The parents and children of our Hindu community led our Diwali assembly, telling us the story of Rama and Sita, how Diwali is celebrated around the world and singing a "Happy Diwali" song. The parents also created some beautiful rangoli pattens for the children to see and very generously gave the gift of diya lamps to every child in the school. Thank you so much for your kindness and sharing a special celebration with us all. Happy Diwali.
October is Black History month and the Academy launched its celebrations with 2 days of African Drumming workshops where every child was able to join in, learning and performing chants, rhythms and songs with Ronald. It was an incredible experience for everyone and the whole Academy came together for a final performance led by Ronald and the year 6 children. The workshops were funded by Reading Borough Council following a successful grant application to provide activities and events for children to enjoy experiences that reflect the diversity of the families at the Academy and the wider community.
African Drumming Assembly Performance
Everyone at Churchend came together for a final performance of African drumming where the whole Academy joined in with the songs, chants and rhythms, Ronald had taught the children during his 2 days of fabulous workshops.
The year 6 classes joined Ronald for a wonderful performance to celebrate the start of Black History Month.
You can watch the full assembly on the Academy youtube channel, following these links:
video 1 - Assembly - Tiger class
video 2 - Assembly - Lion class part 1
video 3 - Assembly - Lion class part 2
Congratulations to the reception children at Churchend who were winners of the CLiPPA 2022 - a national poetry competition where the children performed "Caterpillar Cake" by Matt Goodfellow.
They travelled to London on Friday 8th July to perform live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank. They met Matt Goodfellow who led a poetry workshop which the children loved! They saw Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell, who was illustrating the event live on stage.
The reception team is very proud of the children for their amazing performance and doing such a wonderful job of representing the Academy in London.
Follow this link to see a recording of the performances from the day.
(Churchend children are on stage from 50 mins.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIEkd62rdck&t=2219s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIEkd62rdck&t=2219s
Follow this link to see official photos of the day: