As a regular to BCD during my school days, it was nostalgic to be there to understand how it was working with different age groups with value added programs for Children, youth and adults. BCD with its 70 years of existence has evolved from a library to a cultural hub of fun, learning and knowledge and entertainment. BCD in its effort to empower children with life skills conducts various courses including the upcoming Holiday Camp. Their IELTS course is very popular with people aspiring to go abroad for their studies and so are the “Study in UK” programs where students can interact with representatives of about 40 plus Universities in UK.

British Council Division (BCD) Library is conducting a Holiday camp for 7-14 year olds from December 27^th – December 30th. It is 10 hours spread over 4 days with 8 hours of classroom activities and 2 hours of outside classroom activities such as treasure hunt.  We learnt the above details and more on the activities of BCD at an interesting, informative and interactive session with Ms. Janaka Pushpanathan, Director of South India. BCD loves to keep the batches small,  max 20 kids, and few seats are still available in few of them.  Check it out if you want one of our kid to be in it.

The holiday camp aims to personality development with specific focus on developing self confidence, communications and hands-on English learning. It teaches children to be creative and develop freedom of expression, a welcome change to our academic way of mimicking what is taught and put it in some thoughts. It is no doubt that as a parent we have learnt that children many times teach us and give us perspectives we have never ever thought of.  The course fee is Rs.5000 for non-members of BCD and Rs. 4250 for members. A good reason to become a member of the BCD.

The other aspect we are concerned as parents is the safety of the environment today. BCD has many classrooms and the courses are conducted in their premises. As we were there, we saw mothers and fathers with children encouraging their kids in their activities. It is nice for parents to connect with kids this way and share quality time together.

BCD also conducts talks, workshops, poetry sessions, Art by Storytelling – recently Danseuse Anita Ratnam was there reaching out to the audience through non-verbal story telling through dance. Most of the programs are free, few of them have fees and they keep it affordable.

The best part of BCD is their openness to improvise and taking their library online. At about Rs.1800/- plus for online annual Memberships, BCD is making it easy for people to access world class books from the UK in various areas – research, fiction, children, social sciences, literature, travel and more. Do check out their site for more.