| International Schools |
Our children develop:
an increased knowledge, awareness and tolerance about other countries, cultures and languages.
confidence in communicating with people from different backgrounds.
more skills to successfully live and work in a global and mobile society.
literacy skills when writing stories and letters for specifics audiences.
students begin to develop confidence with their foreign language skills.
The International School Award celebrates our school's efforts to include international work as part of our curriculum and helps to embed it within our school's culture.
The programme supports us to foster an international ethos throughout the school and to embed it within our curriculum.
The International School Award rewards schools that have shown a commitment to embedding international awareness and understanding within their school.
We have completed a range of collaborative, curriculum-based work with a number of international partner schools to increase our involvement of the wider community.
As we continue our International School Award journey, we will learn new ways to develop and embed international education in our school.
Our International Greeting:
We are currently greeting each other in Spanish
To say hello, we will be saying: Hola!
Good Morning: Buenos Dias
Good Afternoon: Buenos Tardes
Classes will also be challenging themselves to practising numbers in Spanish 1 to 10 and colours in Spanish
European week of Languages from 25th September 2023
This week we have been celebrating European languages. This day was first celebrated in 2001 by the Council of Europe which has 46 member states of which the UK continues to be a permanent member. The core mission of the council is to promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law across the continent.
The council believes that linguistic diversity is a tool to achieve greater intercultural understanding.
Classes have tried to guess the language being spoken, tried to guess country from a picture, they have had a go at some tongue twisters in other languages amongst other activities.
As part of their homework the children drew maps of all the destinations in the world they would like to visit and some even challenged themselves to find out new words and phrases from their countries.
Please take a look at some examples of their amazing travels below.
French Pen Pals 2023-24
We have continued our link this year with a French primary school on the west coast of France. The school is in the small village of St Laurent des Autels which is between Nantes and Angers. This year, Year 4 will be linked with a year 5 ( CM1 ) and a Year 6 class ( CM2).
We started the year by sharing some pictures of ourselves and deciding who we were going to write to.
We sent each other letters and pictures. This year, we decided to send them by email as the post is so unreliable. See below some of the letter we received. Year 4 loved looking at the letters and seeing beautiful French handwriting and finding things that children in both countries like to do as well as the differences.
Please take a look around their French School website:
In November, we set each other a challenge for Christmas. The children told each through video the Christmas song they needed to sing on our Christmas zoom chat.
We have since sent each other regular updates about key events in our year through photos and videos.
We received videos of the classes completing sports day and poetry. We found out they tried cricket with their English teacher and tried some Paralympic sports which we have also tried.
Each time, Elm and Oak class watched the videos and looked at the photos, they had questions they wanted answered.
Some of the questions they wanted answered were:
Why do you have a stage in front of the chalkboard?
Why do you wear high vis jackets? The children in Silsoe wear High-vis jackets to show they are buddies and play leaders and they wondered if it was the same in France.
Why do you not wear a uniform?
Madame Mouilllard sent us videos back of the answers.
Global Education Week
13th November - 17th November 2023
This is an event organised by the Council of Europe of which the UK is a permanent member. The week endeavours to encourage learners to show responsibility for their place in the world as a global citizens.
This year the theme focused on promoting Peace for the planet. This is an important topic for all of us as global citizens to understand that all our actions have an impact on everyone throughout the world.
The children have discussed in classes the issue of climate change and how they as global citizens can have an impact. The children have completed a pledge for the changes they will make at home, in school and in the village to help the environment.
Christmas around the World December 2023
On Friday 1st December, the children in all classes learnt about their international country and how they celebrate Christmas.
Reception: South Africa-
Year 1: Mexico
Year 2: Italy
Year 3: China
Year 4: Norway.
The children discovered how the Christmas celebrations compare to their own. They completed a whole range of activities.
Year 1 made their very own poinsettias and brought them to Worship to show us all. They also were very lucky enough to celebrate with a Mexican piñata! In Year 2, they created a nativity scene as they would have in Italy. In year4, the children created Christmas decorations in the Norwegian style and learnt all about winter in Norway and the very special 'Northern lights'. They were so inspired they created their own Northern lights art work. All the children learnt how to ‘Happy Christmas’ in the language of their country and found out what children eat for Christmas dinner in these countries. The children were certainly feeling very festive after these and ready for their own Christmas.
We loved chatting to our French pen pals on Friday 15th December all about Christmas and singing our challenge songs to each other. We had a live zoom chat for 40 minutes. We sang a Christmas song to each other and then found out all about Christmas traditions in England and France by showing items such as a stocking, advent calendar, a Christmas cracker and what the children leave out for Father Christmas and Rudolph. The children asked each other questions and found out what is on the Christmas lists in both countries. Our pen pals told us they eat seafood and Oysters for Christmas dinners. Father Christmas puts their presents in slippers rather than stockings and we found out they are going to Church on Tuesday at the same time as us!
La fete des Rois- 6th January 2024
We have continued our Christmas around the World celebrations since returning back to school in January, Year 4 have celebrated the French festival of La Fête des Rois ( Festival of the kings) which celebrates the arrival of the three kings visiting Jesus. The children tasted the cake ‘une galette’ and the charm inside the cake was found by two children in each class and they became our king/queen for the day. Year 4 shared their photos of the event with their French friends.
Home Languages Day 22nd March 2024
We began preparing for our home languages day in January. Inviting parents and other members of the community to join us to celebrate all the cultures and languages that we have in our school and village.
Dear Parents/Carers,
At Silsoe Lower School we are a community that values and celebrates each person for their uniqueness and personal qualities. We are all different and bring a variety of experiences, skills, knowledge, languages and interests to school. Each person is encouraged to be themselves and be proud of who they are. Today we have enjoyed finding out about the diversity within our school with a particular focus on languages and heritages. It has been a real privilege to welcome members of family into school to share with the children about their home countries, traditions and the languages they speak. We are very grateful to our visitors for giving up their time to provide an insight into other countries around our world. Our celebrations today finished with a wonderful display of Irish dancing in our worship assembly. We were all in awe of the tradition, energy and enthusiasm which was demonstrated through the dance. Thanks go to Ava and Emily for sharing their love of Irish dancing in front of the whole school! We truly are global citizens and it has been marvellous to celebrate this together this week.
Best wishes,
Mrs S Boyle Headteacher
The children shared with their classes all about the languages and festivals of their families. Reception were visited by Mr Jorgensen to learn all about Norway and tasted home-made waffles. Year 1 was visited by Mrs Hill to learn about France and learnt a short rhyme in French. Year 2 were visited by Mrs Herd and the children learnt all about South Africa and learnt the ‘Gum Boot’ dance. Year 3 also learnt all about South Africa from Mr and Mrs Renecke and they were given home-made milk tarts to try. Year 4 were visited by Mrs Batten who discussed with all the children all about France and in particular all about the differences between France and England with regard to food. Finally, we ended our day with a spectacular performance of Irish dancing in worship by Emily Baker and Ava which was enjoyed by all. We would like to thank all our visitors for their time they gave today and for all the effort they put into their sessions with the children, it is very much appreciated.
Not only did we have so many international visitors today but all our pupils came in their own costume to represent their family and their own heritage. The pupils also came into school with information all about their families, the language they speak, the traditions they have and the food they eat. Children brought in pictures, writing and even PowerPoints to share.
We are very proud of our international school!
French day at Silsoe 25th June 2024
French day was FORMIDABLE!!
Silsoe Lower became a continental extravaganza on Tuesday. The children were so enthusiastic and ready to learn new things on our day all about France. Reception children and Year 1 both experienced a workshop in French on the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Year 1 listened to French for a whole hour and we think they are amazing. Both Year groups put their hands up and joined in and followed all that was going on in French.
Throughout the day, children in their classes completed a French treasure hunt and played the traditional French game boules. Thank you so much to the kind donations of boule sets from parents.
Year 3 had a visit from 6 Year 8 pupils from Arnold Academy who helped them to order ice creams in French. They met Madame Pineau, the French teacher from Arnold, who was very impressed with their language skills and can’t wait to teach them.
Other classes learnt about the Eiffel tower and how to draw it. Year 4 went one step further and created their own Eiffel tower monsters. Children learnt all about Henri Matisse and were inspired to create their own masterpieces. Children learnt the colours of the rainbow in French and how to sing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in French and sang it very quickly too!
In the afternoon, Years 2, 3 and 4 were invited to watch a French play called ‘Le Château’ ( the castle). Two actors took them on a journey as an English knight was sent to France by King Henry VIII to find a beautiful woman to be his wife and make a portrait of her. There was lots of comedy moments and the children listened to lots of French and were able to follow the story.
We are very grateful to the PTA who provided funding for the outside theatre company and workshops which really made our French day very special.
Children put a lot of effort into their costumes. We had Coco Chanel visit the school, we had some painters such as Claude Monet and lots of children had made their own costumes such as a fantastic full sized baguette! Each class teacher chose one winner to receive a prize.
Thank you to all the parents, staff and children for their enthusiasm and support for this day
Ugandan School Partner 2024
On Friday 22nd March, we had a special worship led by Rachel Wilson from the charity ‘Chilli Children’. Rachel has helped us to set up a link with Kitazigurukwa Primary School in South West Uganda. Rachel told the children all about life in Uganda for children the same age as them. She also showed them photos and a video made by her daughter especially for Silsoe lower school. The children learnt all about their classrooms, their dining room and their lessons.
Take a look at the PowerPoint below of photos and the video the children watched:
Rachel's daughter returned from Uganda in April with letters for us all from every class in Kitazigurukwa Primary school.
Silsoe Lower school wrote and drew pictures to the children of Uganda. We decided to tell them all about the games we play at play time. We wondered if any of our games would be their favourites too.
Rachel delivering our letters and pictures from Silsoe to the Headteacher, Peace in Uganda.
Ugandan Danceathon July 2024
On Friday 12th July the whole school learnt a Ugandan dance to raise money for Chilli children. This fun and active event took place in our hall, with classes each having a turn to learn the dance so that the school was dancing all day. We were joined by a professional dance coach Karen Byrne from ‘The Dance Studio’ to help with us all with our moves! We used traditional African drums and celebrated the crops and the sun as Ugandans would do. Every class also spent time learning new information about Uganda. They learnt about its climate, animals, food, currency and geographical key physical features such as waterfalls and lakes.
At the end of the day in Worship, we came together and shared all we had found out about Uganda - so many facts! We also danced as a whole school. It was a wonderful way to end our day and our International events this year.
Take a look at our posters all about Uganda and our amazing Ugandan celebration dances: