Pupils sing to celebrate the world (From Watford Observer)
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Pupils from Bushey and Oxhey Infant School sing to celebrate Multicultural Week
4:00pm Friday 15th February 2013 in News By Kathryn Snowdon, Reporter
Pupils sing to celebrate the world
Children from Bushey and Oxhey Infant School celebrated Multicultural Week on Wednesday by taking part in a special assembly and performing different songs from around the world.
The morning concert began at the school in Aldenham Road at 9.45am and lasted for half an hour, with about 180 children participating.
All week, pupils have been trying out different food and dressing up in outfits from various countries.
Head teacher, Sharon McGregor, said: "We think it is important that children are aware of the world around them."
The school has also had a lot of parents come in to share their own traditions and cultures with the pupils.
Mrs McGregor said that, as the children come from a number of different backgrounds, she feels it is important that it this is celebrated.
Comments(33)
Roy Stockdill
says...
9:58pm Fri 15 Feb 13
Why are our children being indoctrinated by this left-wing fascist nonsense and why are they not being taught about indigenous British culture instead of the miscegenation crap from everywhere?
NoMorePlease
says...
10:20pm Fri 15 Feb 13
Left wing fascist nonsense, laughable, any decent person would applaud something like this
LSC
says...
12:23pm Sat 16 Feb 13
I just went to the shops and had a chat with the Sri Lankans who work in the local supermarket (we had a laugh about how badly this country copes with a little snow- they said we should try Monsoon season for real disruption), I opened a door for a lady in a Bhurka, had my car washed by some cheerful Eastern Europeans, and saw my mate in the newsagents from Afghanistan where we chatted about Watford getting promotion.
When I got home I was rung by a call centre in India.
In fact, I haven't interacted with an English-born person all day. Was it a bad morning for that so far? Not at all, it has been very pleasant, and tonight I'll get a Chinese take away from my local guys from Hong Cong who always give me free prawn crackers despite the fact I beg them not to because if I wanted the them I'd have ordered them in the first place.
my point is, there is a snapshot of a day in the life of LSC. It is multicultural by nature. Why have a special week and force it down people's throats?
Roy Stockdill
says...
1:06pm Sat 16 Feb 13
The point is that those who wish to live among us should become British and think of themselves as British, which should come naturally to them given time. As you rightly say, why do we have to have all this multicultural garbage thrust down our throats? It is happening and we accept it, but we don't want it thrown in our faces all the time.
Primary schoolchildren should be taught British history and the fact that in Elizabeth and Victorian times this country was the greatest nation on earth, which is why we are so democratic and ready to welcome them all.
Personally, I deplore the banal, stilted jargon of political correctness. The problem seems to be that too many teachers spend their lives reading the Guardian!
NoMorePlease
says...
11:44pm Sat 16 Feb 13
We subjugated nations to build an empire. That is the history
John Dowdle
says...
2:10am Sun 17 Feb 13
I would never use it myself - it has a very troubled historical usage, I believe.
To cite Wikipedia: 'Today, the use of the phrase is considered outdated and offensive.'
Source: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Miscegenati
on
Roy Stockdill
says...
7:29am Sun 17 Feb 13
I see nothing to be ashamed of in the way our ancestors built the British Empire. For such a small country to end up controlling around a quarter of the world was an incredible achievement. It wasn't just that we had the most powerful armies and a superb navy, it was that we had fantastic engineers, builders and entrepreneurs who took extraordinary risks to drive roads and railways through jungles and build bridges and canals that brought trade and prosperity. To those countries we took under our wing we left them generally in a far better and more prosperous state than they were in before. We left them with stable government, democracy, a civil service, the rule of law, economic stability - pity much of it got thrown away when we granted them independence!
If Britain has such a dreadful record of colonialism, how come so many foreigners are clamouring to come and live here today? It makes me cross when I see barmy teachers running down our history and denigrating the achievements of our ancestors and preaching instead the dubious cult of so-called multiculturalism which even people like Trevor Phillips has admitted hasn't worked.
John Dowdle
says...
11:22am Sun 17 Feb 13
This is why I am an unashamed supporter of universal human rights and I am also prepared to accept that Britain has not always exercised a positive effect on world affairs.
The mess left behind in India and Pakistan - as well as in Palestine - has created a legacy of death and hatred of a truly monumental scale. We should not puff ourselves up too much when assessing the claimed achievements of the era of Empire.
Roy Stockdill
says...
11:40am Sun 17 Feb 13
As you know, I am not a particularly great fan of human rights - well, not in democratic countries like Britain where just about every conceivable situation is already covered by some law or other. The Human Rights Act was one of those pieces of legislation that seemed like a good idea at the time but, as so often with legislation, grew and grew until it became an all-encompassing octopus. Courts and judges now seem more concerned with the supposed human rights of foreign criminal scum more than they do with the rights of victims - something which Theresa May says she is going to address. We shall see!
I don't see that we can be blamed entirely for the situation in the Middle East. The Jews and Arabs would have fought one another anyway, just as the two lots of Irish do!
Roy Stockdill
says...
11:41am Sun 17 Feb 13
As you know, I am not a particularly great fan of human rights - well, not in democratic countries like Britain where just about every conceivable situation is already covered by some law or other. The Human Rights Act was one of those pieces of legislation that seemed like a good idea at the time but, as so often with legislation, grew and grew until it became an all-encompassing octopus. Courts and judges now seem more concerned with the supposed human rights of foreign criminal scum more than they do with the rights of victims - something which Theresa May says she is going to address. We shall see!
I don't see that we can be blamed entirely for the situation in the Middle East. The Jews and Arabs would have fought one another anyway, just as the two lots of Irish do!
John Dowdle
says...
2:56pm Sun 17 Feb 13
When Gandhi was asked about Western civilization, he said he thought it would be a very good idea - a polite way of saying that it had not yet emerged at that time.
Some might ask "Has it since?"
Roi De Bouchenoire
says...
8:51pm Sun 17 Feb 13
My generation grew up to respect those who have passed away in the great wars, but never forced to accept responsibility for what happened before we were born, rather to understand why it happened and try to imagine a way to stop it happening again.
My wedding photograph is testament to what happens when people refuse to listen to these trough-nosed, ar$ewipe politicians, and get on with their lives.....My guests were a mix of Kenyans,Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, French,French Guyanan, Indian, Sri Lankan and even a couple of drunken Pakistanis, Americans, Jamaicans, Italian,Jocks, Taffys and Micks and even a few English..........All having a great time together....without having to 'be told to' by the totalitarian neo-fascist quasi government of the time....
As someone said in a previous post.... Multicultural lifetime.... I tend to just live and let live....
Roi De Bouchenoire
says...
8:55pm Sun 17 Feb 13
Roi De Bouchenoire
says...
9:01pm Sun 17 Feb 13
Roy Stockdill
says...
9:07pm Sun 17 Feb 13
This country has become a multicultural nation, whether some of us like it or not, but we don't have to go on and on about it, do we, having it forced down our throats all the time by the commissars of political correctness and the Orwellian Thought Police? Not to mention the Gay brigade and their political propaganda.
Roi De Bouchenoire
says...
11:10pm Sun 17 Feb 13
I have freinds of every race and creed imaginable and they know where I'm coming from too....
I have seen changes in Watford from the point of view of an immigrant....
I remember when the demograph of Whippendell Road was predominantly Irish and Italian and English and every house was tidy, hanging baskets and well kept front gardens and local women and men would be seen every evening sweeping litter from the public footpath outside their houses..... Then the demograph changed, where a hell of a lot of the houses were bought by Pakistanis and every spare room rented and good family sized houses turned into bedsits and it was more likely to see an old ripped out bathroom suite in the front garden instead of flowers and the litter everywhere..... then as the Pakistani's had made the money, they moved to the Cassiobury and rented their houses to Polish, at first, then to Somalians....living in squalid conditions with 15 doorbells on each front door.... all requiring benefits and education and local authority housing ...
The houses on Whippy were never designed to accommodate 20 people, nor were the sewers, as a quick drive past Zebs to Harwoods road would testify in summer months.... Instead we have politicons on every side, appeasing those who cannot be placated, furthermore spending our taxes on quangos that tell our kids that we must allow the Third World to systematically outnumber and destroy us, from the safety of their ivory towers.......
In hindsight, I should have bought a camcorder and done a daily diary.....
Just think of the money the government could save by closing the quango and associated industry that had started up around the human rights of these alien cultures....
I end my rant...
Roi De Bouchenoire
says...
11:31pm Sun 17 Feb 13
And whilst Dorothy Mugabe is busy throwing cash at certain immigrant groups to keep them sweet.... community schemes etc, she has yet to apply to County to get the sewers upgraded along Whippendell Road to cope with the most basic needs of her electorate......
We are screwed...... rant over until I think of something else that's just plain wrong in our buzzing overspill metropolis....
Watch this space.....
Roi De Bouchenoire
says...
12:40am Mon 18 Feb 13
Roy Stockdill wrote:'Napoleonic' ......
Of course we subjugated other nations to build the British empire. But it was a benevolent empire on the whole, compared to those that went before it and after - the Roman empire, Greek, Austro-Hungarian, Napoleon, Nazism, Communism, etc.
I see nothing to be ashamed of in the way our ancestors built the British Empire. For such a small country to end up controlling around a quarter of the world was an incredible achievement. It wasn't just that we had the most powerful armies and a superb navy, it was that we had fantastic engineers, builders and entrepreneurs who took extraordinary risks to drive roads and railways through jungles and build bridges and canals that brought trade and prosperity. To those countries we took under our wing we left them generally in a far better and more prosperous state than they were in before. We left them with stable government, democracy, a civil service, the rule of law, economic stability - pity much of it got thrown away when we granted them independence!
If Britain has such a dreadful record of colonialism, how come so many foreigners are clamouring to come and live here today? It makes me cross when I see barmy teachers running down our history and denigrating the achievements of our ancestors and preaching instead the dubious cult of so-called multiculturalism which even people like Trevor Phillips has admitted hasn't worked.
Keine weiteren warnungen entweder gegeben oder impliziert werden....
nur zurücklehnen und denken England!
die grammatik nazi schlägt wieder zu....
John Dowdle
says...
5:38am Mon 18 Feb 13
Time you went back to the war games?
Roy Stockdill
says...
11:01am Mon 18 Feb 13
It's so easy to blame European imperialism and colonialism for the troubles of Africa and the rest of the Third World, isn't it.
However, could I point out that they don't HAVE to fight one another and murder those they don't like just because they belong to a different tribe!!! The opposing sides in the religious conflict in Ireland are not forced by us to fight each other, either, but they do!
Why should it be held to be our fault if the less civilised of this world want to kill each other?
LSC
says...
11:58am Mon 18 Feb 13
People don't like to talk about it, but many African slaves were sold to the west by rival tribes who captured them. The 'white men' simply waited at the ports and a constant stream was delivered.
Similarly, most of the 'oppressed' in South Africa under aparthied weren't even native South African. They were economic migrants from the rest of Africa hoping to take advantage of the fact the 'modern world' knew how to dig up diamonds etc. Was that the British Empire's fault?
I'm not defending arparthied, which simply means: 'Separate developement' it was a daft idea that could never work, but not really that sinister, a bit like communism.
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:12pm Mon 18 Feb 13
These facts are conveniently ignored by the Far Left who like to blame Britain and other colonial nations for everything. It's also forgotten that while Britain did participate in the slave trade, it was also we who ended it, whereas in America it took another 30-odd years and 600,000 dead and injured in their civil war to end slavery.
garston tony
says...
2:40pm Mon 18 Feb 13
People like you help create or keep rifts open, multicultural events helps bring people together.
Celebrating other cultures and getting to know about other cultures doesn’t equate to believing our own culture should second to them or that we are somehow apologising for something that happened in the past. That’s just at best ignorance or at worst scare mongering.
Roi, you may be open to people of different cultures and faiths and lifestyle choices but too many people arent. Seriously what is wrong with our children learning about other cultures. Just today on the news we're told our PM is in India trying to boost trade and form closer ties? Why? Because that country in the next few years is going to be one of the biggest economies in the world and yet Belgium has more trade with it than we do! Even if you leave aside the aspect that it is interesting to learn about the world about you we need the generations of the future to not have the bias that exists in our own culture otherwise we're the ones going to be living in a third world culture before this century is out.
Roy Stockdill
says...
2:52pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Roy Stockdill
says...
3:15pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Wherever in the world kids come from, now that they are here they should be taught BRITISH culture and BRITISH history, otherwise they will grow up knowing nothing of their adopted land. For instance, I wonder how many primary schools have been telling pupils about the discovery of the remains of Richard III beneath a car park in Leicester, which is one of the most fascinating and enthralling stories of recent times? Maybe they have, but I tend to doubt it somehow.
How can we trust teachers to teach proper history when surveys reveal that the great majority of young people seemingly think Churchill is a dog that sells insurance? !!!
John Dowdle
says...
8:45pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Roy complains that children think Churchill is a dog who sells insurance because that is what they see on the telly. Of course, children will think in that way.
Winston Churchill is hardly mentioned these days. To most youngsters, his contribution to British history is - to their minds - ancient history.
I can just imagine Roy's reaction and his fulminating outrage when he read the results of the Churchill survey!
For those of us who are older, we are all aware of Churchill's splendid record as a war-time leader but we are also aware that the British electorate rejected Churchill as a peace-time leader in 1945.
It would be an interesting history project for children to examine the reasons why Churchill enjoyed such considerable popularity during World Ward Two but ended up being rejected in 1945.
Another touching example around Churchill could also be viewing footage of his state funeral in 1965, when East End dockers lowered their crane jibs in tribute to the body of the great man - a tribute much in keeping with the best traditions of British culture and history.
However, those of an even older generation will also be aware that Churchill is also well known for his disastrous plans in invading Gallipoli which led to useless slaughter and in his giving orders to British Army troops to shoot down striking miners in South Wales.
There are many other aspects to Churchill's conduct and behaviour which would today be considered totally unacceptable.
As with much else, British history and culture is a very mixed bag.
Some of it is creditable but some of it is highly questionable and many of today's trouble spots around the world have clear British finger prints on them.
The essential point about teaching history is to try - as far as possible - to teach the truth, though that is not always easily discernible.
To me, British culture is very simple: it is based largely around individual freedom, the rule of law and the right to be able to speak and act - within reason - in any way we want to.
It is what enriches our society and makes this such an attractive part of the world to live in, a fact recognised by the fact that so many people from other parts of the world want to live here.
Leaving behind religious oppression, however unchallenging we may find it, is almost certainly one reason why large numbers of Irish and Polish origin people - among others - have wanted to move here and live here for the rest of their lives.
That is true cultural recognition, I think?
LSC
says...
9:49pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Do Bangladeshi children eat fish and chips and watch Eastenders as a school project? Are there kids in Kenya having a Lancashire Hot Pot (sorry Roy) and writing an essay on it?
Are there hell.
John Dowdle
says...
10:33pm Mon 18 Feb 13
I imagine that British involvement in other countries is taught but it may well not be very positive.
I believe most Chinese are aware of British involvement in their history, which principally included acting as drug pushers - which undermined Chinese society - and led to the Opium Wars, which Britain won, using superior military technology.
All Palestinians and many others in the Arab world are aware of the 1917 Balfour Declaration and all the problems and bloodshed that led to.
In most other countries, Britain is viewed as a former imperialist power which declined from the beginning of the last century and is today a mere shadow of its former self.
We are no longer important on the world stage. Many people around the world see Britain as America's poodle, particularly after Tony Blair's uncritical support of George Bush in supporting the invasion of Iraq.
I think we need to focus on our own society and on supporting what makes it best. To be honest, I do not much care how other people around the world perceive us these days.
What is important is how we perceive ourselves now and how we perceive ourselves as evolving in the future.
Roy Stockdill
says...
4:20am Tue 19 Feb 13
I can remember not that long ago when we won only one gold medal (Tessa Sanderson in the javelin in, I think, Atlanta). Look at the incredible total we won last summer, especially by our fantastic cyclists who quite simply dominate the world in their sport.
Rightly or wrongly, nations are admired and respected for their sporting prowess above most other things. Perhaps Britain has found a new niche to replace the old colonial power?
Without getting into any debate about Winston Churchill and what he did right and what he did wrong, you made an interesting point when you mentioned the dignified way his funeral was conducted. I can just about remember as a boy the funeral of George VI which was conducted in an equally dignified manner, which always used to be the British way of coping with death. Contrast this with the hysteria that greeted the death of Princess Diana from people who never knew her. I'm afraid that is one of the things younger generations are responsible for, the way we now seem to cope with death as an outpouring of vicarious grief.
garston tony
says...
8:49am Tue 19 Feb 13
Roy, it wasn’t being chucked down your throat. This is a school and unless I'm very much mistaken your school days are well and truly over! And just because kids are taught about other cultures doesn’t mean they arent taught about our own. It is possible to do both you know!
In this day and age the world is an ever shrinking one and if this country is going to do well it has to trade and get along with other nations (we cant just sent a gun boat anymore and take what we want) and the only way we can do that successfully is by knowing them better. But within our own nation there are tensions between different cultures because of ignorance, learning about other cultures removes that ignorance and moves us towards a future where we can truly be one society.
JD I also find it funny that Roy mentions Churchill seeing as he was 50% American and therefore a great, if not the greatest, example of multiculturism at work in this country.
LSC, actually I've been to many a school in third world countries where they learn about good old Blighty. They might not watch Eastenders but they learn about our history and Royal family and our government. The British colonial experience for many nations wasn’t a totally positive one (understatement of the day) but we are still looked upon quite favouribly by many around the world.
Roy Stockdill
says...
10:30am Tue 19 Feb 13
She was also, of course, notoriously promiscuous and perhaps it was her unconventional and strong personality that made Churchill the man he was. Perhaps this sort of history is still being taught in our schools but I tend to doubt it. I wonder how many kids have even heard of Richard III, even if they've learned from the news that he's been found (supposedly, I still have my doubts) under a car park in Leicester?
From what I read about youngsters today many of them seem to know very little about anything except The X Factor, Big Brother, pop singers that nobody else has heard of and the latest video game. How many of them know what happened at Hastings, Agincourt, Crecy, Trafalgar and Waterloo? The evidence I read about suggests that even cleverer kids who go to university, instead of studying history, English, mathematics, the classics and sciences are taking up Mickey Mouse degrees like sociology and media studies because they want to become teachers or social workers and read The Guardian!
garston tony
says...
2:04pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Of course, if you had your way Churchill wouldnt have been allowed to be PM and we'd all be speaking German as a first language now
Roy Stockdill says...
9:37pm Fri 15 Feb 13