Just before the half-term break, each class in Chevening chose a favoured book to send on a 6,000 mile journey to our friends in St. Peter and St Paul's School in Kondoa, Tanzania. Like a number of schools and churches in the Rochester Diocese, Chevening Church and school have links with the Parish of Kondoa. The school was set up relatively recently, providing education in English, so that the pupils are fluent and ready for Secondary School learning - also in English. Each Chevening class selected a book that meant something to them:

Year 6 selected 'Flotsam' by David Wiesner; the children enjoyed working on this text in February, producing some stunning writing and art work, inspired by this watery tale.

Year 5 chose one of Chevening's self-published texts: 'The Pearl and the Crystal Garden'. This was written some years back by previous Chevening children, playing with the language and ideas of the traditional tale, The Selfish Giant.

Year 4 are learning about the past and enjoy being historical detectives; their choice of book was Raymond Briggs' 'Ug: Boy of the Stone Age'.

Year 3's choice of book was 'Here we are' by Oliver Jeffers; we first used this text when schools re-opened after the pandemic and noted some similarities to the Bible story of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem.

Year 2 are currently learning about London as a capital city. They thought that the children in Kondoa might not know much about London, so have decided to send them a copy of 'Claude in London' by Alex T Smith.

Year 1 are enjoying the humour of different stories, found in both language and illustrations. They decided to send a book to make everyone laugh -  'Winnie and the Seaside' by V. Thomas & Korky Paul.

Year R have only been in our school for a few weeks; one of their highlights is celebrating birthdays! So they decided to send a copy of 'Happy Birthday Maisy' by Lucy Cousins - so the children in Kondoa can enjoy lifting the flaps!

Our academic year started in September with all the classes reading 'In Our Hands' by Lucy Farfort. This inspired great writing and artwork, currently displayed along a corridor in school. The Head Boy and Head Girl met Lucy Farfort online and discussed an idea for an art commission, looking at the similarities between our Biblical Vision (based on the Parable of the Mustard Seed) and Lucy's book. As we have all been so inspired by Lucy's story and illustrations, Chevening staff have sent a copy of 'In Our Hands' to inspire the children and staff in Kondoa.

Many thanks to Sue Chalkley and friends for taking our pile of presents to the staff and children in Kondoa. We look forward to finding out what they thought about the books very soon.