We know we said we wouldn’t post a blog over the holidays but we just had to share our wonderful Super Learning Day on Hinduism with you..

The theme of the day was Holi, the Festival of Colours, celebrated by Hindus in early March to mark the arrival of Spring and give thanks for a good harvest. Holi commemorates the mythological stories of the god Krishna and the king’s son, Prahlad. In Hindu legend, Krishna covered Radha and her friends with coloured water and stole off with their clothes as they bathed. In the other story, Prahlad, the son of the king, refused his father’s demand to worship him rather than God. God saved Prahlad from death twice, first when the king ordered him killed, and again, when the king’s evil sister, Holika, led Prahlad into a huge bonfire.

On the eve of Holi, Hindus dress in their finest clothes and watch a bonfire. A large tree branch, representing Prahlad, is placed in the middle of the fire. The branch is removed, recreating Prahlad’s rescue. The next morning, people put on old clothes and douse each other with coloured powders. It’s the one day of the year that parents encourage their children to get messy..

In school we started the day together in an assembly and then worked in class groups throughout the day on craft activities linked to key symbols of Holi. There were dance workshops scheduled throughout the day based in the school theatre..

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Our IB and AB groups created the mood of the festival by using powder paint and a ping pong ball..

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At the school site, Activ8 ran ‘team games’ in the dining room and each year group participated..

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Swimming activities were also themed with lots of coloured balls emptied into the pool, and there were plenty of colourful art and craft activities for everyone to enjoy..

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Year 10 and Year 11, ably assisted by Mr Fieldhouse and his scouts, set up our own Festival of Colour for the afternoon. Our year groups were able to enjoy sharing this cultural experience, sampling delicious food prepared by Amans Restaurant in Congleton (thank you!!), drink and music. Pupils from Hollinwood Academy also came over to join in the celebrations..

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At the Learning Centre students within the IB smelt and tasted authentic foods from India and explored Rangoli art patterns. They made colourful scarves and decorated Rangoli patterns using paint and glitter.

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Miss Silvester reports..

“We set off our celebration of colour by mark making on our material to decorate our classroom; we made choices and showed our preferences through what colours and materials we wanted to use..

We then made our friendship hand prints to create our unity circle..

Luke appeared to love the feel of the paint on his hand!

We also made Rangoli patterns using different spices, beans and pulses..

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Then we had a ‘burst of colour’ celebration with an array of brightly coloured powder paint..

before –

.. and after –

Our Ebase students were busy baking once again and we really enjoyed their rather yummy colourful cupcakes!

We finished the day with a Learning Centre assembly during which we learnt more about the festival of Holi and the students shared what they had been doing..

including some fabulous banners..

and very colourful staff..

 

Digit4ll were hard at work capturing some of the day’s activities on film; they took some stunning photographs and even produced 2 short films..

and

We hope this has given you an idea of how much fun we all had!!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday, and we will see you at the start of the summer term on Monday 11th  🙂

Judith and Dawn