Schools send support to Japanese counterparts
A Shipston pupil has spoken about how a link between her school and one in Japan inspired her to come up with a fundraising idea to raise money for the disaster appeal.
Shipston Primary School was one of the Warwickshire schools in the Japan Partnership in which seven Japanese schools and nine from Warwickshire have been communicating with one another and developing innovative ways to support language and cultural learning through comparing and contrasting the two countries and their ways of life.
The relationship was made all the more real by the events of the 11th March when the magnitude 9 earthquake struck the east coast of Japan and the resultant tsunami wreaked chaos in many areas.
Children in Shipston Primary watched the events unfold on television, not knowing if their partners in Japan were safe. Fortunately, the Minami Ouchi Primary School is situated in Kyoto, far enough from the catastrophe to be badly affected, although emails have described how the children felt large tremors and took shelter under their desks.
Anna, a year 5 pupil at Shipston Primary, said: “I was upset when I saw the news and wondered whether our friends had been affected. But it was a lot more real to me when I saw it.”
Emails from Japan also made Shipston’s children realise just what a catastrophe was occurring as Minami Ouichi teachers wrote to say that the news was featuring virtually nothing other than earthquake coverage and that concern that damage to the nuclear plant will
The experience made Anna and her fellow year 5 pupils determined to do something to help. The school is sending notes of support to teachers and pupils in Kyoto and looking to raise money for the disaster appeal to help Japanese people whose lives were devastated.
She said: “We’re holding a writing and drawing competition which pupils can pay to enter. We’re looking for artwork, a piece of writing or a poem about the natural world.”
Chizuru Nishizawa, co-ordinator of the partnership at Minami Ouchi contacted Shipston Primary to convey the gratitude of all involved in Japan.
Judith Walker, international development officer at Warwickshire County Council, said: “The partnerships have broadened the children’s horizons at both ends of the globe. The concern of the pupils of Shipston Primary School towards the Japanese people was heightened by the very real relationships they enjoy. Warwickshire can be very proud of the compassion and support that our schoolchildren have shown to their friends from across the world.”
Other schools in the district which have been involved in the partnership include Snitterfield Primary School, The Willows and Wilmscote Primary School.