GALLERY: India week at Glebe Primary

Glebe Primary School in Southwick was bursting with colour for the last week of the spring term, with everything focused on India.
Glebe Primary School pupils practise drumming, Indian style. Picture: Derek Martin DM1833478aGlebe Primary School pupils practise drumming, Indian style. Picture: Derek Martin DM1833478a
Glebe Primary School pupils practise drumming, Indian style. Picture: Derek Martin DM1833478a

Normal lessons were replaced with special themed workshops and the dress code was ‘something colourful’, to reflect the Holi festival.

The thinking was ‘the brighter, the better’ and some staff and children celebrated by wearing stunning saris.

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Teachers led a daily carousel of lessons, giving the children the opportunity to experience a wide range of Indian activities.

Glebe Primary School pupils practise drumming, Indian style. Picture: Derek Martin DM1833478aGlebe Primary School pupils practise drumming, Indian style. Picture: Derek Martin DM1833478a
Glebe Primary School pupils practise drumming, Indian style. Picture: Derek Martin DM1833478a

Head teacher Jo Kelly said: “It really was a fantastic few days with so much learning and so much fun. What more could you want from a theme week?”

Pupils had the chance to try Bollywood dancing in the hall, create a vegetable curry in the new cookery room, produce some amazing Rangoli patterns on the computer and use the more traditional pen and paper method to create beautiful Mehndi hand patterns.

Year-five pupil Ella Hooper said: “I have loved everything, especially the dancing.”

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Year-four pupil Brody Robyns raved about using the Scratch programming tool to create coding for a Rangoli design.

She said: “I liked how you could turn in a circle, and it was a challenge to get the sprite to move forward to make the pattern. It was a really good lesson, I’ve never really done anything like that before. I really enjoyed it.”

There were also opportunities to do role-play, drumming and model making, resulting in some interesting Taj Mahals being produced.

Having discovered that Snakes and Ladders originated in India, the children were set the challenge of designing their own board games and some that were produced were incredibly innovative.

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Miss Holbrook, who led the Indian Inventions session, said: “I have just been amazed by the children’s creativity. Their board games were really clever and challenging. I was seriously impressed.”

Other workshops included acting out the Hindu story of Sita and Rama in drama, making diva lamps out of clay, studying maps in Geography and, of course, cricket.

Teacher Pauline Davies, who jointly co-ordinated the week jointly with Miss Kelly, said: “The staff at Glebe have yet again provided some wonderful learning opportunities, all linked to India, a fascinating country which has been well worth our attention. Everyone has had a superb time – what a great way to end the term.”

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