The main focus of FSL-India’s YDP for this month was to visit schools in the Kundapur and Mysore zones. As the title suggests, this was not a monitoring visit. The intention of this visit was:

• To build relationships with schools
• Understand receptivity of the methodology by the school and the children
• To understand the efficiency of session design and how it is playing out in the field
• Feedback on the facilitation style of our coordinators. What are their strengths? What could be done differently? What could they learn from each other?
• To delve on debriefing the activities.

All the schools chosen were ones with which FSL-India had worked, previously. The trust they had in our organisation enhanced their receptivity towards YDP. And, it was the 5-6^th session; the schools had also witnessed the children’s excitement and eagerness towards the sessions. Adding to this, a more detailed description of FSL-India’s YDP program, the mission and vision and most importantly, the relevance of why we are doing, what we are doing was discussed with the school management. Sharing the relevance and our methodology increased their conviction in the program. Overall, the response from each school was positive and welcoming.

The sessions were a delight to watch. Our coordinators, Dinesh, Manjesh, Venkatesh and Manjunath K had built a warm and friendly relationship with the children. In all the schools, the children were eagerly waiting for the session. Interestingly, each coordinator brought their own flavour and style to the sessions. Each of them had their own strengths, and how they had personalised the session design to suit themselves and their group.

Dinesh began and ended his session with a ritual, which gave the session a definitive structure. His dynamic energy connected and was shared everyone in the group.

Venkatesh started the session with a song. Music is always a great motivator and more than anything, it touches everyone’s hearts. It has been proven that singing together builds relationships and empathy. This was clearly evident during the session.

Manjesh gave very clear and crisp instructions for all the activities. Instructions play a very important role in using games and activities as a means to serious learning, which is our methodology.

Manjunath K engaged the group thoroughly and explained the intention of each activity to the children.

Debriefing is one of the most important elements of Experiential Education. It is what transfers learning from the activity to real life, through reflection. Debriefing as a skill was introduced to them during the workshop and in this visit. All the facilitators dabbled their hands in debriefing during the sessions. They tried to ask relevant questions and helped the children see the connection between what they are doing during the activity to what they do in real life. This is a skill that needs work, effort and practice.

It was encouraging to see the receptivity and enthusiasm towards FSL-India’s YDP both from schools and children. Experience and feedback from each facilitator, school and sessions were shared with all the facilitators. They were also encouraged to visit each other’s schools and observe their sessions. This enables peer learning and also imbibing the positive strengths to their sessions and facilitation.

Overall, this was a much required and fruitful visit for us and the coordinators. Now, the FSL-India team is eagerly looking forward to visit the Pondicherry and Chennai schools.