South Africa Freedom Day
On Tuesday April 27th,
Mrs Stone, Mr Maurice and the Year 8 Young Language leaders travelled
up to London to take part in the South African Freedom Day celebrations
which celebrated the 10th anniversary of democracy in South Africa.
The event was held
in Trafalgar Square and with the huge crowd cheering and applauding
the group were invited up on the stage which had been built under
Nelson's column. Carrie and David Grant from Fame Academy were the
comperes and they interviewed Jamal Al – Sheiky about the differences
between our link school in South Africa and Highcliffe School.
In the afternoon, the
group made use of their back stage passes and stood at the side of
the stage with Carrie and David. They watched the entertainment and
heard the speeches from Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, The
Right Honourable Frank Dobson, MP, Her Excellency The High Commissioner
of Africa, Lindiwe Mabuza and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Mrs Stone then managed
to persuade the bodyguards to allow photographs of the Highcliffe
group with Desmond Tutu.
After saying farewell
to the Grants, who wished the group a safe journey, the group picked
up their possessions from the South African High Commission building
which had been their base for the day and walked to Waterloo in a
thunder storm to catch the train back to Highcliffe at the end of
a long but memorable day.