BSB Shunyi celebrates Unity Week 2024

“On 18th September to 21st September, BSB Shunyi celebrated Unity Week, embracing the diversity of cultures and nationalities that make up our community. Through attending a school like ours, students cultivate intercultural competence, understanding the power of diversity. We encourage our students to be proud of their identities and cultural backgrounds, while also acknowledging that there are many ways of being in the world. Diversity is our school's superpower! The focus of Unity Week, leading up to International Day on Saturday 21st September, is not what separates us, but how we are united in our cultural and national diversity.” - Mr. Bevan Graham, Vice Principal.

National Dress-Up Day
On Friday 20th September, students were invited t o showcase their heritage by wearing their National dress or colours representing their respective countries. Students and staff looked great and it was a wonderful celebration of the many different cultures we have in school.

Primary Learning Activities

The week has been a fantastic celebration for our community and showed that this is truly the Year of Belonging. Every year group learned about different countries and enjoyed seeing the presentations and videos the amazing Parents’ and Teachers’ Association (PTA) had created. We learnt about the history of many countries, their food, facts about their country and much more. We also spent the day doing lots of fun activities about lots of different countries and enjoyed learning more about places our classmates come from. 

A highlight for many of our students was also the delicious food we got to sample from the country each year group was studying. The care and attention that the PTA put into creating a yummy culinary experience for everyone was very appreciated. These photos were just a few examples of  the many more food that was prepared by our PTA.

The PTA also arranged incredible assemblies for us and we were wowed by the performances we saw. We had a Chinese puppet show and a song and dance from the USA that was choreographed by the students themselves! Our German Primary School sang a brilliant song and it was lovely seeing students from all the GPS classes. There was a fantastic performance from Brazil where our youngest Brazilian students worked with some of the oldest in Secondary and sang a lovely song. We had the honour of seeing Dudu, a Year 9 student perform a moving Indian Bharatanatyam dance that captivated us all. We enjoyed hearing Year 8 Aditi who introduced us about Indian culture. A huge thank you to all the parents involved in our amazing assemblies today. 

Secondary Learning Activities
In Secondary, we have been proudly celebrating Unity Week with a variety of activities that bring our community together. Here are some highlights across the different year groups:

Year 7 students embraced the theme of unity by sharing aspects of their cultures with one another. As part of an activity, they created posters displaying the diversity of many nations. Inside a circle, they drew flags of different countries, wrote words in various languages, and included images of famous landmarks alongside messages of unity.

Year 8 students were introduced to the school’s focus on “Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB)”. They participated in developing a mission statement centred on these values, with a selection process underway to appoint student "champions" who will promote EDIB within the school. An inspiring highlight of this session was a video call with Nigerian educator Abraham Moses, who spoke about the barriers to education faced by many youth in his country and the work his charitable organization does to help. His words encouraged students to reflect on how they can contribute to fostering inclusivity at BSB.

Year 9 students participated in insightful discussions about global poverty, exchanging ideas and learning from their peers and teachers through fact-based explorations.

In Key Stage 4 Year 10 and 11, Unity Week focused on Peace-Building, with students researching unfamiliar cultures or countries and presenting their findings to their peers. They also created A1 posters showcasing the diversity of their form groups.

IB DP students took a lead role in organizing the school’s upcoming Halloween event. Under the guidance of the Student Events Committee, they worked in teams focusing on finance, communication, and aesthetics to ensure the event would be a memorable experience for the BSB community, celebrating unity through collaborative efforts.

Unity Week has truly been an enriching experience, fostering a deeper sense of connection and belonging throughout the school.

Click here to read about our International Day event on Saturday 21st September, where the whole BSB community was invited to come and celebrate.