Caribbean Day adds splash of fun to Lightwater Village School

The sun may not have had his hat on but pupils at Lightwater Village School were certainly dressed for sunnier climes the other week as they enjoyed a Caribbean Day.

​All kinds of activities, from art to music and cookery had a taste of the tropical about them as the youngsters left the classroom behind to move outdoors for a specially themed day of events.

One of the main features was the music of Jim Bernardin from World Music workshops, who spent the day at the school to teach the children about things such as steel band music, and even gave them a chance to try their hand at a variety of percussion instruments, whilst playing favourites including ‘Under the Sea’ from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

“The children had a wonderful time,” said teacher Dawn Bourne, who was in charge of events on the day. “Unfortunately we couldn’t manage to arrange Caribbean weather for the day, but that didn’t stop them thoroughly getting into the spirit and having a wonderful time.”

Other events on offer at Lightwater, which along with local partner school Hammond has been a member of the GLF Schools group since last November, included mask making, limbo and hula dancing. Having earlier been taught about the musical instruments, later in the morning the children showed what they had learned, followed by a Caribbean-themed lunch, and then keeping the theme of the day going by producing Caribbean artwork in the afternoon.

“It’s been a very mixed summer so far weather-wise so it was nice to bring a bit of sunshine and colour to school like this,” said Ms Bourne. “It certainly put a smile on everyone’s faces, and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as well as learning new things which would have been much harder to do in a normal classroom environment.”