This week we have trained 111 school directors and about 18 DOE staff on how to write a School Development Plan - SDP. MoEYS has introduced a new format for them to use which involves a tighter time frame and linking activities to goals.

Bunthorn as usual did all the talking for our part, which was about how to monitor a plan. I just do not see any point in standing up saying something for him to translate. If he doesn't understand it he will translate it badly. We (both Bunthorn and myself) have worked out that the only way he understands something properly is for me to go through it with him beforehand and get him to explain it back to me. After that why stand up and waste time talking in a language only he understands!!

The planning office did the main part of the training. That is another shift - I now work with them, so that they deliver their own message. It seems to make sense to me that they take a lead in everything as this is Cambodia and not leafy Kent.

Planning has become second nature to headteachers in England but here it is still very new and the school directors are coming to terms with planning for the school's development, the children's learning and justifying the budget.