Derby Diocese has had links with the Church of North India for many years. A new development has been a link between Derby and Kolkata, beginning with a link between the Cathedrals as the ‘Mother Church’ in each place.

This has focussed on the work of education in particular in two ways. First of all with a relationship between diocesan fee-paying schools in Kolkata forming links with church schools in Derby Diocese. Due to the award of a British Council grant in 2014 a group of head teachers from these schools was able to visit the UK schools and engage in professional dialogue. There was then a reciprocal visit of UK staff to Kolkata in early 2015.

During the course of the visit, the second element of work in education emerged with an awareness that the informal schools run by the Cathedral Relief Support of Kolkata were in real need. These schools are often referred to as slum schools as that is where they are situated. They are often staffed by untrained teachers who have few resources to teach the many children that crowd into their classrooms. From this awareness, further visits of teachers from Derby Diocese to Kolkata have ensued with the chief focus of building professional relationships with the teachers.

As well as working alongside the teachers in the slum schools the UK teachers have planned and led training days to share good practice. This has centred around the use of phonics in learning English and active learning methods in Maths.
All this work is fully supported by the Board of Education in Derby Diocese.

Alison Brown
Deputy Director of Education and Schools’ Adviser, Derby Diocese