Roseberry School Darjeeling
Roseberry School is located in Darjeeling, a busy town in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The school is on a steep hillside in the locality where the immigrant Sherpa community once settled. It admits 20 pre-school children annually, and educates them for 7 years. Discrete screening of families limits admissions to children in need. The school is very popular and always over subscribed.
Roseberry opened in March 2007 with 28 pupils in a wooden hut. In 2010 there were 96 on roll, and the addition of a modern extension has increased total capacity to 140 children in seven classrooms. SAI pays all the bills and provides free books and uniforms so that no child is excluded from the school by poverty.
A Community Led Project
Local politicians have commended School Aid India for working closely with the local community instead of merely sending money. Roseberry School owes its successful development to Rachana Pradhan (pictured on the right) and Bijoy Rai who also provided the original inspiration. Decisions about day to day running of the school are firmly in the hands of Rachana, our local agent and School Director, while Bijoy has organised all the difficult and dangerous building work on our awkward near vertical site.
Education matters
School Aid India goes a step further than similar charities by taking a continuing close interest in the nature and quality of education on offer at Roseberry:
- Teachers are drawn from Darjeeling’s Nepali speaking community and encouraged to use effective modern approaches to learning
- Pupils are exposed to English very early through singing games in pre-school, then later have all their lessons in English except Nepali language classes
- Emphasis is given to building confidence and independence from early on
- Advice on teaching matters and appropriate materials are supplied from the UK