Global Education Blog

Over the last few weeks, staff have been participating in workshops facilitated by Bill Bolloten, who is an independent consultant and trainer for schools and other organisations.   The workshops focussed on the Equalities Act of 2010, and in particular supporting us in understanding our specific duties under the act.

Bill's workshops were a great opportunity to get staff talking about what Equality means to us and how we promote equality and community cohesion and develop children's social, moral, spiritual and cultural awareness.

The first activity had us finding out information about people we work with every day and we discovered some very interesting facts, for example that one member of staff lives in the house where she was born, and that many of our staff speak languages other than English.  This activity led to lots of discussion about our school and community, and the way that it has changed over the years.  Some of our long serving staff were able to give us lots of historical insight into changes in our local area over the last 25 years!

We discussed our ethos and values and what these mean to us in our every day practice.  One member of staff commented that our ethos is 'alive' and can be felt in every aspect teaching and learning in our school.

The next session had us looking more specifically at the Equalities Act of 2010, and our specific duties.  This led to very interesting discussion which led to the development of some new Equalities Objectives.  Staff really valued the opportunity to talk together about the richness of diversity within our school and to think about how we can further support the families we serve.  We plan to invite Bill back to our school on an annual basis to facilitate discussion around equality and community cohesion.

Our Zambian visitors have arrived and we wanted to welcome them in style by giving them the opportunity to get to know our school community.  Each year when our staff visit Zambia, they are treated to a 'Pot Luck Lunch' where everyone brings a dish to share and the food is enjoyed together.  We invited families, community members and staff to join us for our own 'Pot Luck Lunch' to celebrate our Zambian friends' arrival.  We were so amazed with the wonderful selection of food from around the world that made up our special feast, and by the lovely atmosphere as the staff room filled with families, friends and staff.  There was haggis from Scotland, plantains from Nigeria, chicken and rice from Jamaica, samosas from India... and so many other delicious treats from all over the world!  Everybody had a wonderful time trying out each other's dishes and getting to know each other better.  Our Zambian visitors felt very welcome and loved the sense of community that makes Oakleigh such a special place.  It was such a success that we would love to do it again soon!

Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris visited us last week to join in with our football sessions with our coaches, Danny and Nick.

The goalkeeper was taking part in a Tottenham Hotspur Foundation-led multi-sport session as part of Level Playing Field’s Weeks of Action - a national initiative which aims to highlight the positive work sports clubs across the country carryout for their supporters who have disabilities.

Our coaches, Danny and Nick, attend each week providing both lunchtime and afterschool activities as part of the Foundation's School Sports Programme.

Gareth Jones, Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s Senior Inclusion Projects Officer, said: “It was a real pleasure to have Hugo visit Oakleigh School and take part in the session, supporting the pupils to have fun.

“The weekly activities, delivered by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation coaches, are an important part of their school day, enhancing their development by allowing pupils to take part in multi- sports activities together, while having fun.”

Our head teacher, Jenny Gridley, said, "The event last Thursday was brilliant and it was heart-warming to see the interaction between Mr Loris and our children.

"We have been in the enviable position of working with Tottenham Hotspurs for several years now. They have been able to provide us access to excellent community coaches who give all of our children the opportunity to enjoy sport and to enhance all areas of their development."

We were delighted to send another group of staff to visit all our friends at Choongo School in Zambia, to continue building the partnership between the two schools. This time, for our third visit, we were represented by Rachel, Moira, Teresa and Wendy who were greeted with a glorious welcome, bursting with exuberant song and dance, including a traditional enactment of girls washing away the river demons and drums played by one of the pupils who attends Choongo’s disability unit.

After visits to meet the local education officials and time spent in class seeing something of teaching approaches, the weekend was spent with the children in the unit.

The children had a wonderful time involved in art and craft activities, making crowns (worn with enormous pride) and murals showing aspects of their lives.

After all of that sitting down, it was time to work off some energy; staff and children together shouted and cheered their way through relay races, football, parachute and balloon games and several sessions of Musical Statues (accompanied by more drumming) where the Oakleigh staff did their very best to make the Choongo children laugh and wobble!

During the week, the Oakleigh team spent more time in class and were particularly impressed by how the children used local resources to produce sweeping brushes, table mats, ornaments, baskets, hula hoops and skipping ropes. They used corn cobs, grasses, torn plastic bags, shredded flour sacks, bottle tops and sweet papers - in fact anything that came their way. They certainly have a lot to teach us about effective recycling!!

The Oakleigh staff were not quite as skilful as the Choongo children, struggling to make the simplest rope in the time that the children could produce an entire basket - we were the subject of much merriment!

Mrs Himukamba, the headteacher, was particularly proud to show us the fields that have been planted with a variety of crops, maize in particular, which are being used both to provide food within the unit and for sale to local people, raising some much needed funds. We were thrilled when she told us that the idea sprang out of a visit that she had paid to the Oakleigh allotment when she had visited us last year.

One particularly fascinating morning was spent in “Grandmother’s storytelling”, when we were treated to hearing traditional stories delivered with great gusto, singing and emotion, all of which shone through the language, Tongan; (luckily we also had Mrs Himukamba there to translate for us!) These stories were used not just for entertainment, but also for instructing children in how to behave decently. We responded with a couple of our own (‘The Boy who cried Wolf’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’), with equally strong moral messages behind them!

Choongo arranged some home visits for us, so that we could gain some understanding of the Zambian way of life and some of the challenges encountered by the children simply in attending school. With no effective local transport, the children in the main school often have a walk of an hour or two before and after lessons; this is clearly impossible for the children with disabilities and the residential unit at Choongo is the only way in which those pupils can have access to any education.

Time was also spent at The Holy Family, a local short-term residential physiotherapy centre funded by the Catholic Church, and our staff were impressed by how much time and effort was spent in working with mothers and their children, so that they could use the techniques taught by the physios on their return home.

The Oakleigh team left Choongo with some fantastic memories of a school genuinely committed to working with its children to give them the best possible opportunities, and deeply impressed by how the unit functions as a real family, with the children helping each other in so many ways.

We look forward enormously to the visit in the spring of Mrs Himukamba with two of her teachers, Mr Hanalete and Mr Hambaye, and know that Oakleigh pupils will benefit hugely from all of the new experiences that they will be bringing with them.

On Tuesday we had our annual Green Day, where children explore and find out about a range of issues related to the environment and sustainability.

This year's event involved many members of the community and we are grateful to Arnold from Water Aid, Sarah from Barnet's Library Service, Paul from Barnet's Waste and Sustainability Team, Saul from the Junk Orchestra and Jenny from Barnet School's Catering for coming in and running excellent practical and hands on sessions for the children.

Saul's Junk Orchestra workshop was an amazing experience for the children - who ever knew that so many instruments could be made from junk! Children loved experimenting with making sounds and joining in with music making.

In Jenny's bread making session, children participated in making delicious, home made bread using flour, oats, yogurt, yeast, oil and water. It was a lovely sensory experience - from getting hands very messy, to kneading the dough, to smelling the lovely smell of bread baking in the oven, to eating warm, homemade bread.

We will share some more photos of the day's activities in a later post so please check back soon!