Our first school is underway. Situated in the tiny tribal village of Bakhel in northwest India, the school has been built on a rocky outcrop of wasteland in the village. It current has 100 children coming every day, 8 teachers, two cooks,a  cleaner, a construction manager and our wonderful co-ordinator, Deepak. When construction is underway, we then have a workforce of a further 10 - 30 people or so, depending on the load, which we rotate so that work is shaved eveny between the families.

The initial build cost was for under under £5,000, which paid for 4 classrooms and 2 water tanks. It now has 6 classrooms with two more under construction - we are just waiting for the bamboo for the roof. It also now has another water tank, a rainwater harvesting system, composting toilets, a kitchen, wood store and random store rooms. We have also planted hunderds more trees and plants and the original trees are looking in better shape, the who thing maturing (normally people cut them for firewood, but as it is now school property they have been left and able to grow).

The whole looks beautiful and unique. We think that if the education is to be excellent, it has to be in excellent surroundings. As such everything is largely constructed from natural materials and in rogonomic, organic designs. The natural materials also means less environmental impact, virtually zero construction pollution and that if ina few hundred years the school has moved on, it will decay naturally and invisibly back into nature. Natural materials are also those that local people use the most in their own house building, so using them, rather than imported cement, steel etc, gives people confidence not in the image of external things being the providor of their education and development, but something they have created with their own hands.

The journey from plans and ideas to a solid school has been exciting, at times turbulent, but always enjoyable and the project is by no means over- this is only the beginning, the real challenge lies ahead in ever improving the pedagogy of our school.