On a hot Saturday morning students, teachers, volunteers, and officials flocked to school for the annual awards day where students receive their much-admired certificates for their achievements from the prior year. The school year starts in September each year in Laos.

The day started off with some fun games which everyone always enjoys and this year we saw some impressive magic tricks by a student. I’d love to know how to turn 1000 kip notes into larger denominations.

Certificates are given to every student in beginner and elementary classes which show their score in both English and Computer classes.

Special prizes are given to the top students in each class and other special achievements such as who borrowed the most library books! 16 was the highest number of books read by one student this past year. The black folios with calculators were donated as ex-conference stock by the Institute of Financial Advisers, New Zealand and are great to have as prizes.

Teachers and volunteers are now busy preparing for the new school year – there is much to do. David is expanding the computer teaching programmes, and training teacher further and seeking funds and ways to replace the 25 computers/laptops and Windows/Office licenses.