Further Development of the IGC Award at MBIS

[Jacqui Garib]

At MBIS the IGC students have been undertaking further activities as follows:

1) Fund-raising Charity Day

The IGC Students planned and implemented a fund-raising charity day at MBIS.  They set up a variety of stalls for students and parents to purchase home-made cakes and lemonade, second-hand goods and home-made arts/crafts.  We also had a "Mufti Day" where students paid a voluntary contribution to come to school in non-uniform.  The total raised was just over 10,000 Egyptian Pounds (around 1000 Pounds Sterling).  This was a great achievement that the IGC Students were rightly very proud of.  They worked very hard and this first-hand experience of raising money was very valuable.  They made most of the decisions and arrangements independently of adults, working in small teams.  The students themselves will now decide on how to donate the money raised.

 

2) Visit to Orphanage and Community Research

The IGC students visited a local orphanage for babies and toddlers.  This orphanage is supported by "HUG", a charity that is run by one of the MBIS parents.  The students were visibly moved by the sight of 24 children without a real family.  We stayed for a couple of hours to play games and read books to the children.  The orphans are Egyptians and so the challenge was to communicate with them when they don't speak English.  It was amazing to see how the IGC students succeeded in doing so!

Additionally some representatives from local charity/community groups have visited the IGC students to talk about their work. 

 

3) Development of IGC diaries

Each IGC student was given a diary to record all the IGC activities at the beginning of the Award.  It has been pleasing to see how these diaries have really developed, with students focusing less on "what we did" and more on "what we have learnt". 

 

4) International Week

In March all students participated in a week of activities, aiming to develop appreciation of different cultures.  There were a variety of things they did, including cooking, art, dance, poetry and geography. 

 

5) Reading a book about a different country/culture

All IGC students have been asked to read a book and put a book review into their diaries, focusing on what the book has taught them about a different country or culture.

 

6) Final project/presentation

As we are approaching the end of MBIS Clubs time and indeed the end of the academic year, students have been asked to prepare a final project/presentation to summarise their involvement in the IGC Award.  These will be presented to members of staff as well as other students.

 

This has been our first attempt at the IGC Award at MBIS.  It has been a valuable learning experience for all of us.  We hope to offer the Award in the next academic year and build upon the successes of this year as well as seeing where we could improve it.