At Salhouse, we combined Empathy Day with World Refugee and Migrant Day to learn about the challenges faced by others around the world and how to be more empathetic towards people from different backgrounds. In the morning, our House Captains sorted the children into their house colours and they sat in a special assembly to learn about some things that are being done locally to help refugees. The House Captains then took their teams around all classrooms to share books and activities specially prepared by the class teachers. From ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ by Onjali Rauf to ‘The River’ by Tom Percival, the children imagined themselves in different scenarios and completed activities on each book. Among the exercises completed, they showed their changing emotions (flowing like Tom Percival’s River) in words and pictures, drew and explained what they would put in their backpack should they have to leave home in a hurry – like ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class.’ After lunch, the children regrouped in house teams and headed outside to build shelters, listen to more stories around the campfire and painted stones to rejuvenate the ‘WELCOME’ message that greets everyone by the entrance to the office.
Galatians 3:28, “…for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
