Week Without Walls: Year 7

During the recent KICS Community ‘Week Without Walls’ (10th – 14th of January 2010), Year 7 focussed on developing their awareness of the demands of parenting, and visited the ‘Mother Theresa’ refuge in Bahari in Khartoum, near the river Nile. They were accompanied by their homeroom teachers Mr. John, Mrs. Lynda, Ms. Nawair from the Arabic department and Mrs. Tara from the Arts department. The emphasis of the week was on developing the personal qualities and attitudes of being caring and better understanding the needs of others, and also on exploring ways to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

The keynote event was delivered by Mrs. Julia Hamid, speaking about her experiences of adopting a child in Sudan. The students were spell bound, and there was an attentive silence while she was speaking, followed by a rush of earnest questions.

The week-long activity given to the students was caring for a ‘baby’, where students were challenged with protecting and caring for a raw egg throughout the week in order to gain insight into the full- time responsibilities of being a parent. Students were able to relate to the Dr. Seuss story ‘Horton hatches an egg’ while cradling their ‘new babies’ in their laps. The ‘egg babies’ were protected by ‘baskets’ that were made from cardboard in Mr. John’s Design Technology class and used throughout the week to protect and carry the eggs. Some of the designs showed an impressive talent for invention with a limited range of materials. Very few students managed to care for their ‘egg babies’ throughout the entire week without dropping, losing, or sitting on them. However, these dedicated and mindful individuals were rewarded with a certificate recognising their parenting skills. One or two unlucky ‘parents’ looked after their eggs perfectly until the last day, when their guard slipped for just a moment and Mrs. Tara ‘kidnapped’ their unattended eggs! Other certificates were given at the end of the week for Empathy shown by students towards the children at the orphanage and the best ‘baskets’ made, judged on the basis of inventiveness and construction.

At the refuge, with Mrs. Lynda, Ms. Nawair, Mr. John, Ms. Tara and Mr. Andy, students met many children whose life had been disrupted by the loss of one or more parents, or who were suffering chronic illness, or whose parents simply could not cope with caring for them. Within a short period of time, strong bonds had been made, with many children obviously very happy spending time in the arms and on the laps of boys and girls from KICS. Our students also interviewed the children, and heard many heart breaking stories of neglect and tragedy, which opened their eyes to how lucky and privileged they were.  The week was packed with activity, with the children spending a total of 3 days visiting the refuge, with some students forming close bonds with particular children. The sisters and attendants at the refuge gave a startling example of how much can be done with so little, and were an inspiration to the KICS students.

The students all made a journal to write in at the start of the week and used this every day to reflect upon what they had learnt and how they felt about the experiences they were having. By the end of the week the students had visibly grown in scope, understanding and sensitivity and hopefully we will see this carry forward in their relations with each other and the wider community.

Mr. John

Year 8 Week Without Walls

For the first week of semester two, aptly named the ‘Week Without Walls’, the Year 8 KICS students engaged in Community Action and Service with the boys from the Jeref Boy’s home. The plan for the week entailed visits by the Jeref boys to KICS alternating with visits by KICS students to Jeref. Every day was filled with activities and guided by the homeroom tutors, Mrs Fawatih, Mrs Clare and Mr Peter, the students were very busy and went home each day exhausted but having had unforgettable experiences.

The Jeref boys had the opportunity to come to KICS and engaged in a range of activities, here at the school. On day one the KICS students got quite a surprise when the Jeref boys turned out to be quite a lot older than they expected. These Jeref boys had a wonderful time working in the IT lab and discovering the world of computers. Our students rose to the challenge of playing soccer and basketball with these students and performed admirably. It was wonderful to see how all the students got on so well. 

The next day KICS students went out to the Jeref Boys home and rolled up their sleeves to plant a variety of trees in the school grounds with the help of their students. Afterwards a clean up of the yard was done to make sure we left their home tidier than before we arrived. The KICS students had the opportunity to share in the lives of these younger boys and find out more about life outside of the KICS community. While at Jeref, the KICS students also taught the boys how to make kites and some basic origami designs. Their students loved flying the paper aeroplanes they made. Whether their teachers will appreciate these new skills remains to be seen!

At KICS the sports facilities were well used, the ATAC department did a fantastic job of rescheduling their timetable to accommodate the Jeref students and the students had a wonderful time playing soccer, basketball and dodgeball. The Jeref boys showed our students a few pointers on fitness comprehensively outrunning our students in the fitness test and displaying some tremendous naturally talented ball skills.

A few possible CAS activities have been identified for future collaboration with the Jeref Boys Home and we hope to organise CAS trips to the home in the near future.

Week Without Walls: Year 9

For the KICS Community focused ‘Week Without Walls’ (10-14th January), the Year 9 students went out to Kodra Basic School, south of the city. They were accompanied by their homeroom teachers, Mrs Natasha, Mr Peter and Ms Madeleine, with support from Dr Suad and Mr Mark Webber. The year group was involved in a variety of projects. One of the week-long activities was painting a brightly coloured English alphabet on the walls of several classrooms, which made a dramatic difference to the formerly bare walls. The school is keen for their students to develop their English language skills and asked us to develop ways to do this. Another was the creation of a football pitch, which the KICS students formed through drawing out, measuring and marking, in addition to painting goal posts and attaching the nets. The Year 9 students, with the invaluable supervision of Calvin Cox (Year 12), organized and refereed football games for both the girls and boys at Kodra. The final project was digging holes and planting trees outside the classrooms, and fixing sturdy metal guards around each sapling, in order to deter hungry goats! The week was extremely action-packed, as the Year 9 students spent every morning until about 12noon at the school, and used the afternoon for planning, and to reflect on the project’s strengths and areas for improvement. The class also created and maintained a photo album of the week on Facebook. After an industrious five days, the hardworking and enthusiastic Year 9 students were understandably a little tired (and paint-splattered!) but showed great spirit over the course of a successful week.

The Year 9 students will have an opportunity to revisit the school one more time when they undertake their ODE trip at the end of the month. This will be a great opportunity, not only to see the students and staff, but also to check how the trees are growing!

Ms Madeleine