Africa Month
As part of our continued aim as a specialist language college to promote an international dimension within the schools, we are doing a cross-curricular project on the vast and varied continent of Africa throughout the month of March.
All subject areas will be covering an aspect of African life and culture in lessons for some time during the month. Maths, for example, will be focusing on Egyptian Numbers and symmetry; science on diamonds and mining in Namibia; History on the Commonwealth and Geography on Kenya, Ghana and Egypt in years 7, 8 and 9 respectively. Visitors to the school will offer taster sessions in African dancing and drumming and the Drama department will be producing a piece on District 6 of Cape Town in Year 10 and developing techniques for story telling based on “Handa’s Surprise with Year 7. The Languages Department will focus on Burkina Faso and the Design Technology team plan to look at the wind-up radio. African tastes and diets will be studied comparatively in Food Technology and PSHE will raise awareness of health issues in Africa; particularly AIDS and leprosy. The Library and school catering service will also be contributing. Students have the opportunity to hear African story-telling in the Reading Tent and look at African artefacts and the kitchens will produce at least one African recipe a week throughout the month as well as making biscuits with fair-trade ingredients during fair-trade fortnight.
African masks and clay pots will be made in the Art Department and both Business Studies and Maths will look at data from African countries.
Grove is particularly pleased to be working alongside our Partner Primary schools in this project. Many of the primary schools are also focusing on Africa during this month and many pupils will be coming to the Grove to participate in African music, dance and art taster sessions. Grove’s year 7 story tellers will be taking their version of Handa’s surprise to local schools and entertaining Key Stage 1 children in the town.
On Wednesday 28th March we will be celebrating our project by holding an International Arts Festival. Students from Grove will join with pupils from our Primary partner schools in a concert sharing their experiences of their African work and demonstrating new skills they have learnt. The evening will be based on the “5 senses of Africa” and displays from subject areas and primary schools decorate the school. We are delighted that the project will also reinforce our links with supporting Vukani school, a township school in Cape Town, South Africa, with whom we have developed strong links over the past 5 years. We are funding the principal of the Vukani school, Mrs Ncumiso Sebola to come to Market Drayton for a week at the end of March to visit Grove and our partner schools to raise awareness of the issues in South Africa and to share experiences. She will also be a special guest at the Arts Festival
Our commitment to Vukani school is a special feature of Grove school and our fund raising efforts to date have been rewarded with the Giving nation award for the Midlands and South West area for three years and our pupils have benefited from annual visits to the school. We have recently published an occasional paper about the reflections of the students who visited South Africa last Easter and this year our relationship is being developed even further. We are working with and Market Drayton Tigers Junior Football Club to fund a football team from the township to participate in the town’s successful 6-a-side tournament in June. Ten players aged between 12 and 14 and their teacher are planning to make the trip and give all the players in the 200-team tournament a unique opportunity to make new friends through sport.
To visit our separate website dedicated to Africa Month click on the map.
