Andover’s Vigo Primary School has been celebrating the diversity of its community whilst participating in the national Let’s Count Day event.
Run by the National Office of Statistics, the event was aimed at teaching children about the 2021 Census.
Pupils at the school, whose community is made up of children from 29 countries and who speak 22 different languages, began their day yesterday (17th March 2021) by finding out what the census is.
They were then asked to design their own census questions and carry out research to explore differences and similarities amongst their peer group. After this, children were challenged to produce their findings in any form they wish: younger children created human pictographs and made large charts, whilst older pupils created information posters and wrote mathematical stories.
A child from year 2 said, “We found out what languages people speak. It was fun because we got to cover our faces with flags when we made the chart. We have 6 languages in our class.”
As the national census is used to inform historians of life in the past, the day concluded with every year group recording and creating items to show what their life has been like during the past twelve months since the first lockdown began. These items will be placed in the school’s very own time capsule to record the experience for future Vigo pupils.
Maths leader Victoria Taylor said, “The Let’s Count Day provided children with an opportunity to see how maths is used in the wider world and how the results of the census impacts their lives. It has been lovely to see the whole school so enthused and asking questions to find out about each other and to realise how special our community at Vigo is.”
