International Mindedness

International Mindedness is being aware and having an understanding of everyone’s cultures and views whilst connecting with all members of the global community.

Here at Leigh Academy Horsmonden we try to have a deep understanding of the world around us as well as our local communities. We celebrate the different cultures and backgrounds of the children/families within our school community and encourage them to share these across the Leigh Academies Trust.

Throughout the year we participate and learn about different festivals and celebrations from a range of different countries to help our children immerse themselves within other cultures. As our inquiries are child led this allows pupil agency, which often intertwines with current events, personal holidays and/or family heritage, within the global community.

To further support the children’s understanding we include key events from different cultures into our weekly assemblies. In KS2, children also have the opportunity to look at updates in the news and discuss them as a class using programmes such as Newsround to support. 

We celebrate our Mother Tongue language through the ‘Language of the Month’ celebration in the class. We would welcome any pictures of different countries that people within our community have visited to display so as to help the children visualise what these locations are like. 
We currently learn French as our modern language subject. We have made a connection with our sister primary school called Chapita Primary School in Malawi. This amazing opportunity will allow our children an in-depth knowledge of how a primary school and their lifestyle in different countries are similar but also different to ours.