PUPILS from Burley Oaks Primary School have been taking part in two community projects linking the school with local nurseries, community groups and Sachi’s restaurant.
Firstly, to celebrate Diwali, local nursery children visited the school to make clay Diwali lamps with the older Burley Oaks pupils.
A school spokesperson said: "It was wonderful to see our pupils working alongside the younger ones to help them make a Diya lamp and work together to act out the Diwali story of Rama and Sita. They also learnt a song in Hindi which sings about the stars, flowers and unity.
"The next part of our Diwali project involved the same children from our local nurseries (Jolly Tots and Burley Nursery) meeting our year 6 pupils at Sachi’s restaurant in Burley. Here the children were greeted by the staff who gave them a bindi. The restaurant was decorated with beautiful rangoli patterns and traditional Diwali decorations. Pupils and nursery children then enjoyed an incredible Diwali feast together. Pupils left the restaurant with a gift from Sachi.
"We are so lucky to be able to work with our local community to learn about and celebrate Diwali. All pupils from Burley Oaks, Jolly Tots and Burley Nursery thoroughly enjoyed working together and celebrating in style! All have been asking when they can do it again!"
The second project saw older residents of the local community invited into school for an autumn celebration.
Here children and local residents enjoyed playing games, sharing food and drinks and learning about autumn traditions from one another. As well as listening to pupils sing a collection of harvest songs, guests and children took part in a conker tournament, bringing back wonderful memories for those who have played conkers in their youth as well as being a fun event for those who are new to the game.
To end the meeting, pupils from Burley Oaks planted an acorn with their local resident partner to symbolise how, like from tiny acorns mighty oaks trees grow, the school's relationships within the community will grow and all will be stronger for working together.
The school spokesperson added: "Burley Oaks places a huge priority on working with the local community. As well as ensuring that pupils are aware of how to achieve a positive mental health, at Burley Oaks, we encourage many opportunities to improve happiness, wellbeing and improving our pupils’ sense of purpose. By working with so many local partners, we are certainly sharing smiles, support and happiness."
A spokesperson for Sachi's said: "It was such an honour to be able to host this Diwali celebration at our restaurant in Burley. We all are very happy to provide some general knowledge for our little children from all schools.
"Specially in a time when we see our world with such instability and very little faith about other religions, other cultures and countries, this will definitely set an example that we are trying something very positive.
"And it is always great to start with our future generations.
"Children learnt about one of India’s great festivals, Diwali, Hindu cultures how we welcome people and how we celebrate festivals with lights and sweets.
"We are so happy and wish to do this festival a regular event every year at SACHI’S."
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