New Version of Calendar 2019-20

Dear Parents and Students,

A new version of the 2019-2020 School Calendar has been uploaded to the blog. Please note that there are a few changes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lGU3agEU9y9bPCi1xfmi5dbkzdKVqY2V/view

New Opportunities

It may be a truism that a new year brings new opportunities; that doesn't make it wrong. We are ready to start teaching children again tomorrow, Tuesday, 5 January.
As always, we are a few less than when we left in December. The school year in other schools runs from January through December so being out of sync with the rest, means we loose some every year when it is most easy to get admission elsewhere.

Christmas Celebration

We have celebrated the end of another semester at LAMB School. The children performed, got their certificates and we look forward to holidays, visits, time to celebrate the light that came at Christmas to bring life and joy and peace.

In the photo (most of) the children and teachers have lined up to go into the tent put up for the celebration. We started on time - hallmark of LAMB School. We finished an hour late - no comments.
We are thankful for all the people who are part of LAMB School, for those who study, those who send their children, those who teach, those who support through other services and all the many who pray and give.
Thank you and blessings on your Christmas and New Year.
On Wednesday we celebrate Victory Day with the children and while we may meet many over the holidays, the school is officially closed until 5 January 2016.

New School Year 2015-16

At the beginning of August, we started a new school year at LAMB School. 151 children are enrolled - the largest number to date - and we are bursting at the seams. We look forward to moving into the new facilities being built and are thankful to God for providing funds for the first two floors.

It is a privilege to start another year serving God by working to provide quality education to children from several different countries and language groups. We have so many great children with different needs, and we are learning how to provide for each one of them.

Prayers are appreciated for special blessings over all the staff currently at the school as they seek to nurture each and all the children as they grow and develop, each to his or her potential.
Pray also for the five students who have passed their O Levels and are pursuing further education elsewhere.
Pray for the resources needed for the future, for staff, for funds and for wisdom to do well.

Annual Report 2014

LAMB is more than the school; about a thousand staff work so that people may have abundant life through health services, education, development, research and support services.
If you would like to know more about the work, the Annual Report 2014 is available for you to look at. While you are there, you can browse LAMB's website.
We are privileged to be working together with communities, organisations and churches in our part of Bangladesh to serve the poor and honour God.
You can join us by giving work, finances, prayer or equipment. If you want to know how, follow this link.

Building Day 156

In January work started on a new building next to the current school. The plan is to have enough space for the school and a large auditorium for all of LAMB to use. The auditorium is designed to seat almost 300 people. Under the roof, we want an archive for hospital and finance documents which we are required to store for quite a few years. This will also serve to keep the floors below cooler.

The work is funded by generous donations from individuals in several countries. These gifts, as well as those from The Good Samaritan Society, USA, South West Baptist Church, Christchurch, New Zealand, Hilfe für Brüder International, Germany and Risskov Genbrug, Denmark have made it possible to start work on the building.  However, due to an increase in the cost of construction (or poor planning on our part?) and the devaluation of the Euro, we now either have to redo our plans or raise further funds.

We are thankful to those who contributed through the organizations listed above. If you would like to contribute, you can do so by praying or by sending funds to WMPL. (Select Project, then 'Bangladesh - LAMB Hospital (School)' and write 'Construction' in the 'Additional Information' section under 'Add a Note' .)



We always and above all value your prayers.  Please pray that what we do and what we build will bring positive change in the lives of the poorest of the poor, especially women and children in north-west Bangladesh.

Impact and Numbers

It is impossible to say what difference we are making in the world, but with the publication of a new brochure it is encouraging to see some evidence that it matters that we are here. You can find more information about us at the LAMB website.
If you wonder why you should consider working as a teacher at LAMB School, please consider the fact that the school is one aspect of ensuring that services are provided to more than five million people - that is as many as the whole population of Denmark.
Please pray about and consider the opportunity in various parts of the organization for development, medical, managerial and educational staff needs.
At the school our need is for teacher who can teach English across the range of grades from age 4 to 16 and in the upper grades teachers for History, Geography, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

School Start 2014-15

It is a great blessing to be able to hear the rain on the roof and anticipate the answer of many people's prayers for water to the fields. It is equally good to be able to anticipate the arrival of old and new students back at LAMB School.
When we start today, Wednesday, 6 August there are 142 children enrolled in our school. While a few will be late, we are anticipating a very full house. Just as the rain comes with promise of a harvest in the future, so the preparations of both school staff and many others at LAMB bear promise of a harvest in our children.
It is God who gives growth, pray that he will bless our efforts.
We give out a newsletter (no photos) that can also be found here. We hope to make our monthly newsletter available for reference on the right.

LAMB School On-Line

If you have a need for official information about LAMB School please look for it on this blog. We aim to keep it up to date with the latest calendar, school rules, documents and forms. If you think anything is missing or find something that doesn’t work, please let us know by sending an email, calling or visiting the office.
The blog will also, as it has for a while, carry stories from the school. All photos during the past several years have been used with permission. Photos used in the newsletter will only be published on-line with your permission.

Our Guava Tree

I saw it the first time I came by in September, there was no doubting the trouble, our guava tree needed some serious treatment - entire branches were dead and would have to be cut off, it was an accident waiting to happen.
I delayed, not just because there is a season for cutting down trees but as much because it was THAT Tree: Our Guava Tree.
Every year the children have spent hours in that tree; to chat, to - literally - hang around or worse go out on a limb. That habit has scared me quite a bit, but the broken bones have not come from the guava tree.
And learned to share - the rule was one guava for every child every day; that applied to both children at the school and other visitors. It was both permission - even if the tree was ours strangers were allowed its fruit, and a limit - they, too, were limited to one a day.
The second aim was to teach to preserve our resource; we probably had limited success in doing this. The rule that nobody could pick one, discard it and take another was not easy for the children to follow when there was a better fruit higher up.
It is strange how, as it came down, we were reminded of the many blessings.
The ground is bare were it stood, and it will probably remain like that for a while, but when the rainy season comes around, we are likely to plant another guava tree in the same spot and pray that God will give it good growth - and good guavas.

Flat people

I have been away from LAMB School for four months now and miss the students and staff there. Grade 4 have been reading Flat Stanley (Brown, J. 1964) and I have had the honour of their visit in England and now in Denmark.

Flats at the counter in the dining hall at Redcliffe

Flats with me in the Library at Redcliffe

London Bridge

London Underground 

Visiting H. C. Andersen at his birth place in Odense, Denmark

We made a snow man early on 24 December

Your prayers answered

Our students' last O Level exam was yesterday, Friday, 8 June 2012. It was a long Maths exam, but all four students reported that they did somewhere between very and really well; definitely a good way to end.
Thank you to all who prayed for the students, the answers to your prayers about was that only three exams were rescheduled; one was rescheduled for start at 23:45 when the opposition did call a strike and two other shorter ones consecutively from 19:30 when one of the opposition parties called a half-day strike in another big city. The big point of praise is that none of the test were cancelled and our students were able to travel to Dinajpur even for the second to last exam when the transport workers in our division called a blockade for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, this week.
At the beginning of the Chemistry tests that started at 19:30 there was no electricity and the parents were told to go buy candles, but a well-connected student from another school had a father who knew how to 'push the right buttons' to get power back on in the part of Dinajpur town where the exams were held.
Two of our students went straight to Dhaka in order to seek admission at a school there, the other two are enjoying well deserved time off.
Thank you for your prayers, and thank you for continuing to pray for the students as they continue their studies.

At LAMB School we start our exam week tomorrow, 10 June; everything is ready, the children are appropriately busy studying while the teachers are waiting to start marking papers after the first tests.

In the photo Grades 4 and 5 have gone to our nearby river to take water samples for testing. Our newest teacher, who doesn't want to be mentioned by name, is a great blessing in helping us teach science skills. 

Midnight stars

When, yesterday evening, the opposition declared a countrywide shutdown for today, Thursday, the British Council, and all the students taking their exams today, were scrambling to figure out what to do.
At 10:30 PM last night, we were given confirmation that the exams would happen today, but also that the one our students are taking would start at 11:45 PM.
Please pray for the students, I think they will be awake tonight, but I wonder how they will be doing tomorrow afternoon when they have to take another test after a night without much sleep.
Also do pray for Bangladesh and for the political situation here.

While we can discuss the justification for calling a general strike when 33 opposition politicians are arrested in one day, there is hopefully no harm in taking a little pleasure in one of the common ways objections are shown. I wonder about the hunger anybody will feel after not having eaten for a full two hours...

New Year at LAMB

We are thankful to God for a new year. With it we have received a new five-year approval for LAMB; hospital, development work, rehab, training centre and school.
We pray that we will be able to honour God with the permission and with the resources we have been given to do the work here.

At the school Ken Ford-Powell is back from England and Bani Sharmma is away on maternity leave. We give thanks for both Ken's presence and Aunti Bani's baby girl. It doesn't quite work to substitute a head of first school with an O Level teacher, but with some reshuffling of everybody here we are getting on with a new semester.

We have had farewells for three students who transferred out at the beginning of school year in government schools but have not taken in new students to fill the places. Please pray for the children who are now learning to learn in a very different system.

Thank you for your faithfulness in 2011. Please pray for us this year too.

We hope to get status as a registered school with the government of Bangladesh. The benefits include school books for the children, access to national exams and a lot of administrative work in reporting to the government. Pray with us that the children will be helped as they transition into other schools after LAMB because of this work.

Please also pray for on-going teacher development. We have four teachers who are still new, and all of us benefit from help in teaching well.

Pray for wisdom as we work with families on planning and delivering the best possible education for their children.

Pray that all the children who come through the school will leave with the knowledge that God loves them.

We are also praying for work permits and visas for all foreign staff.

From failures to stars

It is Thursday after our Christmas celebration. The children have performed for their parents, and the certificates have been given out. Tomorrow we will celebrate the victory that saw Bangladesh become and independent country 40 years ago and then the school is out until January.
We have had a couple of hectic weeks with exam preparations, exams and then evaluating the children. One of the last tasks was to print the report cards with the children's results. We did have a few problems with the printer and quite a few report cards failed to print the first time.
My mother has said she wanted a star for Christmas and while she was helping me sort the report cards - my parents are volunteering here at LAMB for three months - we thought of trying to make one.




It isn't quite finished, but the card the reports for the children are printed on worked perfectly and with a few more failures on the printer we will be able to finish it.

My father took the pictures of the process and the (almost) finished star to prove to everyone that failures, even  on a printer, can become stars.

(No children were hurt or failed in the process of making the star.)

Being in charge

We are well over half way through our semester and it is time for an update about LAMB School. Busy seems to be a word we have used once too many, and I wonder if perhaps we should discontinue its use. I would like to describe a week at LAMB School from the perspective of managing the workload.

Every Tuesday, the following week's schedule is set, last Tuesday was no different. Sumita had asked for Sunday off to go to a Sunday School Leader's seminar in Nilphamari and April had made the necessary changes to the schedule for Sunday. (The work week is from Sunday through Thursday in Bangladesh.)

On Thursday afternoon we had snacks with Prodip, who's last day it was as Admin Co-ordinator at the school, by the time we were done talking, it was dark outside. Milon had not been at the farewell for Prodip because he had gone to attend his Master's classes scheduled for every Thursday afternoon. He called me shortly after six to tell me that his professor had informed the whole class that their exams were not going to be at the end of November as they had thought but would start on Sunday. When he explained the difficulty he, and others, would have in organising time off after offices had closed on the last day of the week, the professor apologised and said the order had come from the education authorities in Dhaka.

April and I met Saturday morning to talk about cover for Milon and while I went to interview teachers, April found a way of covering all Milon's classes, including the one he was scheduled to cover for Sumita. We jokingly talked about how it would now be another week before we would have to do the schedule again and were grateful for that being done.

On Monday, just before lunch, we had a call from our neighbouring school that it was necessary for me to go to Dinajpur in order to finalize registration for three of our Grade 9 students to sit a compulsory exam in English and yes; they really felt I had to go. Fortunately Monday afternoons are kept free for me on the schedule because it is a day I often have meetings so no changes were needed in the schedule, and Tarcisius agreed to lead the teachers meeting for me.

In Dinajpur, we submitted the children's registration forms and went to another office to talk about the 'English Version.' the gentleman there immediately called yet another office and sent us on our way to someone higher in the system. In this other office we were told in no uncertain terms that we were supposed to have submitted a letter months ago informing them about this, and that they knew nothing of our students' wish to answer questions in English. We had assumed that the registration form with the request which had been submitted earlier would be enough, but that was not the case. They were upset with us, and I was less than pleased with them, because we thought we had filled in all the necessary forms. We were then asked to submit a written request, first handwritten to be submitted immediately, and then to go home and write another on a computer and print it on the school letterhead that we should bring the next day.

I called home to let April know that we needed to find cover for me for Wednesday because I had to go back to Dinajpur. We returned to LAMB, got the necessary letter written in draft form and gave it to Tarcisius and Sumita who each typed a part and had it printed and ready just after seven. (I am not able to type Bangla.)

Wednesday morning I had ample time to think about the day because someone started cutting down a tree literally four feet from my bedroom window at 5:30 am. I was pondering possible reasons and the proper assignment of guilt for the stress we had been put under. When I got to my daily reading, it was Matthew 7 about helping people with splinters in their eyes, while missing the log in one’s own. When back in Dinajpur our application was received, I was able to apologise for not having submitted the proper application and was assured that our children will have the questions they need.

In the afternoon I was able to find the schedule for the exams our children will take, they are not, as we had thought, at the end of November, but will start on 1 November. Two weeks of preparation for this change to our plans seem like lots of time compared to a weekend.

We will change our plans again and trust that it is all in God’s hands.

Beginning the School Year 2011-12

A new school year has started at LAMB School. We have never been as many at the school, and while that has been true for every year since we started, the increase of almost 20% is significant. We thank God for the new children, and pray that He will give us what it takes to teach them well.
There are 16 children in each of the first four grades including the preschoolers here. There are 64 children in the first four grades and 65 in the remaining eight.



We have hired two new teachers to replace some of those who have left or are leaving, we are hiring another person to help out with practical tasks; housekeeping and admin support, we have spent the summer trying to get books, stationary and furniture for all the new children and we have made some repairs. We have received a blueprint for two new rooms on top of our current science building.

We have set standards high at the school, perhaps too high? In July two teachers were given a week of training, one of them left right after that, the third teacher since last summer to leave before really beginning to carry a load at the school, there are various reasons given; I think the task of teaching the level we aim for, and that in a foreign language is daunting. Pray that we will be able to support the new staff (and the old) in growing and learning new skills.

For our students there is not doubt that high standards are what we want. Last week three students got their results from the final exams after Grade 10 (English O Levels). We are pleased to report that the results were very good. The results came out just in time for them to take their provisional mark sheets with them to their new schools, one student left for India that same evening.

This summer we have also made progress in getting government registration for the school. There are three different sets needed; Two with the Ministries of Education (One each for primary and secondary education) and one from the NGO Affairs Bureau which allows foreign supported and staffed organisations to exist in Bangladesh. Please pray for perseverance and integrity as we pursue all the necessary permissions.

God has been good to us, we are sufficiently funded for the coming school year, we will have enough teachers once they return from home assignments, and we have been given good support by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education as well as extensions for from the NGO Bureau.
We have wonderful staff at LAMB who help out by taking classes and giving us other support throughout these months while four foreign teachers are away on home assignments. It is a blessing to be a part of LAMB, a big organization, but also in many ways a big family.

LAMB School Facts

If you are interested in knowing how many nationalities have been represented at LAMB School or how many books are in our library, you can now click on the link on the right called LAMB School Facts.
In the future there will be more numbers and information. We hope you will find it informative and fun.

Last day and then some

Once again we have come to the end of a school year, once again we have celebrated and said our goodbyes; but this year is different for a couple of reasons.


Our first two O Level students (O Levels are the old English tenth grade exams.) did not get any certificates from LAMB School, their exams were held at another school and their results will be published in August and certificates issued a couple of months after that.
They are now on their way to further education, it looks like they will be in the capital, Dhaka.
Another difference is that the headmaster is not going to be here the next six months.
We have shared the responsibilities amongst the people who remain and it is good to see new people take on - and do well with - added responsibilities.

Give thanks to God for His faithfulness and lift us up before him in prayer; pray for the children we teach, for the staff who labour to ensure the best education we can give and for all the families who are part of the school.

Glory to God

Easter Break

This week the children there are no classes at the school. We celebrate the Kingdom of Peace and the gift of Life through Christ's death on the cross for us.
Please pray for the Kingdom of God to come and live in and amongst us here in Bangladesh.
Please pray for the government inspection of the school on 6 April 2010; that the government officials will actually come, that they will like what they see, and that we will be able to show them sufficient and good respect. This inspection is a part of the process to get government registration for grades six, seven and eight. This registration will allow us to have students take compulsory exams which the government is introducing this year for all students in grade eight.
Please also continue to pray for our work permits and visas for 2010. We are still waiting for one work permit (the headmaster's) and visas for various foreign staff at LAMB.