International School Award
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London, 8 October 2008, St Joseph's Preparatory School received the DCSF International Award at a high-profile ceremony, presented by the broadcaster and Journalist George Alagiah. The award recognises the work of the school in immersing the children in other cultures and bringing the wider world into the classroom. As Martin Davidson, Chief executive of the British council, has said "...We believe that international links bring a vitally important dimension to the education of our young people ensuring that they build the skills and understanding to become global citizens ready and able to take their place in the world..." |
 Prep 6 Indian Dancing |
The award is the culmination of two years work in school, where we have had focussed days about Australia and India as well as an annual multi-cultural week where children have found out about the life of children around the world through the religions they follow. The themes have all followed a cross curricular approach encompassing geography, history, literacy, music, drama, art and ICT, from creating collages to tell Hindu stories to singing Waltzing Matilda when looking at differences in the Australian Language. |
 St. Joseph's children meet the visitors from India |
Many of the children have also been involved in writing to children in schools abroad using the e-pals scheme. This allows children to use a web-based e-mail to contact and discuss their life at school and at home in a safe and controlled environment. This proved to be enriching and enjoyable, and highlighted the similarities in hobbies and interests across cultural boundaries. Having already dispatched Miss Simpson to India earlier this year, the highlight event was the display put on for a reciprocal group of teachers and Heads from the Bal Bharati group of schools in India. There were displays of dancing, gymnastics, speech and drama, as well a variety of songs performed by both the choir and the entire school. Kamran, Jamie and Cavan from Prep 3 also spoke to our visitors about St Joseph's work as an Eco-school. Credit must also go to Head Girl Eleanor who elicited smiles from the guests as she appeared in almost every display as well as explaining about the history of our school with Head Boy James. The children were then treated to a presentation and slideshow by our Indian visitors about their schools and life in India. |
