Celebrating difference

At St Rose’s, we believe it is vital that our children learn about different cultures and faiths as part of Catholic Social Teaching's 'Dignity of the human person'. Our school is Catholic but some pupils here are not Catholic. It is important to recognise and celebrate what makes us different and similar not just in our community but in the wider world.

Our amazing parent / carers helpers join us each year to share their own cultures and languages with our children. The children really enjoy learning some different words, hearing a story in another language and finding out about another culture. They have the opportunity to join in singing and music workshops in other languages and the dances that they learn are incredible! We hold a culture festival where families can attend celebrate the children’s learning and enjoy tasting new foods from around the globe.  Honey cake and Greek yogurt seems to be a favourite! Children have told us:

“I loved learning about France.”

“I like the food and the drums.”

"I liked learning about Buddhism. We meditated and I liked it. I felt calm and like the quiet music." "India is really far away. It would take a long time on a plane. I liked making the flag with rice like they eat in India."

Parent / Carers gave feedback that they ‘Loved seeing their child’s work and the food went down a treat!’ and told us that their children has ‘Talked a lot about the culture and countries and loved the different food!’

In our culture week festival, the food had the children's taste buds tingling, they had the opportunity to try a variety of different foods ranging from Mexican rice to Greek moussaka each lunchtime at school. It was wonderful to see the children experiencing other cultures, with decorations and music from that country used to help create an authentic atmosphere. St. Rose’s sang the world during the week as they hopped on a plane to Africa, Mexico and Israel during their singing workshop. They sung about the Mexican volcano, Popocatepetl, the Jewish Sabbath, Shabbat and they sang a traditional African song ‘A Keelie’. The children had great fun singing with different techniques, clapping and dancing.

Our children loved our visit from Author Sue Hampton who introduced her book 'I Am Me' in assembly. It’s a beautifully illustrated book that shares a child's experience of leaving home as a refugee and arriving in the U.K. Afterwards she worked with a group of Year 2 children helping them to write a short story about difference. The children reported that it was 'great fun to work with a real author'.

Judaism Week

This week the school learnt about another faith, Judaism. As part of our faith, we acknowledge and understand that people have the right to practice their own religion. As a school, we enjoyed finding out about a different part of the Jewish faith and then sharing what we had learnt with friends in other year groups. Nursery thought about why light is used in the Jewish festival of Hannukah, Reception explored how the Jewish community celebrate Purim, using the story of Esther. Year 1 focussed on Passover, using the Book of Exodus to learn about the Jews leaving Egypt and Year 2 focused on special books, learning about the Torah and why it is holy and precious to Jewish people.