Christmas 2012

REFUGEE WEEK 2012: A celebration of the positive
contribution that refugees bring to South Wales took place on Friday 15 June
at Bassaleg School. The event, which was jointly organised by the Red Cross, marked
Refugee Week, which aims to
highlight the contributions refugees
make to life in the UK through a series of
cultural and educational workshops. Throughout
the day, the students attended different
presentations from Amnesty International, The
Chinese Cultural Centre and The Forced
Marriage Unit. They also enjoyed performances
by a troop of Zimbabwean drummers, observed
African cookery demonstrations, and
participated in Zumba dance classes.
Mohammad Asghar, AM for South Wales East
and Shadow Minister for Equalities and Sport,
joined the students during the morning to
observe the activities taking place. He said:
“This event was invaluable in raising awareness
of some very difficult subjects, such as human
trafficking and forced marriages, which is a vital
first step in combating these issues. I praise the school and the Red Cross for putting together such an
informative, engaging day and would urge other schools to think about developing similar initiatives.”
GREEN DAY 2012: On 19 October,
Bassaleg school held its annual Green
Day in aid of the charity ‘The Size of Wales
Project’ and to further support our school’s
Eco Committee projects. During the day
students wore green instead of their school
uniform and made donations to this charity.
A number of events were held including a
green cake sale and a ‘guess the number
of bees in the bee hive’ competition.
Representatives from this charity have
since attended assemblies to further
promote the work and received a donation
from our students of £300.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: A
group of female Peer Educators from
Bassaleg School joined women from
Newport, and many others from all over the
world, in standing together to
demonstrate their desire to build bridges of
peace and hope for the future. The students
have been trained by the Red Cross to help
raise awareness of migration issues. The
‘Join Me on the Bridge’ event on 8 March,
was part of a global campaign for peace
and women’s equality and was this year’s
celebration of International Women’s Day.
The bridge event was the start of a day long
celebration of women at the Riverfront Arts
Centre. Singers, dancers and musicians
representing Newport’s many different
cultures and nationalities performed at the
event, which also included a photography
exhibition from young refugees, speeches
from some of the city’s remarkable women,
and international food. A ‘tree of hope’ was started to enable city people to write a message of peace.
The Peer Educators thoroughly enjoyed the day’s full events and were very impressed by some of
the guest speakers who were local dignitaries, including Vernesta Cyril OBE, Carmel Napier
the Chief Constable for Gwent Police, as well as Shahnaz Hakim (a women’s rights
campaigner from Afghanistan ).