Culture Day & Children In Need at The Avenue School

The Avenue School in Reading is an academy designed for children with special needs; it has a proud history of celebrating cultural activities to reflect the Multi-Ethnicity and Multi-Cultural mix of our wider community. On Friday 13th November, INSAAN joined forces with Avenue staff to celebrate Culture day and Children in Need with the super-talented children. Headteacher, Dame Sue Bourne looked the part in her dazzling black sequined sari as she introduced us to the order of the day. Poetry and scripture reading was followed by music provided by brothers Dhanyal and Idris Butt whose older brother Omar, a former Avenue School pupil, was also in the audience. Everyone joined in to clap along with the melodious tunes. We also had a sensory workshop (see, touch, taste, feel, smell) with children experimenting with aromatic herbs and spices. Cookery was also on the menu and all the children were involved in making “Aloo Tikki” (fried potato cakes) from scratch. They went down really well. Staff and pupils loved the Henna artistry workshop with many volunteers having hands and arms tatooed. Lunch was a typical Asian meal which included samosas, pakoras, pilau rice, chicken curry and chick pea curry. There was also a music workshop which the children really enjoyed; the pleasure and stimulation of “music therapy” was a sight to behold. Our day ended with pupils dressing up and letting their hair down at the school party. It was a fantastic end to a very busy and active day. We all had a great time and we hope this work will help promote to the community the contributions and talents that these young children have!

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