We made our own tartans in art, Chinese houses in Minecraft and drew Greenland and Iceland in chalk on the world map. It's been really fun"
Harry, Max, Jacob and William
International Week was a week of cultural exploration and celebration.
Kick Off Assembly
International Week launched with a high-energy assembly which looked at sports from across the world. Starting with Sepak Takraw, played in South East Asia, pupils worked out the rules of this kick volleyball sport... and then had a go! Despite being extremely challenging, the pupils and Mr Brown managed a small rally. Following this, pupils learnt about Chess Boxing from Ukraine, before laughing their way through a riotous demonstration, thanks to Mr Halliday and Mr Stewart. Next up was a sport from Sri Lanka - elephant polo! Year 8 pupils were transformed into elephants and the Reception children climbed aboard as the polo players! Next up was Kabaddi, which is played in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. In this game, you score points by ‘raiding' your opponents' space and tagging one or more of the team members before returning to your side. Meanwhile, the other team aim to tackle you before you cross back! The twist is that you do this whilst holding your breath and chanting Kabaddi. Pupils had a go at playing a non-contact version. Finally, a comedy spot for a sport from Scotland - gurning! A line of teachers pulled some extraordinary faces - bravo.
Sharing Afternoon
The Pre-Prep and the Junior Department joined forces on Wednesday afternoon: Year 3 teamed up with Year 1 and created artwork inspired by the Russian-born artist Kandinsky, an early champion of abstract painting. Mrs Rich explained to all the children that one of Kandinsky’s most well-known paintings is a set of circles called Colour Study, Squares with Concentric Circles and she asked the children to use the colours from their chosen country flag to create a similar image. Mrs Rich said: “It was great to see the two year groups working so well together to create Kandinsky circles with an international flavour and it was so lovely to hear the children laughing and chatting together across the year groups." Year 2 and Year 4 also got their creative juices going by creating chameleons out of clay. They loved learning about these beautiful creatures, which can be found in tropical and mountain rainforests, savannas and steppes. Again, we saw cooperation, chatting and mutual support between the years and it was fantastic to see so many happy faces at the end.
Pre-Prep School
The whole week in the Pre-Prep had an international flavour. This led to Year 1 enjoying an African counting game in maths, Reception dancing the flamenco and having a go at Cossack dancing and Year 2 making beautiful posters about Australia.
On Round the World Wednesday, the Pre-Prep packed their imaginary passports, their woolly coats and sunglasses, fastened their seatbelts and flew off to destinations around the world. Moving between classrooms, they were introduced to various countries, languages, facts and took part in art and crafts activities. These included Australian Aboriginal boomerang artwork, Peruvian textile pattern art, as well as making a paper Russian doll and Spanish castanets. There are lots of photos below.
Prep School
Many academic subject classes contributed to the creation of a giant world map to scale on the playground. In geography, pupils from Years 5 - 8 worked in pairs to draw out a proportion of the map, coordinating with each other and neighbouring teams. Mrs Pollock, Geography Teacher, said: "We could see problem solving skills in action, plus pupils were working on their spacial awareness and automaticity of world locations". Pupils drew religious flags in religious studies and these were then placed on the finished map. In a Spanish lesson, pupils wrote the countries of the world where they speak Spanish in chalk alongside the giant map .
On Wednesday, the sound of drums and steel pans rang out from Millennium Hall as Years 3-5 experienced World Music Workshops, which this year focused on the music of the Caribbean, particularly the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. With an orchestra of steel pans and various other percussion instruments, the children had a great time getting into the Calypso spirit as part of International Week. Parents of children in Years 3 and 4 joined the children at the end of the day for a wonderful concert, before being invited up on stage to drum to the distinct rhythms and meters of a Brazilian samba in honour of upcoming Carnival.
Year 7 looked at different ways of representing data with international statistics. A discussion point was this video of Global Health statistician Hans Rosling and his statistics in motion.
