Multicultural Week

What an incredible week we have had! We have had workshops, dancing, dressing up, painting, building, cooking and much, much more! A big thank you to visitors that came in and delivered the workshops: Kwame, Mrs Patel, Mrs Carabache, Mr Slade and Miss Linn from Brentwood School. Finally a big thank you to Mrs Woods who organised all of the workshops.

Below are some of the highlights from each class:

Year R

Class R started the week in Italy, where they enjoyed making their own pizza, choosing their toppings carefully and having a cheeky taste in between. We then heading into South-Africa, where the children took part in playing on the African drums, they all had a chance to have a little boogie with the music. They created lion masks, tried counting to 10 in Afrikaans, and made colourful bracelets. We then headed into China and had lots of fun trying Chinese paper cutting, learning a Chinese dance, creating a blossom tree (and they look amazing) as well as making dragon masks. Our final destination was India. The children were told the story about Rama and Sita by Sunita in a very interactive and enjoyable way. The children then took part in some creative activities in class. These include making a peacock, Rangoli patterns and learning a little Indian dance. It was a fantastic week, where the children have learnt new things about different countries in an unique educational way.

"We learnt about South Africa and the colours of the flags are my best colours." Arabella.

"I liked making blossom trees and sticking them on paper for China." Ezra.

Year 1

What a fun week it’s been exploring and learning about a number of countries:

We started the week with Italy where we made our own pizzas and became either designers for Milan Fashion Week or Vespa designers for the biggest scooter festival on Italians land.

On to Tuesday where we immersed ourselves with everything South African. We were super lucky to be visited by a great musician who taught us how to play African drums. We got stuck in playing tag rugby and not to forget, we went on a safari crafting the ‘Big Five’.

Wednesday had us exploring China. We learnt a lion dance fit for a celebration, made a unique handprint Chinese dragon and experimented writing our names in Chinese writing to create our own bookmarks.

Finally on Thursday the last country we visited was India. A lovely storyteller came to visit and shared the story of Rama and Sita with us. We had fun practising and creating our own Bollywood dance and of course made diya lamps to link back to our morning story.

It’s been a fantastic week enjoyed by us all!

"We got to make a collage of an elephant, this was my best thing to do." Gideon

"China was my favourite when we learnt the dragon dance, they were really cool movements." Nathan.

Year 2

We have been to Italy where we learnt how to say basic phrases, we made pizzas and designed pizza boxes and we even got to make food out of salt dough and label it using Italians words. The best activity was creating a modern day Mona Lisa! Next was South Africa and the children's favourite activity was drumming Kwame, we had so much fun and learnt all about the drums and how to play them. We also got to go on safari and write our own safari diaries and create animal symmetry. For China, we learnt some Mandarin (counting) with Miss Linn from Brentwood School, we made traditional lacquer fans, wrote our names in Chinese and even built the Great Wall of China out of lego. Our final day was India, where we learnt to play a traditional marble game, we got to dress up in traditional dress and Sunita taught us some Indian dance moves. The children have had the best week!

"I really enjoyed making the pizzas, make the shape and decorating the box." Margot.

"My favourite day was South Africa, I really liked learning about the landmarks as I know a lot about them." Jesse B.

Year 3

The children have had the most exciting week learning all about different cultures from around the world, exploring their landmarks, learning new languages and tasting each countries cuisine. The children have produced some lovely work which I can't wait to display in the classroom. It was important that we explored lots of different elements of each culture, so for Italy we worked together to create an Italian flag before learning about the important landmark 'The Leaning Tower of Pisa' and building it ourselves from paper cups. For South Africa, we learnt a lot about the different animals we can find there and even went on 'safari' which allowed us to get up close and personal with all kinds of animals, including the Big 5! On Wednesday we learnt about China, and what better way to immerse ourselves in Chinese culture than learning how to speak Mandarin. The children really enjoyed getting to explore this new language. Then, finally for India we enjoyed a Gods and Goddesses workshop which helped us to draw lots of comparisons between our Roman Gods and Goddesses topic we have just completed. The week has been a wonderful example of immersive learning where the children have become excellent global citizens sharing a new love and appreciation for the world around them.

"My favourite part was the African drumming and learning how to use the drum." Mia

" Learning Mandarin and counting to ten was my best part." Jude

Year 4

We really enjoyed Monday, when we were learning about Italy because we got to make and eat pizza! We also made dress up character that was great. We also made our own Tower of Pisa’s using Lego. It was challenging to make it ‘fall’ but still stay upright. Harrison & Lois

South Africa Day

We did a music workshop. The man brought in a range of instruments for us to try out. We also learnt all about Nelson Mandela. We found out he was the voice for black people and he worked to make life fairer for everyone. Freya & Calum

China Day

Marissa – we had some special visitors in from Brentwood School. They helped us to count in Mandarin, using special hand movements. We also learnt about the Willow Pattern story and designed our own plates inspired by this story. Marissa

India Day

I really liked the chess because we got to play against our friends. I was able to pick up new skills and help two of my friends improve their strategies. I liked today because of chess and we got to watch wizard chess on Harry Potter. The Rangoli art workshop was amazing because our work turned out really well. The colours were beautiful. Lunch was great – the chicken korma was delicious. Josh & Rory.

Year 5

Year 5 had a blast during Cultural Week 2025!We have explored Italy, South Africa, China and India and learnt many things. On Monday, we learnt how to make pizzas, which smelt delicious as they came out of the oven, and we made the Tower of Pisa out of paper cups! Tuesday was fun and loud, as we were taught how to play the African drums together-some of us had a go at other African instruments as well! We also made African artwork and wrote our names through the middle in African. Their language was really interesting, as certain sounds of two letters were a different symbol, rather than the separate symbols for each letter. Wednesday was all about China, and we started the day with a Mandarin lesson on the numbers 1 to 10. We learnt how to say each number in mandarin forward and back to 10, and then we learnt the hand symbols to go with them. We found out that there are two ways of saying the numbers by hand, depending on what part of China you are from. During the afternoon, we made Chinese Dragons from recycled egg boxes and paper plates, as well as many other crafty materials. We worked with our friends and created very terrifying, but cute, dragons! To end the day, Miss Laker taught us Chinese Lion and Chinese Dragon dance. We had so much fun building up our skills- not fast, but twist and turn- and we ended up taking our dragon dance onto the school field! Thursday was the last day of exploring a new country, and it was all about India. We started with a workshop on chess, and we had so much fun developing our existing knowledge of the game. We played against each other if our game ended, but Sydney and Teddy were still playing their first game by the end of the hour! We all left the workshop with beaming smiles and were eager to put our new knowledge to the test at lunch in our chess club! We ended our day making Peacock artwork using a variety of mediums. Some of us have included cherry blossoms in our design and some of us have included flowers. We have really enjoyed this week and have learnt so much about the countries.

"The best part of the China day was the Mandarin workshop with the teacher from Brentwood school where we learnt how to count to 10." Grace H.

"For me the best part was the African drumming and meeting Kwame." Olivia.