the chance to experience these cultural celebrations at school. Children and Staff arrived at school beautifully dressed up in traditional Indian attire. The centres were wonderfully and colourfully decorated with flowers, chart paper crafts, Rangoli and small lights called Diyas.  It was such a pleasure to see the children enjoy these occasions, where cultural learning is explored in a fun, thematic way! We make it a point to ensure that the children get to know the significance of the festivals and why they are celebrated. Beyond the story behind Diwali celebrations, they also learnt to be aware of personal and environmental safety. Firecrackers are now banned from all BB schools, in supporting the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals to stop environmental pollution. The celebration included the singing of the National Anthem, performances by the children and staff, themed Diwali class activities, Diya-making with play dough, painting and decorating clay diyas, traditional dance session and musical games, and then closing with a delicious special meal!  The children and teachers present had a wonderful time creating this memory last month! Thank You Thank you everyone! You made it all possible. Wishing you all a wonderful month ahead.