Gregg International School’s “Send my Friend to School” events held last term were a great success. Millions of students from all over the world joined this global campaign to make a stand for education, as they called upon world leaders to provide more qualified teachers and access to education for all children.
Gregg students joined in the campaign by performing songs and plays for parents, and by connecting with UK-based students at St. Thomas Primary School, for whom they wrote letters and made many arta and crafts gifts, including some beautiful hand-painted Japanese fans. They also presented a letter to a representative from the Malawi Embassy, asking the embassy to support the campaign.
Gregg students learned a lot about how disabilities can affect some children’s access to an education, with grade six student Abdul being surprised to learn that 7% of children with disabilities in New York don’t go to school. The Gregg students were “given” a disability, such as the restricted use of an arm, or a blindfold, so that they were all able to gain a little understanding of how difficult it can be for disabled people to do things that able-bodied people take for granted.
Grade five student, Kai, felt strongly that all students must be able to go to school, irrespective of a disability, and grade one student, Leo, made up her own version of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, in which Hunpty Dumpty’s friends helped him stay up on the wall.
See http://www.sendmyfriend.org for more information about the campaign. — SUE SOUTHERN
