Many schools have seen large increases in refugee and migrant children and experienced integration problems. The “Around the World” Club aims to enable social, emotional and cultural integration of children from ALL backgrounds by actively learning world cultures, activities and languages using the free ENACT web app.
Children of all ages learn new languages and cultures while doing a hands-on cultural activity with the help of the ENACT app. Many activities produce a craft item which children can take home, while some produce food which they can eat. There are about 150 cultural activities from all around the world from dancing to cooking, pumpkin carving to paper crafts, something for every age and ability. Children find it great fun, a real-world, gritty learning experience involving all five senses in the course of producing something with their hands and bodies! A volunteer organising the clubs said: “ The teachers love it. Children love it. I love it….. They are learning without even knowing it.” Children use the Interactive Player to learn words of a new language, then it guides them through the activity with interactive photos, text, audio and video content. Children can also be creative by telling others round the world about their own language and culture.
So far we have run the ‘Around the World Club’ in 4 Newcastle primary schools as a pilot and a report on this is available. We have produced a policy report which explains to schools worldwide how to set up a run an ‘Around the World Club’. We will disseminate the policy report to schools throughout the UK and the world from September 2024.
However, the ‘Around the World Club’ is a spin-off activity of the ENACT web app which has its own HundrED page https://hundred.org/en/innovations/2-the-enact-app Globally, the ENACT system has been used (at July 2024) by over 18,000 users in 161 countries with 78,000 views and has over 150 cultural activities in 30 languages.
We therefore have the global online infrastructure to be able to disseminate news of the ‘Around the World Club’ innovation.
The package is on https://enacteuropa.com/sites/default/files/Around%20the%20World%20Club%20Offer%20for%20Schools.pdf The instructions below explain how to set up a Club in your school, wherever you are. The ENACT web app is free and ready to use and has several tutorial videos. Website https://enacteuropa.com/ Watch our film about the Club and its impact. Contact: enacteuropa@newcastle.ac.uk
