Kumon students' fantastic lockdown stories digitised for posterity

Sumeeta Gupta’s sheer delight in the creativity of her students is both heartwarming and infectious.

Sumeeta is the Kumon instructor at the Kumon Foyle Study Centre, which is situated above Waterside Library on the city’s Glendermott Road.

In September 2021, during the pandemic and unable to meet her students in person, Sumeeta organised a lockdown story competition, which received 680 entries.

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“The response was amazing,” she said. “It was overwhelming and exciting in equal measure and it is one of my proudest achievements.

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“The stories were all handwritten. We had entries from Derry, Strabane, Enniskillen, Castledawson, Antrim, Coleraine and even England. I simply asked the children to tell their lockdown stories, about their feelings, what they were up to, and how they coped. They responded brilliantly.

“So much so, I have now set up a website called lockdown-stories.co.uk, where the children’s stories can be read online, in their original form. I thought it was important to preserve the stories so we could give a message to anyone who might be in a similar situation some time in the future.

“It was important as an affirmation of the children’s work,” said Sumeeta.

According to Sumeeta, Kumon is the largest provider of supplementary education in the world and has been in operation for 60 years.

She described opening the Kumon Foyle Study Centre 10 years ago as an “amazing journey”.

“I come from a medical background. I am a doctor qualified in the traditional Indian form of medicine called Ayurveda. I used to practise back home, in Mumbai, but when I came to Northern Ireland, in 2002, I discovered I could not practise unless I repeated my course, which would have taken another five and a half years. So I was glad Kumon came my way.

“My husband was working as a surgeon in Altnagelvin. He was already settled here. We got married in India and within a week I was here. I will never forget how cold the weather was when I arrived here. It was December 8. At that time we lived in Omagh. We moved to Derry that summer.

“To say it was very different for me initially would be an understatement. Trying to adjust was a struggle for the first few weeks but I just got on with it. It was a totally different world altogether for me. It was hard. Even the accent was different and difficult to understand, especially if I was on the phone,” smiled Sumeeta.

In those early days, Sumeeta took up a few administration posts in Altnagelvin.

“They were extremely important for me,” she said, “because they improved my social circle. I was able to integrate with many other people locally. I worked in the obstetrics and gynaecology department which had a very friendly atmosphere.

“I also worked in a GP practice, which was a great experience in that it gave me a good understanding of how the NHS worked, how the system worked and of the different areas of the city. I also came into contact with many community groups.

“At the same time, I was getting in touch with many other Asians and Indian people because the community was growing.

“I love being around people so I started talking to the Community Relations Department of Derry City and Strabane District Council, which is how I was able to co-organise the first Diwali Festival in the Guildhall, along with some other people from our community,” recalled Sumeeta.

“From there we started the Ubuntu Global Festival. Being at the hospital working with everyone and being with the Council helped me dramatically. While I was working, I was also involved in both of these projects.”

In spite of all her busyness, Sumeeta said she was still looking to establish herself in a solid career.

“I had still not found what I was looking for. By chance however, my nephew was studying Kumon in England and my older daughter, Radhika, who was four at the time, was studying Kumon locally.

“At that time there was a Kumon study centre in Springtown,” said Sumeeta.

“I became aware that the Springtown centre was closing, so I applied to run another centre here in the city and underwent two years of rigorous training in preparation. I continued my daughter’s Kumon study by correspondence with the centre in Belfast. Really she was my first student. I am pleased to say she is now at university studying medicine.

“The Kumon training was important because, at the end of the day, you are going to be working with children, you are going to be dealing with their education and emotional and academic wellbeing. Good training is a must.

“And here I am today. We started out in the old St Columb’s Park leisure centre, before moving to a portacabin in Oakgrove Primary School, which soon became too small. That is when I decided I wanted a permanent building.

“Because Kumon is family-centred, I wanted to make sure it ticked all of the boxes in terms of a view, the space, good car parking, safety and proximity to the library. It is also close to my home,” said Sumeeta, “and there are a lot of schools nearby.”

“Kumon offers students support with English and maths. Essentially it is about giving young people the support they need to become self learners,” added Sumeeta.

“We want them to get more confident about their own work as they progress through the Kumon curriculum. Kumon complements the National Curriculum.

“At Kumon, we strongly believe that practise makes possibilities. Although we aim for our students to be advanced learners, we believe that with regular practice anything is possible and we equip our students with the skills to become confident and independent learners.”

Sumeeta said teaching during covid had been a very steep learning curve.

“We had to shut our doors to our students in March 2020. However, thanks to a great network of Kumon instructors, we were able to collaborate and find a solution and we had everyone on Zoom by April 1.

“We had a lot of work to do to be able to do that and all of our worksheets were posted out. My staff and I worked very hard. I think the parents of our students were grateful because at that point there were no teachers to talk to. The schools were not communicating with any parent. All students got during the first lockdown were workpacks.

“Our parents were delighted that we at Foyle Kumon maintained our work with students. There was so much anxiety at the start of the pandemic. Students were so happy to see a familiar face and to be able to talk to someone and they had worksheets to do at home.

“We were able to continue thanks to my highly supportive staff. The children needed me. I feel quite grateful. It gave me an insight into their lives and what was happening and how they were coping throughout the lockdown. We were able to do so many activities for them like an Easter competition and a Christmas card competition, all on zoom,” said Sumeeta, who also joined the Pink Ladies Cancer Support Group as a volunteer during covid. “It helped me understand what was happening in the lives of these women,” said the highly empathetic force of nature.

Sumeeta explained that the lockdown story website was an attempt to document all these hidden and unheard stories which otherwise would have been lost.

“It has the potential to be in the Guinness book of world records and also form a national archive,” smiled Sumeeta.

Annual Awards Ceremony to celebrate the efforts and achievements of Foyle Kumon students.

“Every person has a story and it is important to document them to preserve our history and learn from it. We strongly urge people from all over the world to write their story and send it to us.

“The fact that we’re alive today after such an ordeal is a testament that we’ve done something right and maybe someone out there can learn a thing or two from your story.”

To combat learning loss in children post Covid, Sumeeta introduced three scholarships in 2021, which entitled three children from any school in Derry to get free Kumon education for one year. This year it has been awarded to pupils from Bready Primary School, Ballougry Primary School and St Mary’s College.

The Kumon Foyle Study Centre can be contacted online via: Facebook, Instagram, Website or by email: foyle@kumoncentre.co.uk or telephone: 07886337431.