Visit from South African High Commission as Westacre Middle School launches new diverse curriculum

AN EXCITING new curriculum has been launched at Droitwich’s Westacre Middle School which coincided with a visit from the South African High Commission in London at the end of last month, writes Shivani Chaudhari.

The introduction is aimed at providing pupils with a greater understanding of ‘aspirations, communication, and diversity’.

The new curriculum has been well-received by the students and will improve their skills across the board, from art to PE and from geography to science.

The year sixes were given a topic called ‘What a Wonderful World’.

The children used virtual reality headsets and iPads to ‘virtually jet off to’ and explore 30 different countries and the 11 to 12-year-olds wrote to some of their embassies asking for support in an upcoming school project.

They received replies from Japan, Switzerland, Chile, Jordan, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

The South African Embassy representative who travelled from London to Droitwich personally presented the Westacre children with the information they had requested and a range of souvenirs.

Head of year six Bryony Page said: “The children were thrilled with all the post and especially their special visit – their faces said it all.

“Our newly-developed curriculum really drives diversity and communication and we hope it inspires the children to travel the world and be exposed to a range of possible careers.”

Another year six pupil Evie, who had researched South Africa, said: “I can’t believe someone came from all the way from London to see us.

“He told us lots of things about South Africa and that he met Nelson Mandela once.”

Deputy head Paul Barber said: “This curriculum launch should help us provide a world class education to our children in every subject they study.

“The school curriculum should help the children better understand how diverse our world is, how they can communicate better with each other and what careers options they have in the future.”

“The children now have lots of information to develop their projects and they are working hard to showcase this to their parents before the end of the term.

“As a school, we offer our thanks and sincere gratitude to all of the embassies who have responded to the children’s letters – they have really helped inspire the children.”