Our global primary school
We enjoyed an International Week of varied activities that taught the children about different countries and religions from all over the world. The oldest children visited the Sikh temple for Leamington and Warwick. They had a tour around the building, visiting the prayer halls, learning about the basic history and different ceremonies that take place at the Gurdwara, which is not just for the Sikh community but engages with people of the wider community.
Year 2 went to the Synagogue in Oxford; a good month to visit as all of the High Days (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot) fall in October. They had an introduction to the synagogue, Jewish traditions and customs, looking at artefacts and learning about some of the festivals.
Our youngest children visited St Mary’s Church in Shipton, looking at the features outside and inside the church including the font, the organ and bell tower. The children found it exciting climbing up to the bell tower on the small windy steps, the adults not so sure! They spent some time doing observational drawings. Our younger juniors took part in a Hinduism Workshop, learning about various deities and how murtis are used in worship. The sessions included storytelling, dressing up in traditional Indian costumes and other activities related to worship and culture values.
We also welcomed John Harris, storyteller, and Sally Elderfield who taught dances from the countries being studied, Greece, Australia, Italy and Sri Lanka. Students from Burford Secondary School came to speak to classes about their home countries: Spain, Germany, Mauritius, Fiji, Thailand, Hong Kong and Nigeria. There were also music workshops: Samba drumming creating music from South America and a Gamelan orchestra made up of three different sized gongs, metallophones, drums and bells producing the music from Bali. The week culminated with the whole school sampling foods that originated from the countries they had been studying.
Radio Oxford
During International Week we were lucky enough to be asked to take part in Radio Oxford’s ‘Back to School’ feature when we were chosen as their school of the week. The presenter phoned each day and spoke to a class teacher and their class. They were asked what activities they had been doing, what they liked about school and for us to set a homework question for Radio Oxford to try and find the answers to by contacting experts. The questions asked were:
- How many different species of fish are there?
- How far does a snail travel in its lifetime?
- How many stars are in the sky?
- How many thoughts do you forget in a day?
- How many stripes does a zebra have?
Not easy ones to answer but there were a number of ‘experts’ that came on air afterwards and tried!
Julie Hemming
December 2018 – January 2019