Maria Fidelis 'I want to go to college'

Hello friends!

Today we played a game called 'I want to go to college'. We read different cards about different scenarios and how hard it can be for children to go to school over there. One of them read 'Soliders went into the school in the morning; the army closed the school'. Another one said 'Soldiers threw tear gas into our playground so they shut the school'.

We were wondering if this ever happened in your school or on your way to school. Does it? How often? How do you cope? 

Jessica, Holly, Saffron and Mia.

Maria Fidelis Lunch Club

Hi UNRWA Girls School,


We're from Maria Fidelis, a Catholic school (that used to be an all girls school) located in North Gower Street, Camden, London.

We are four girls and one boy, ages 12-14 (some of the people have changed from last year): Jessica (writing this), Holly, Saffron, Mia and Philip. Phillip isn't here because he's part of our Gospel Choir and there's a trip to Westminster Cathedral for them, the mother Church of the Catholic Church in Victoria. 

Our school is split into two buildings. We're in the lower school, which is year 7 to year 10 (but the year 10 pupils cross over to the other building, which is the upper school). The upper school (year 10 to year 13) is right next to Euston station, the sixth busiest railway station in the UK. 

When I was in year 7 (2 years ago) the school used to be an all girls school, but they changed it so that now boys can attend as well D: Luckily, the boys aren't in my year, but they are in years 7 and 8. Soon there will be boys in all the years. Year 10 started coming this year in September because the upper school is getting knocked down and rebuilt. It's already cramped down here and by the time the building is done, we'll already be gone! 

Our years are divided into classes but we call them form groups. In year 7 and year 8 there are 5 classes (7A, 7C, 7F, 7L and 7W. For year 8 just replace 7 with 8. We don't know what the letters stand for) and the other year groups only have 4 classes. In year 7 and 8 they have form tutors, which are teachers that talk to you about any problems you might have.

We study the core subjects (English, Maths and Science), humanities (History, Geography and Religious Education), technology (Food Tech, Design Technology, Textiles), Modern Foreign Languages (French, Spanish, German) and non-core subjects (Art and Design, Music, Drama, Computer Science, ICT, Dance, Physical Education, Latin). 

We also have taster sessions for our GCSEs: Sociology, Media Studies, Health and Social care. I took a computer club about a device called a Raspberry Pi, which we used to write programs and find mutations in DNA for Cancer Research UK. In April there's a project called the Interfaith Project where different schools of different religions join together, build a robot and program it that I'm joining.

Now here are our questions for you!

What do you study?
What are your favourite subjects?
What extra curricular activities are available (clubs)?
How long are your holidays? When are they?
What does your uniform look like (if you have one)?Feel free to ask us questions too :3

 

News from the girls at LSU club

Hi Abu Dis Girls school,

I want to present to you everyone in our LSU club:

Hello, my name is Sorcha and I am 16 years old. I am currently studying four subjects for my AS levels, English Literature, Theology, Art and Politics. I enjoy spending my free time with my friends.

Hi, my name is Lucy. I go to LaSwap college and I study History and Politics. I'm 17 years old. I enjoy cooking, reading and watching TV.

Hello, my name is Saoirse and I am 16 years old. I am studying English Literature, Classics, History and Politics for my AS Levels at college. I like to eat and bake brownies and read about History.

Hello, my name is Zainab. I am 17 years old. I am from Yemen, Sana'a. My first language is Arabic. I go to LaSwap college. I am really enjoying it. I study History, Politics and Arabic for my AS levels. My hobbies are playing football, swimming, painting and listening to music. I enjoy eating ice-cream.


1. We want to learn: - About the history in Palestine in general. Are your hobbies/activities different to ours?


2. The biggest attractions in London for tourists are Big Ben and the London Eye. Also you can enjoy watching football matches at North London's two biggest clubs Arsenal and Tottenham football stadiums. As there is a wide variety of cultures in London, you can enjoy any food from around the world in one city.

News from our palestinian friends

I am Siham Arikat and I am 16 years old. I study in Abu Dis secondary school for Girls. 

In this letter I will introduce you to this school where I study. It is a school for girls only starting at the 5^th grade and finishing in the 12^th grade. For me, it is the best school in all of Palestine. The first thing is the teaching: every year girls come out of my school with very good grades. Teachers make every effort to understand the student’s issues. It is not only the teachers but the director is also keen to do the best for the school. Not only in upholding the schools rules but also getting the most out of the students, for example, when a student’s grades drop below her average the director will call her parents to find out why.

The students at my school are also nice. It is beautiful because we girls are like family and discuss many things that we study and always work together beautifully and wonderfully. I have just spoken briefly about my school and I am finished. Oh the good fortune of a lesson in school!

I hope to hear more about your school in the near future.

With greetings,

Siham Arikat

Child Prisoners Demonstration

Hello Everyone!

Here are some photos from our demonstration on Saturday 7th March. The choice of location proved successful as we were able to inform several young people of the next youth visit in June.

The demonstration was a new experience for me, my first CADFA public event. It gave me a chance to publicise the current situation in Palestine. A large majority of the people I spoke to were unaware. I was able to explain why I am involved in CADFA and having spent time with people from Palestine, I have heard first hand their experiences. 

We were joined by some new volunteers for our campaign - we are beginning to attract the interest of young people! 

Oonagh: I felt like I was a part of the cause and I was doing something about the issue of child prisoners in Palestine.

Ryan: I felt happy that I was taking action and helping to bring about positive change for the world.

Bea: As it was my first experience working with CADFA I was unsure of what to expect. I had always been interested in the cause so to actively partake was really good. Although the signs may not have attracted the attention intended, I feel like the amount of leaflets handed out and positive feedback from members of the public is helping to bring a positive change. 

Saoirse, Oonagh and Ryan holding posters reflecting

 the stories of young people in Palestine.

Saoirse and Lucy helping 

to make the posters.

Oonagh holding up her finished poster.

Ryan handing out leaflets informing 

of the situation in Palestine.

Lucy, Saoirse, Oonagh and myself (Sorcha) 

making the posters.

Sorcha Fletcher

Maria Fidelis New Group

Hello youth friends!

We are so happy to write again about Maria Fidelis School. Some weeks ago, Fiona (the art teacher) and ourselves tried to build up a new group to continue with the Human Rights Lunch Club.

Yesterday, we started with some new girls, some of them were involved last year in the lunch time. We talked about blogs, the Palestine situation and the next youth visit. Dunja explained everything about the drama group, and how they can join the project and the sessions. We are sure that they will have a good time with people from Palestine in June and also with other young people from London.

I think, they were happy to be involved in Cadfa, to learn about Palestine and enjoy all the activities which we are preparing! I hope to see you next week!

Emilio Sanchez.

EVS Volunteer

Child prisoners Campaign

Hello.

We want to invite you to the orgnisation meeting for CADFA's child prisoners demonstration in Regents Park. The meeting will take place on Friday 6th March at 3:30pm to 4:30pm at the CADFA office in Kentish Town. On Saturday 7th March there will be a demonstration in Regents Park from 1:00pm to 2:00pm. We will meet outside Regents Park tube station at 12:30pm.

Hope to see you all there!

Dunja, Sorcha and Emilio

Around our school

Our school, La Sainte Union is in the north of London. It is near Hampstead Heath, which is a big park here in London.

Aida, Naima, Zainab and Saoirse in front of La Sainte Union. We are all students here and we are all 16 to 17. We study subjects like History, English, Biology, Maths, Politics, Classics, Chemistry and many others.

Aida, Lucy, Zainab and Saoirse

La Sante Union is near Highgate Road, a typical busy London street.

We all use buses a lot, to get to school and around London.

I want to go to college

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

 Hi friends!

In the last session in LSU school we played a game call 'I want to go to the college' with the students. The game had been made with some other EVS volunteers in the past. We want to say 'thank you' for making it, because it is a really useful tool learn about  Palestinian issues.

The games is quite easy to play, we have a board with different boxes. You throw the dice and you move your peice forward the number in the dice. If your box has a question mark you pick up a card. All the cards are in the middle of the board. If your card has a positive answer about the school you can advance one box more, but if your card has a bad thing like the difficulties which the Palestinian students find every day, you should go back one box.

Example: 'I found my favourite book in the library' +1  ; ' The Israeli soldiers throw tier gas to the school' -1 The winner is thw first to arrive at the end of the board.

At the end of the game we talked about different topics in Palestine like the problems which the students have every day in the school: checkpoints, problems with soldiers,tear gas, etc.

Emilio Sanchez.

EVS Volunteer