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International Days
The whole school participated in activities that focussed on experiencing other countries cultures, food, national costumes and many other “differences” from our own way of life. Among the “destinations” visited from the Leaden Hall Departure Lounge, where passports were checked, boarding passes issued and departure announcements made, pupils visited “Italy, the UAE, Greece, USA, Japan, China, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Belarus, India, Germany and Kenya”. The local newspaper came to visit and then the next day they came back again to take a film of our travels. The whole event was organised by the “High Flyer” Project Club as part of their extra-curricular activities.
Click on the image below to read what the Salisbury Journal had to say about our international days... |
Leaden Hall’s International Festival 2007
This was a whole school project organised for children by children to give everyone the feel, the taste the sights and the sounds of other cultures through a ‘virtual world tour’ with the emphasis on learning by doing.
Ten children from our ‘gifted and talented’ cohort in yrs 5 and 6 formed the steering committee. They were given the challenge to organise this two day festival when we would all be ‘off timetable’ and to produce a support pack for each class. They had two terms (20 sessions of one hour each) to achieve their goals with two members of staff acting as facilitators and advisors.
The first brainstorm resulted in so many fantastic ideas we could have had a week long festival. It was decided that every child should get the authentic travel experience by turning our Hall into a giant departure lounge. Children would be given boarding cards, passports and luggage labels for their rucksacks. They would have maps of the school and an itinerary to follow. Another great idea was to give everyone a choice of airline meal for lunch. The steering committee had a great deal to do. They had to meet with the school caterers to discuss balanced diets and budgets. They quickly realised they had to meet deadlines, prioritise and work cooperatively and creatively when solving problems if this was to be the success they hoped for.
The resulting festival was quite amazing. In the airport’s lounge all the staff got involved, dressing up as security guards, air hostesses or VIP’s and a number were able to give airport announcements over the PA system in different languages. We even had buskers in the airport who were paid in chocolate euros.
As groups of about ten travelling children arrived in each ‘country’ (classroom), they were greeted by about ten friendly native children who would tell them about the country. The natives would then teach the tourists a skill which they themselves had learnt in the preceding weeks. The range was extraordinary- from earthquake drill in Japan, to the Haka in New Zealand. As they travelled children made and collected souvenirs from Willow Pattern paper plates to Indian charm bracelets.
Their senses were challenged by strange incense and foreign foods. They saw their friends, dressed in traditional costumes, able to greet them in umpteen different languages. They wrote their names in foreign alphabets, listened to stories and music and stared wide eyed at the way each classroom had been transformed. The best thing was to watch the one to one interaction between children from tiny 3 year olds to our year 6 girls teaching one another, with enormous patience and enthusiasm, something they were proud to pass on.
The committee wrote to British Airways and Virgin who were generous with their posters and stickers which all helped to make the travelling seem real. Our steering committee learnt to ‘buy in’ the expertise of secretarial staff who turned their graphic design work into professional looking documents. For children who had never travelled this two day festival opened up a whole new world and, according to one pupil, some ideas for a gap year!
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