Not only did we celebrate our work in school, but we sent it to the people we were studying - and received messages / videos back! Manchester United and Lemn Sissay also loved the work!
REFUGEE WEEK
The end of June is Refugee Week and as a School of Sanctuary we were keen to mark the occasion in school. A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for those seeking sanctuary.
This year, after a special assembly, a competition was launched to design a welcoming poster for refugees. There were so many amazing entries, even from Year 1 children, it was very hard to choose winners from each year group!
Winners
Year 1 - Fatimah
Year 2 - Joni
Year 3 - Zahra
Year 4 - Jocelyn
Year 5 - Zahra
Year 6 - Mominah and Anayah
Well done to everyone who entered and those who won - it is so lovely to see so many compassionate and creative children in school!
Even breakfast club joined in creating one together!
International School Award
We are delighted to announce that we have been reaccredited for the International School Award, from the British Council for all three schools! This is again at the full 'gold' level. The judges were really impressed with all our work, especially that it continued despite lockdown! The work included: linking with our Spanish school, (CEIP Blas de Otero in Madrid), threading diversity into our curriculum and ethos and carrying out projects with Manchester Library, such as the art work to mark 'Holocaust Memorial Day' and the 'Lockdown Room' Refugee awareness project.
Some of their comments:
"The trust has held the full ISA for many years now and the judges had no hesitation in renewing it... Please convey our very best wishes and many congratulations to all staff and pupils both in the UK and overseas who have taken part in embedding such a rich and creative range of work.... Activities were introduced to provide valuable opportunities despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, which is creditable... This is an outstanding achievement. "
School of Sanctuary Award
In March 2020, all three schools in the trust were delighted to receive the prestigious 'School of Sanctuary Award' - the first schools in Manchester to get this! A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for those seeking sanctuary. The School of Sanctuary Award is given by the City of Sanctuary movement to schools that have an exceptional commitment to diversity and have consistently put the sanctuary principles into practice.
The judges said that they were massively impressed by all the wonderful initiatives that they had seen. One judge said she wished that she was a teacher at one of our schools and another judge wished that he was a pupil there! They all felt certain that the work they had seen were excellent examples that they could highlight to schools nationwide calling us 'sanctuary champions.' "You clearly continue to adapt your creativity & resources to meet a variety of changing needs & criteria," they noted, referring to our work on bringing communities together to foster harmonious relationships.