Wirral school's culture extravaganza

Mar 20 2008 By Samantha Parker

A WIRRAL school embraced the cultural diversity of Liverpool last night as they staged a "world in one city" extravaganza.

After spending the week learning Indian dance, African drumming, Chinese ‘flag dancing’, rap poetry and Tai Chi Wallasey High students in years seven, eight and nine brought together their new skills to perform in front of family and friends.

Assistant headteacher and organiser, Fran Parsonage said: "The school has had a culture week every year for nine years where we focused on one culture in detail.

"This year we decided to bring all of the previous years together and investigate the different cultures that can be found in Liverpool.

"The students have had a brilliant time this week. We have had the culture bus visit the school which has been great fun."

The school brought in visitors from the Merseyside area who were able to engage with the kids and get them to open up and give their opinions of the cultures they represented.

Mrs Parsonage added: "Our visitors were able to talk to the students on a different level then we can as teachers. They get really involved with them.

"The children really got a lot out of the week and I think many preconceptions the children had of Liverpool have changed.

"It is great to see them learning and enjoying what we have done this week.

"The culture week and performance were supported by the head and governors of the school. Culture week is seen as crucial to development here.

"The show was fantastic too and all of the kids deserved a round of applause."

It wasn’t just art and drama that were involved as all subjects embraced the culture week including history, geography and maths.

The school has also worked closely with National Museums Liverpool in cross curricular activities which will culminate in an exhibition of the schools’ work later this year at the World Museum.