A Roaring Start to the Year

Our immersion fortnight has got off to a roaring start. Children from across the school have been inspired by the book How to Be a Lion by Ed Vere. They have been following the journey of a lion called Leonard. While he is aware that the general expectation of lions is to be fierce, he opts not to live up to it. Instead he notices “the grass under his paws,” thinks up poems, and befriends Marianne, a duck. Alongside many messages and learning points we hope it will help our children to start the year by reminding them to be proud of who they are and their individual characters.

From Creche to Y8 children have delved into the world of lions exploring a breadth of topics and themes. Y6 have been looking at the wider topic of story books and have created their own characters.

Year 2 have been busy exploring life in the Savannah and writing their Lion Myth Stories about how the lion got his mane.

Year 7 and 8 have been reading Lion: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. A true story of a young boy who got lost on a train in India. Separated from his family and unable to find his way home he was adopted by a family in Australia. As a young man he was desperate to trace his origins; he used memories to scour Google Earth to finally track down his place of birth. Our children have been exploring Google Earth for themselves, investigating the country of India and looking at their own sense of identity. In humanities they faced the tricky task of some blindfolded drawing of the outline of India, with the help of a partner explaining the steps!

On Friday we had the privilege of three members of the Ewaso Lions team coming into school to talk about the vital work they do in lion conservation and community education in northern Samburu. The children learnt about one of their conservation programmes Warrior Watch and the risk that lions face from loss of habitat and human-wildlife conflict. Children were taught how to identify different animal footprints and looked at the dangers lions face as they traverse the landscape.

The children produced shared artwork that carries an important message: the future of lions is in our hands.

Next Friday we will be wearing lion themed colours of yellow, orange, browns to school to conclude our lion learning! Children should bring in a full unopened bottle or jar which will go towards a tombola sale. The money raised will be donated to the Ewaso Lions as a thank you to them for coming to school and educating and inspiring us all.