Prep School celebrate Windrush Day

A thought-provoking assembly, brilliant storytelling workshops, cricket, a steel pan band and a carnival-themed parade involving the entire Prep School; all this and more took place as the Prep School celebrated the 75^th anniversary of the Windrush arrivals.

One of the many highlights of the day-long celebration was an assembly from Mrs Hurrell on the theme of What Windrush Means to Me. She spoke about the experience of her family members who came to England from Barbados over the course of the 1950s and 1960s.

The pupils also heard from Gavin from the Friends of the Caribbean in Milton Keynes. He had a wonderful rapport with all the pupils as he spoke about the different geographical areas of the Caribbean. Later in the day he hosted a brilliant storytelling session exploring different areas of Caribbean history and culture, which saw plenty of contributions and thoughtful questions from the pupils.

Elsewhere, cricket was played on the Astro and colourful carnival masks were made. Josh though the day was ‘amazing’, Henry thought it was ‘fantastic’ and Sienna enjoyed the chance to talk about and celebrate her family history – several members of her family had emigrated to England from the Caribbean over the years.

Pupils had spent lessons in previous weeks learning about the history of Windrush and why the day was being celebrated. They built upon this in their English lessons through some exciting creative writing exercises based on books they had been studying.

After a delicious Caribbean BBQ, the whole school assembled to prepare for the main event of the afternoon – a dazzling carnival parade accompanied by a steel drum performance. With everybody colourfully dressed and wearing the masks they had made, it was great to see the whole school getting into the spirit of the day, dancing and cheering around the amphitheatre as the photos below demonstrate!

As well as being such a fun, enjoyable way to end a busy week, Windrush Day was also an excellent opportunity to celebrate the different cultures at the Prep School and within society, and to mark an important moment in collective British culture. It was great to see all the pupils embracing this atmosphere of acceptance and inclusion.

A big thank you must go to Mrs Hurrell, who organised the day and who made it such a great success.