On Monday 5th March 157 students and teachers from 6 countries descended upon Featherstone for the 7th annual International Week at St. Wilfrid’s. Visitors, old and new, came from partner schools in Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine. Our partner school in Spain joined us for the first time, whereas our German partner school was visiting for its 18th year!On Monday afternoon some of our primary feeder schools got the week off to a great start by taking part in the 2nd Primary Song Extravaganza. The event was organised by Jane Johnson, Primary Languages Coordinator and gave the students the perfect opportunity to show off their languages skills.
Over 100 hundred of our guests were hosted by families of students at St. Wilfrid’s. This gave our international guests the chance to experience life in an English home. Our English families made our students feel so welcome that most of them didn’t want to leave at the end of the week.
This year’s theme was “Every Child Matters” and international students, alongside students from St. Wilfrid’s, worked in teams on an exciting project. It was their task to adopt a virtual child from cities including Johannesburg, Bangkok, Marseille and Sarajevo. During the week, groups researched their given cities to create a life for their virtual child. On Thursday, all of their hard work was exhibited in school to Year 7 students. The exhibition was also displayed to specially invited guests, including the Mayor of Wakefield, on Thursday evening.
During the week students actively involved themselves in a range of other activities, including cookery workshops, origami making, Bollywood dancing and yoga sessions. Excursions also took place to York and the National Coal Mining Museum.
Perhaps the most memorable and lively event of all was the International Song Contest on Wednesday evening. Thirteen superb acts took to the stage to battle it out for the winning trophy but there could only be one winner. Our partner school in Lodi, Italy won the contest with a song and dance routine.
The week was not only an opportunity for people from different backgrounds to experience life in England, but also a week to build long-lasting friendships and take away very happy memories. We definitely succeeded in doing this and many of our partner schools enjoyed the week so much that they have already started planning for next year!
Ian Storey
Head of the International Dimension
