Athwood Attains an Annual Anthem Award from America!

Athwood Primary School in Hanover Park, in collaboration with USA based organisation the David Z Foundation, recently succeeded in producing a stunning anthem called Time to be Well about health and well-being to promote the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The anthem then went on to win an award in February!

The bronze award was announced at the 2nd Annual Anthem Awards which honors the purpose and mission-driven work of people, companies and organisations worldwide. The special achievement award was in the Education, Arts and Culture category. The David Z Foundation received the award for its collaboration with Athwood Primary School.

In February 2022, T4 Community’s Jasmane Frans introduced the school to the US based organisations and began the quest to produce an original song that would not only capture the essence of the UN’s SDGs but also literally resonate globally! 

For Athwood’s Grade 4 learners (yes only Grade 4!) it meant music lessons at school once a week; online Nearpod lessons to teach them digital skills; online motivational and working Zoom sessions with industry giants from the foundations as well as T4’s Global Learning Specialists, with the support of their own teacher Jean Davids and Choreographer, Nadia Schalkwyk.

The learners learnt about the specifics of a goal, wrote a song about what they had learnt and then produced a track and music video.

Evan Petersen, Athwood’s school principal, said that the impact of the experience had nothing but plusses for his school. The opportunity literally not only embedded his learners’ self-awareness of SDG 3, namely Healthy Living and Well Being, but also created a vehicle for them to actively promote and even be at the apex of globally promoting healthy habits for sustainable living.

“Educators and especially learners alike learnt the value of global and collaborative learning, critical thinking, creativity in discovering their abilities and talents (singing, rhyming, movement, lyric writing, etc.)”. He goes further to liken it to the positive principles embedded in T2P as a strategy - and in particular mindset change.

Please enjoy Athwood Primary School’s winning anthem entry below as well as bonus behind the scenes video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkRWH4ov7kE (Time to be well)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ2H4vs95Xw (behind the scenes/ making of)