As a way of bringing all of the students together, a school assembly was arranged for Friday 30th September. The first part was for each class to perform a song to the rest of the school, which they had been given the whole of September to practise. My babies class performed first. The song I had prepared with them was 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands'. They became quite shy upon realising that they were being asked to perform in front of the rest of the school, and most did not sing, but they clapped their hands at the right points in the song! Each class was quite shy about singing, but they all did it, and we teachers were all proud of them.
Once all of the classes had performed, the school coordinator, Li, made presentations to the students with the highest attendance rates during September. Each of these students received a card with their name on, acknowledging their efforts to come to school and learn English, and also a small goody bag. This went down very well with the students, and I really believe will encourage them to continue attending regularly, or in other instances, to increase their attendate rates.
Li and the volunteer coordinator, Anna, confirmed that the holding of an assembly at the end of the month will become routine. I feel this is really great for the school, as it is an opportunity for all of the students to get together and be rewarded for their efforts, and will introduce some more structure into their school lives. I believe that reward has a stronger effect on the students than punishment, and think it's fantastic that the school are taking this positive approach.
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