Red Nose Day
Planning phase:
During May, my grades allocated English reader introduced Red Nose Day to the class. Our Chinese coworkers had never heard of this charity event, but the mention created a fantastic nostalgic effect amongst my ex-pat peers and myself. So we decided to attempt to implement it into our curriculum to make a difference!
I laid out the formal plan and groundwork that would be needed to pull off this event. We encountered a few roadblocks along the way but have successfully started the event.
Initially, we planned for the event to occur on the 27th of May as that is Red Nose Day, but the complications that arose forced us to delay the event. We had a lot of red tape to overcome, with feedback loops being slow and handling translations of all documents having to be done with each change.
The first major hurdle to our plan was getting all the various departments in the school to get on board. This includes all the Domestic and International classes (grades 1 through 12) to maximize reach. To accomplish this and avoid backlash, I took my idea directly to the schools’ owner with the help of my direct manager.
The second hurdle was the charity itself. The research on Red Nose day for our introduction noted that the contributions get used in America mostly, which wasn’t going to be allowed given current local tension. So we were tasked with finding a different local charity that we could use, and equally difficult process.
We managed to decide and get approval for a local Special Needs school. With this, we set our date to the 4th of June and tied the event in Children’s Day on the 1st.
Start this thing:
With all the steps in place, we launched the activity. I created documentation for the various school teachers to track funds, linked information and got the ESL departments to introduce Red Nose Day to the students. We have a reach of over 6000 students who will potentially take part, hoping for the best!
The layout of our activity is structured as such:
Students can buy a ticket for 10rmb
This gets them a ticket that they can trade for a red clown nose (original cost of 1.50rmb without discount for bulk purchase that we’re trying to arrange)
On the 4th, we will take the class lists, documenting how many noses each class bought and which students bought them and deliver the noses.
The exception will be for the 1st-grade students. Our students are K2, so they will graduate to the 1st grade in June; we will be setting up stands for the grade 1’s to trade their tickets personally for the noses. This is an exercise to help our K2 students meet their seniors, connect with friends who graduated last year and link the whole activity to our grade plans.
After the 4th, we will take a student from each class, the principals and headteachers involved to deliver the donation personally. I have been asked to prepare a short group class/game to interact constructively with the students at the special needs academy and help create a sense of community.
For this, I will work together with the teachers at this school to plan an appropriate activity!
I look forward to coming back to this post and adding the conclusion!
The official report
A little thing goes a long way.
An insight to Xiwai International Kindergartens Red Nose Day activity
As teachers, we are in a position of great importance. We are here to inspire, educate and provide the structures young learners need for their future. Our K2 foreign teachers were hit with a strong sense of nostalgia during a staff meeting as we looked into May's reading materials.
Our oxford reader introduced Red Nose Day to our classes. This charity event made a lasting impact on our childhoods, which pushed us to share the experience.
Planning this event had now begun.
After pitching our idea forward to the principal and getting permission, we approached the domestic ESL department for help. Ambitiously we decided to include the entire school in our activity.
The goal being for our students to learn a sense of community as they approached graduation. The ESL department assisted us by teaching about Red Nose Day alongside their standard curriculum, while the K2 classes did the same.
We chose to sell red clown noses to our students. We were charging 10rmb for one nose, with all the proceeds going towards helping a special needs school in our community.
The initial response was excellent! The students at Xiwai showed great interest and support in the event. Our top donators were in Grade 1, Shaun and Tina, and Grade 2, Sting, with a total of 700rmb between them!
Our activity fell together with children's day, so our principals suggested we plan a fun day for our students to further the activities. We decided to have our K2 student's host games for the Grade 1 students who donated. Thus, bringing our classes together with the previous year's graduates.
Our K2 teachers prepared a fantastic event! K2's classes were getting together to organise games, decorations and festivities for the Grade 1's. We set up different stations with our K2 classes helping teachers manage games and play with our guests. The Grade 1's had a fantastic day, helping create a memorable experience that will hopefully encourage them to share happiness in the future as well. We invited our K1 classes to join in and celebrate and share the sense of joy even further. The entire school got together to support our cause, and what a fantastic experience it has been to be involved. We managed to raise 15660rmb to donate to the special needs school successfully.
The outreach did not end with Red Nose Day. There was one final step for us to take. We had arranged to share the happiness with those we planned to help. Working alongside the principal and teachers at this school, we managed to schedule a class with the wonderful students.
We were welcomed to the school by the principal and headteacher. They gave us an introduction to the students at their school and all the difficulties they face. Their insights and care were clear, and they reaffirmed the meaning behind our activity. This school does terrific work helping these special students to the best of their ability. They gave us a tour of the campus and introduced us to a few different grades. We were allowed to provide a special English class for one of their Grade 7 classes. In the spirit of Red Nose Day, I planned a class themed around emotions. Using this opportunity to spread smiles, make the students laugh and create a sense of warmth. The students in this wonderful class responded well to the course, laughing and participating as we progressed.
This excellent last step rounded out four weeks of careful planning, organisation and teamwork. Our K2 teachers worked hard and made a meaningful impact.
I look forward to Red Nose Day next year. Hopefully, we can make it an even greater time now that everyone understands the event's meaning!
A special thanks to our principals, Dr Lin and Lucy, for supporting our event, the ESL department for helping get the activity off the ground and all the K2 Teachers for the hard work!
