International Week 18-22 May 2015
Week 5 in term
two was International week. This gave the school a chance to celebrate and
appreciate cultural diversity within our school community. Louis Poole
introduced the week to the school and Ross MacNiohol was the invited speaker at
assembly on Monday. Scottish pipers piped the students out of assembly then
attended music class with Tobias Wright. Zimboyz Band played to juniors then
seniors in the course of the morning so Monday proved to be a great start to
cultural week.
During the week
students were entertained with cultural music by school musicians and Chinese
and Japanese visitors from our local community came and spent time with Year 7
students. Displayed around the school were posters by Year 10 students based on
the theme Cultural Diversity plus a large map of the world indicating where our
school community members originate and Samoan, Tongan and Fijian cultural items
were on display. Our students from the Philippines performed an item in the
library one lunchtime and there was also the chance for students to practice
greeting each other in other languages.
The hostel dining
room also got into the theme with a variety of food from differentdifferent
days having Chinese, Italian, Mexican, USA and Thai meals. Another highlight
was staff who were born overseas being invited to lunch and wore their national
colours or brought their flag.
Friday was the
climax to a great week. Excell played at assembly and Aaron Gao gave a speech on
is experience of being an International student in New Zealand. Students wore
mufti with a cultural theme and the boys could buy Japanese, Indian, Chinese
and pizzas food at lunchtime with the proceeds from both going to Starlit
Charity.
The intention of
International week was strengthening
cultural and ethnic diversity by celebrating difference. I believe we achieved
that and that the school can feel enriched by the experience.
Margie Smith
International Students
Director
