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CATSC ANNUAL NATIONAL STUDY CONFERENCE
'Taste of the East Day' on 19th November 2009.
As Modern Foreign Languages Co-ordinator, Maria Hargreaves organised this day in order to share knowledge and understanding of languages, cultures and faiths in countries such as Pakistan, Turkey, India, Iran. There are many children in St. Ann’s school from these countries and so it was beneficial to have this day to bring about greater understanding of those families who make up this diverse community. Everyone in school including parents was involved in a variety of ways and enjoyed it immensely. Many children came to school in traditional Eastern clothes.They looked magnificent!
Maria invited the Education Group from Kettering to come for the day and introduce each class from Year 1 to Year 6 to authentic Indian dancing; she also co-ordinated five parents who volunteered to come in and talk about their languages which included Guajarati, Punjabi, Urdu and Tamil. The parents also talked about their way of life as they visited the different classes. The majority were Muslims and talked about their Islamic faith. One parent was a Hindu and not only came to talk about Hinduism but brought many artefacts into classes for children to look at and also a collection of saris that the children enjoyed trying on.
Many other parents supported the day by sending in traditional Indian / Muslim food for all the children who literally had 'a Taste of the East' at the morning break. This was absolutely fantastic; there was enough food for children to come back for seconds and some had thirds as well!
The dinner ladies had cooked different curries for lunch that children could choose from. Throughout the day, two Year 6 girls visited all the classes in order to paint the pupils’ hands with mendhi paints – having had permission from parents/ guardians to have this done. All staff and children commented on how much they enjoyed the whole day!