Today, LJS has been quieter than usual as the entire school, children and adults alike, attempted to remain as silent as possible for the whole day. ‘Why? we hear you ask (or mouth silently in our case!)! Well, last week, Gloucester House led an assembly and introduced us to Helen from the charity Sense. Helen told us all about the work that the charity does to support those who are deafblind or who live with other complex disabilities. Helen also taught us how to offer or ask for help using British Sign Language or BSL. The Gloucester House Captains then told us that we were going to hold a whole school sponsored silence event to raise money for Sense, which is Gloucester’s chosen charity of the year.
Ms Crump’s assembly was a super start to the day and Mr Smith began by playing an intricate (but silent!) piano piece by John Cage. We all watched carefully as she communicated with us using pictures, gesture and signs. She taught us all how to sign ‘Good morning’ and we all joined in with a signed song, which two of our Year 6 boys led brilliantly. It was great fun and everyone concentrated really hard, as we followed the people on the video and the boys in the hall. The adults had been asked to bring a whiteboard and pen with them and Ms Crump challenged them to draw a picture by following her verbal instructions, which, it has to be said, were a little vague. They tried really hard and most of them ended up with a picture that looked a bit like the chick that Ms Crump showed us, although some of them were a bit wonky! It showed us all just how important it is to give clear instructions.
We can’t wait to learn how much money we have raised for Sense!