Pearling Season International (PSI) School has been making big strides this year. Its latest success this year has been its incredible International Day celebrations, organised by two enthusiastic members of the school Community: a staff member and parent, Hershey Ansay, and a school parent, Sabika Shaban.
With nearly 600 people in attendance, students and parents from various countries joined the celebrations.
“The PSI community of parents, students, teachers and staff comprise more than 50 nationalities,” explains Hershey, who is of a Filipina-Australian background, “and the International Day was an opportunity to celebrate national pride and identity, and to showcase our diversity at its best.”
The festival represented 14 national and regional booths: Algeria, The Americas (Canada, Venezuela and USA), Continental Europe (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden), Egypt, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar and the United Kingdom. Each showcased their distinct customs, traditions, clothing, ornaments, food, arts and iconic facts. Each consisted of teams of parents and staff who worked together to share their country’s charm and wonder with PSI School’s students and visitors.
There were activities set up to engage the public in the theme of internationalism, include face painting of their own national flags, henna designs, a chopstick challenge, Arabic calligraphy writing of visitors’ names, and other age-appropriate art and craft activities run by staff volunteers and artists.
The final installment was a celebration of national music and dance, with an incredible variety of performances done by students, from Arabic poetry and ballet to songs in different languages and of international themes. A professional African drum artist was also invited to perform an interactive African drum session with a laughing and clapping audience.
“The response was more than we could have ever anticipated,” says Sabika, who is Pakistani-Canadian herself. “Embassies had come forward to support select countries, parents passionately shared the enchanting beauty of their countries, and students pleaded for opportunities to take the stage for impromptu performances of songs and dances from their own countries. There wasn’t a single face in the crowd, young or old, foreign or local, that did not have a smile or a laugh on their faces as they learned more about each other’s national culture and celebrated our diversity.”
The PSI International Day was the grand finale of Week Without Walls (WWW) - a week of school that is specifically designated to education outside the classroom.
“The WWW programme this year has been a phenomenal success,” says PSI Head Teacher, Delores Thompson. “It is designed to allow students to implement knowledge learnt at home and in school into real-life experiences, reinforcing the skills and content of the curriculum. This helps students to understand the world we live in and their role in it. It also reinforces many of the personal goals taught throughout the IPC Curriculum, such as cooperation, resilience, communication and internationalism.”
