Day of the African Child
On Thursday 13th June All Saints' was delighted to be the host school for the annual Day of the African Child. It was a magnificent success despite the rain!
This special event enabled all our children to take part in six African themed workshops throughout the day.
After lunch all 550 pupils and staff marched round our field, with their school banners, in a parade to celebrate our school links with Bo in Sierra Leone.
Our Bo teacher guests were John Sandi, Lucy Amara, Kula Fangawa and Francis Jusu.
Mrs Garrett, our International Coordinator, who also works with 'One World Link' was very grateful for the amazing teamwork from the All Saints' staff who all made the exciting day go smoothly.
Bishop John of Warwick was amongst many special guests towards the end of the day. They were invited to place a plant in our Ecobrick Planter, a culmination of work amongst many schools doing the Zero Waste project.
All Saints' initially gained the British Council’s International Schools Award in 2012 for the period 2012 – 2015. We were reaccredited for the period 2016 – 19 and are now in the process of working towards extending this status further.
Through our use of the International Primary Curriculum, we aim to develop our children as Global Citizens of the future. We have a well-established and active link with a school in Bo, Sierra Leone - reciprocal visits have taken place between staff and the children have completed writing and art projects for exchange. We have also completed a really successful Erasmus+ project with 6 other European partner countries over a 2-year period, 2016 - 18 and all staff and children enjoyed the exchange of teaching and learning opportunities. Our future aim is to establish ongoing and sustainable link/s in Europe.
Miss Letchford's Bo Assembly
Miss Letchford from Emscote came to do a fantastic assembly at All Saints, telling us all about her visit to Bo in February.
The Friends of Bo Club also presented some of the activities they have been enjoying this term, including sending and receiving valentines cards from Bo and teaching each other a Sierra Leonean game called "Boys Norty".
Miss Letchford showed lots of photos and videos of our link school, including her teaching a class of 90 children.
She went to Sierra Leone in February as part of this year's One World Link team. The trip was funded by a British Council grant and the focus of the trip was reducing, reusing and recycling plastic waste. Link schools in both Warwick and Bo have been working on this and making eco-bricks (which are plastic bottles filled with plastic film that cannot be recycled). One of the most interesting (and challenging!) parts of her trip was visiting the schools at New Gerihun Road Lower (linked to Emscote) and Upper (linked to All Saints) and teaching a class of 98 (!) year 6 children about our schools and the recycling work we had been doing. They also took 15 teachers along with 2 pupils from each of the link schools in Bo out on a fieldtrip to look at waste management and recycling in Bo. Needless to say they were already doing a lot to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste and we learnt a lot from them!
She is now really looking foward to June when four teachers from Bo will be visiting Warwick and joining us for 'The Day of the African Child' which will be hosted by All Saints Junior School. Link schools from Warwick and Leamington will all be bringing eco-bricks along to this and we look forward to creating something special with this unique building material!
Friends of Bo Club
This term Friends of Bo Club, with it's 16 nominated class reps, has met most Wednesday lunchtimes. In September we received packages of artwork and letters from our friends at BDEC New Gerihun Rd school in Bo. We then took part in theSeasons Exchange project where Years 3 and 4 created beautiful informative posters detailing what each of our 4 seasons was like. In November we received a package from Bo with 2 posters telling us about their two seasons: The Rainy Season (April - Sept) and the Dry Season (Oct - March).
At the end of term we peeled, cut and fried plantain - some of us were not so keen on the slightly sour banana flavour, others of us LOVED IT and ate loads!!! Plantain is a common food in Sierra Leone, eaten with both savoury and sweet meals.
Erasmus Project
In May, Mrs Garrett visited Lithuania as part of our Erasmus project - Hooked onto Healthy Lifestyle. This is the final, 7th visit of this project. The children may have told you that the first year had a focus on healthy eating, with this second year focusing on exercise and healthy living. The staff and children from all 7 countries have really enjoyed sharing their learning. We'd like to encourage you to have a look at the shared blog at:
http://hookedontohealthylifestyle.blogspot.com/ to find out more about the range of activities completed over the past 2 years in all of the partner countries.
Friends of Bo
Some representatives of our Friends of Bo Club supported Mr Hussey who gave a presentation at Emscote School about his visit to Bo in Sierra Leone last month.
Lots of parents, children, Governors and OWL members came to hear all about his visit. We served refreshments, showed people how to make 'gari' (from dried, ground cassava) and ran a raffle. We managed to raise £50.33 for One World Link towards their work with schools in Bo.
Skype Link with Bo - February 2018
Today we were lucky to connect with our partner school in Bo (BDEC Upper New Gerihun Rd) via a Skype video link. It was amazing to hear the whole school singing to us and the new Headteacher announced to us that the Lower and Upper schools at New Gerihun Rd have federated to become one school. We were able to watch them on our big screen in the hall. Two members of Friends of Bo Club, Zeke and Jack, made a speech and we all sang "You are my brother".
Mr Hussey from Emscote has been spending the week visiting schools in Bo and facilitating some teacher training.
Erasmus+ Visit - October 2017
We have had a really exciting week with our Erasmus visitors from all across Europe in school. The children have been undertaking healthy lifestyle workshops, learning traditional songs and games and performing various showcases.
Year 6 were taught by teachers from both Lithuania and Greece. They learnt about their languages and some key phrases. They also took part in some folk dancing and listened to their music. They asked them questions and listened carefully to their answers, they learnt a lot of interesting facts about both countries.
The year 6 children also had a lesson about healthy eating and established which foods were healthy and unhealthy.
Global Goals
We have recently been reminded in assembly about the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and have been talking about what we can do to help these goals to be achieved. Every year we take part in the 'Send my Friend to school' campaign which support Global Goal 4 - Quality Education for all. We have discussed this in our classes and taken photos to represent what we think and feel about education.
Day of the African Child
On Friday 16th June, our year 6 pupils joined 12 other schools from the local area to celebrate Day of the African Child. The day was held at Lillington School this year. All 13 schools marched around the field as they would do in Bo, with banners and flags to the sound of African djembe drums. They had the opportunity to take part in 6 different workshops which included drumming, dancing, drama, storytelling, singing and sports.
Matt Western, our new MP attended the day, and the children were able to present their petitions for the ‘send my friend’ campaign urging our Government to improve the opportunities for children all over the world to receive a quality education.
Learning about Latvia
We have just received the pet box from Latvia which is now on display in our library. The box included a ladybird called Marite which is Latvia's National insect.
Learning the Spanish Way
Miss Lampard visited the Spanish town of Lleida recently as part of the the Erasmus+ programme (see below). Together with Mr Queralt and Mrs Smith from Emscote Infant School, and armed with Greece's pet box, she had the privilege of attending the town's Paisos Catalans School. They toured around the school grounds, joined in lessons and made friends with the staff and children of the school. As part of the visit they were also lucky enough to be shown around the town and to visit the local attractions there, including the Old Cathedral of St. Mary of La Seu Vella. They also experienced much of the local cuisine, including snails and octopus. It was a thoroughly rewarding time and one that all three members of staff will treasure. They all look forward to sharing their experiences with the rest of the schools.
Learning from Larissas
During an assembly explaining the Erasmus+ project Hooked On Healthy Living (see below) Mrs Garrett told the children about her trip to Hungary, showing lots of photos of her visit there last November. There is an Erasmus display in the library area where children can come and look at various artefacts and books. The display features the Greek Pet Box with Balios the horse. Our linked Greek school is in Larissas on the East coast and the pupils are aged 4-14; they have sent us some amazing drawings and a wonderful display of seeds.
Festive Fare
As part of All Saints' and Emscote schools' Erasmus+ project work (see below) the school has Greece's Pet Box which contains Balios the horse. Each country in the collaboration is invited to contribute to a European recipe book, making traditional festive food with their children. Year 4 demonstrated their culinary skills for their equine friend, showing him how to make mince pies. There were some splendid personalised designs.
Global Christmas
The theme for our displays in the hall this festive season is Christmas Around the World. Each year group has studied a different country to discover how Christmas is celebrated in other cultures. They chose from countries which are taking part in our new Erasmus+ project (see below).
Year 6 learned about Greece, and the theme of their display reflected the long-standing tradition during the Christmas season, because of their great maritime history, of decorating small, wooden boats to symbolise their thankful spirit for the safe return of the father and his sons against the odds of nature and the harsh winter sea.
Year 5 heard about La Befana, a witch who flies around delivering sweets to children at the time of Epiphany, from one of their fellow students and his mother who are from Italy.
Year 4 learned about Hungary from Mrs Garrett, who recently visited the country as part of the Erasmus + project. They discovered that children in Hungary hang boots and stockings for St Nicholas when he visits on 6th December. They then celebrate on Christmas Eve with their families.
Year 3 discovered that Latvia is thought to be the home of the first Christmas tree. They also learned that Christmas dinner in that country can have as many as 12 courses!
We enjoyed learning about the many similarities, as well as the differences, in the way Christmas is celebrated in these countries.
Erasmus+ - Sharing Expertise in Europe
We are lucky to have been awarded funding through the Erasmus+ programme, a European Commission initiative that encourages strategic partnerships between schools across Europe. These partnerships tackle particular issues related to schools education, such as teaching standards, entrepreneurship, citizenship, basic skills or linguistic skills, through collaboration and innovation. We will be undertaking a two-year project called Hooked On Healthy Living with partners in Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Greece, Latvia and Hungary, sharing experiences and exchanging practices. We look forward to visiting other countries and to returning with some new learning experiences.
Sharing Keeping Safe Ideas
We took part in a reciprocal project with our link school in Bo, Sierra Leone. All Saints' pupils created posters and letters about different ways of keeping themselves safe; we have received some work back from the children in Bo.
International Day of the African Child
Every year since 1991 the International Day of the African Child is celebrated in June. The event honours those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976, when many schoolchildren were shot by police as they protested at the inadequacy of education in the township. The day helps raise awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children. This June year 6 children participated in the celebrations held at St. Anthony's School in Leamington.
Mrs Booth created a new banner for the children to take to the event. The banner represents children holding hands across the globe, with figures in our school uniform and that of our link school New Gerihun Road, Bo.
It was a wonderful day and despite the rain we had a lot of fun and created memories - especially our first Skype video link with Bo. We saw them in the OWL centre in Bo and heard them making speeches; we sang them a song in Krio -Tel amTenki.
African Link
On the same day as our celebrations in Leamington there was an event held in Bo, Sierra Leone. Bo pupil representatives from each of our 15 partner schools marched with banners and a brass band through the town before arriving at the One World Link Centre for speeches on the theme. Their programme had an advocacy approach raising awareness of the need to protect children's rights in crises. They witnessed the Skype video call with us around lunchtime projected onto the wall at the Centre. They finished their day with a friendship meal for everyone.
Friends of Bo Club
The Friends of Bo Club, which has elected representatives from each class, meets every Friday lunchtime. The aim of the club is to help keep our link with Bo alive by engaging in research and fun activities about Sierra Leone.
The club led an assembly recently to showcase the new banner.
In November Sierra Leone announced it was finally Ebola free so we made “congratulations hands” with messages of celebration which we sent to them, along with our link project Keeping Ourselves Safe. Each class designed posters explaining their chosen safety theme. We're looking forward to receiving work from Bo on this same theme.
French Links
Frederic Nicol, a teacher at our link school (Ecole des Blagis) in Sceaux, France, came to spend the day with us. It was great when he spoke to everyone in Assembly. His English was very good!
Global Goals
For several years we have supported the Send my Friend to School campaign,
which was part of the UN's Millennium Development Goals programme which
ran from 2000 until this year. On 25th September 2015 world leaders gather at the United Nations in new York to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda comprises 17 new Sustainable Development Goals, or Global Goals, which will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years,
beginning with an historic pledge to end poverty. We took part in the World's Largest Lesson, which aimed to tell as many children as possible about these new goals in the week after they were announced. Please see
here for a short animation explaining the new goals.
We are supporting Goal 4 - Quality Education for All. We have been asked to make these goals as well known as possible so we have added the logos to our letterhead and website, and in addition to this information on the website we will be adding information to our newsletter. To find our more about what you can do please click
here.
Helping Bring Elephant Pumps to Africa
As a result of having an AquAid support badge on our home page we have been able to facilitate the building of a water pump that is now bringing safe, clean drinking water to people in Africa. AquAid, who supplies water coolers to both schools in the federation, contributes a percentage of their revenue to support The Africa Trust, a charity the company co-founded to help bring fresh water to millions of people in thousands of communities. Pictured below is the Elephant Pump built on our behalf.