Editor's choice July 2010

Balsall Heathan July 2010

Around The World

In 5 Days

by Ashley Chander

An international fair at Park Hill School was the culmination of a weeklong series of culturally focused activities. Parents and staff gave children the flavours and excitement to be found through exploring the cultural diversity within their own school. The final day provided everyone with a round trip ticket to fun activities and a taste of the culinary delights experienced throughout the week.

Children, parents and staff explored culture within all areas of the school curriculum. Amongst the highlights of the week were insights into German education and language. As part of their study, pupils devised their own snakes and ladders games while others investigated Caribbean history. Younger pupils discovered the wonders of the Yemen, studying Arabic numbers and letters while another group of students looked at France and learnt how to pronounce French words. Several also learnt of Pakistan, they studied the Urdu script and created traditional Islamic geometric shapes. The week’s study even stretched as far as India, where pupils learnt Indian traditional dance.

Bite to eat

But that wasn’t all Park Hill had to offer. Cuisine played a large part of the week, as students were allowed to make and taste unique, foreign foods. On the menu: Caribbean salt fish, Yemeni sweets, French crepes and much more. The children loved the unusual tastes with one commenting “Mmm this is delicious.”

The school’s cyclists succeeded in making a ‘virtual’ tour of the world visiting each of the focus countries along the way. More than 18 000 miles were ‘virtually’ travelled, all through cycling to school. At the end of it, Bike-It Marshall Grace Williams managed to say, ‘We did it! We got there and back in one week!’