Two weeks ago today, in Christchurch, New Zealand, a man attacked two mosques during Friday prayer leaving 50 people dead and another 50 injured. It was a horrible event that has left people throughout the world saddened that someone could carry out such a terrible act. Today, in Christchurch, more that 20’000 people attended a memorial service to honour those who died or were injured in that attack. It was earlier this week however, that a number of our pupils here at New Bridge asked if we could also come together to show our respect to those who had died, those who were injured and the families and friends who were affected by this terrible event. With the support of Mr Hanif, our pupils created a short memorial service which we held during our Friday afternoon assembly.

The service, during which we held a 2 minute silence, helped us understand how something like this can happen and what we can do to try and make our world a place where this can never happen again. In the coming weeks Mr Hanif will be leading the creation of a ‘Kindness Tree’ made from individual fern leaves, the national symbol of New Zealand, on which our pupils will record acts of kindness they have carried out. It is our intention to record these in a ‘Kindness Book’ we can send to the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in the hope that these goodwill gestures will in some way support those dealing with the aftermath of this tragic incident. Our pupils’ response has shown us that from an act of hate, we can show our love, that out of this darkness, we can spread the light.

Three of our pupils were also able to talk to a resident of Christchurch who is related to a member of staff here at New Bridge over Skype. The pupils were able to ask her some very thoughtful questions and we will be bringing you a recording of their interview next week.

On Monday, Mr Smith took our Table Cricket team to Old Trafford to take part in the latest competition. Mr Smith was delighted with the team’s sportsmanship and, as you can see, everyone had a wonderful day..

They even got to have a closer look at the famous pitch and a rather special trophy..

Have a great week,

Gavin

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