2020

You can’t go wrong when you mix children with paint. That’s what teachers did at two Sheppey primary schools to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi, also known as the Festival of Colour. Youngsters at West Minster Primary School in St George’s Avenue, Sheerness, and its sister site at Rose Street Primary School brightened up the timetable on February 11. At West Minster the whole school was treated to a dance workshop by Kalpesh Zalavadiyato of K’z Dance Entertainment.

St John’s CE Primary School in Tunbridge Wells held a very special ‘India Day’ recently for its Year 2 pupils. The school was visited by Kalpesh Zalavadiya from K’z Dance Entertainment Ltd for a Bollywood dance workshop. The children looked amazing in their brightly coloured clothing and really enjoyed dancing, henna painting and eating Indian sweets. April Shepard in Year 2 said: “I loved making the ladoos. The coconut smells very fresh and smells a bit like home-made cakes. I also liked doing Indian Bollywood Dancing. Once we had done two songs the man said to the mums and dads and uncles and aunties that they could come and dance with their child. It looked very hilarious. Plus we had Indian snacks in a cup-cake bowl while we were watching the Jungle Book. We had a brilliant India Day.”

WOW! What an amazing day the children had with Kalpesh Zalavadiya from K'z Dance Entertainment. The children experienced a day of learning Indian culture and festivals and dancing to a rigorous Bollywood dance routine where they learnt all the step and hand movements. It was a fabulous days full of Love, learning and laughter.

We had a truly uplifting day on Wednesday as Bollywood came to Haddon Dene. Kalpesh, our dance instructor, taught Years 1 to Year 6 a range of moves traditionally associated with Indian dance. Throughout the dance workshops, he punctuated his choreography lessons with tales of India so that the children gained a real appreciation of the culture and religion of this part of the world.

This week, all of Year 8 took part in Bollywood workshops. Each group learnt a Bollywood dance and then performed these on stage in the Roedean Theatre. Everyone involved gave an excellent performance and danced with lots of energy and enthusiasm. All the groups then joined together on stage to perform a short routine to Jai Ho – what was brilliant was that Kalpesh, the teacher who led the sessions, got everyone in the audience on the feet and joining too!