Ullens School

Ullens buses lined up

Ullens School

Wow! Best day ever! All day visit to Ullens.

Olga and Som of Nepal Youth Foundation and 

Guy and Mimi Ullens, patrons, Swiss, living in Belgium

Medin is the very capable principal. In 2004 he went to Bank Street in New York for 14 mos. earning his Masters of Educational Administration. Then he hired 24 teachers before they had a site, then converted a carpet factory into a school. They teach grades 1^st through 10^th and plus 2, and after years of planning, have been 4 years operating as an IB school. In the IB school, which is a two year diploma, 11^th and 12^th grade, there is an excellent staff that teach the full IB program. The counselor is from Denver and went to Occidental College then worked in Washington DC then did her MSW at Columbia in NY and is doing two years at Ullens, counseling. I saw Mumta teach 7^th grade social studies using the software of the smart board effectively and having kids start with stretching and short games like yoga, closing the eyes and hearing the sounds, and then taught a good lesson in Medieval Nepal and ended with 4 minutes of what did we learn today, a check of learning. She’s a pro that won’t call on the same students, asks why questions (why did the king invent a system of weights and measures?) and she had 28 students, 15 boys, 13 girls, and two empty desks.

students playing

Barsha taught an 8^th grade science class to 27 students, 11 boys and 16 girls, who opened their comp books and took notes. She also had a smart board hooked up to a computer, but it wasn’t working and she had no whiteboard, so she taped a piece of paper to the smart board. I sat next to Aagya, an 8^th grade girl who took very good notes but was quiet. The school has no uniforms because they want students to express their individuality, not conformity, but it can seem a little permissive. At the beginning of the day I watched teachers photocopy simple worksheets on an old machine with clip art.

Ullens school grounds

Chronologically: so I started off with a nice American breakfast in the café and some good help from Kunal, the owner, who helped me talk to a taxi and that made it simple. The ride through town was so harrowing, I couldn’t breathe or open my eyes at times. I’m a chicken when it comes to head on collisions or plowing down pedestrians. I arrived at the school early and walked right in. I had to wait a while, but I was happier then walking around in Thamel alone and being pestered by street vendors. Medin saw me for a minute, but passed me off to the 8^th grade science class and then I found my own way to Mumta’s 7^th grade social studies class. I was assertive at that point. I heard the counselor talking with a US accent, so introduced myself to her coworker, who teaches Nepali and can’t find material on the internet, so has to create his own. The counselor sat down with me for a while so we could talk while we ate good daal bhat from the cafeteria. 

My send off at Pokhara airport, with malas

Overall, it was one of my best days ever in Nepal, but I've written that quite a lot lately. It's because I love touring schools and talking to educators, and they have all been so welcoming and hospitable to me. It's a match!