Trips and Events
JEM partner schools engage in yearly home-stay exchanges. Buckingham Friends School students alternate between traveling to visit a partner school and hosting visiting students in their home. Every three to five years, Buckingham Friends School holds an Earth Summit with student and teacher representatives from all of the JEM partner schools throughout the world.
Following are highlights from some recent JEM trips and events:
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Open House - October 21, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 10:00am - Noon at the Meeting House. Come see our classes in action and learn more about our school. Call 215-794-7491 to register.
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French Students Travel to France
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China
Six students, from 6th and 7th grade, the Director of JEM and the Assistant Head of School traveled to China in April 2007. In Beijing, the BFS group was met by our JEM partner school in Australia. Together, the Australian group and BFS group toured Beijing (including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, The Great Wall of China) and Xi’an (including the Terra-cotta warriors, Big Goose Pagoda, the City Wall). Our two groups then parted company and the BFS group flew to Nanchang, China, for a home-stay visit with our JEM partner school. For a week, BFS students shared their lives with their new Chinese families, attended the Nanchang Experimental Middle School, and toured the surrounded area (including the Tengwang Pavilion, the City Square, the Kunming Lake). This visit allowed students from both schools to dive beneath cultural differences and forge lasting international friendships.
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Russia
Eight students from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, accompanied by two teachers traveled to St. Pertersburg, Russia in February 2007. Once in St. Petersburg, the BFS group was hosted by our JEM partner school in Russia. For two weeks, the children and teachers enjoyed home-stay visits, life in School #213 in St. Petersburg, and tours of the surrounding area (including the Hermitage, The Russian Museum, The Summer Palace, and Peterhof). This visit deepened our long-standing relationship with School 213, allowing us to revisit our “old friends” and make new ones.
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Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador
In August 2006, the Head of School, four teachers, and twelve students traveled to Ecuador. Their trip consisted of three parts. First the group visited the Galapagos Islands for an up-close experience with this unique natural environment. Next was a visit to the Jatun Sacha Environmental Research Base which provided an experiential introduction to the Amazon Rainforest. Following this, the group journeyed deep into the Amazon to the Rio Blanco Community where they visited our JEM partner school and experienced a home-stay visit with the school’s indigenous Quechuan families.
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Spain
This summer, 2007, a group of students and two teachers will travel to Madrid to learn more about the life and culture of this beautiful area.
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JEM Fundraiser for the Kallari
Two fifth grade students hosted a fundraiser for the Kallari project in Ecuador. Kallari helps indigenous peoples of the Amazon Rainforest create productive lives by using their talents and their forest in sustainable ways. On sale at the fundraiser were handicrafts and chocolate made by the peoples of the Amazon. Graduates of BFS attended the fundraiser and three of them are planning to return to the Amazon this summer as volunteers for Kallari.
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JEM exploration of light
In celebration of this year’s JEM “light” theme, a day was set aside for the exploration of light. Students put “Light on Trial”. Through activities, projects and experiments in science, literature, social studies, and art, students explored the many definitions and concepts of light, both the Light within and the light without.