Yesterday, Primary 5 had two very special visitors who came to share their experiences of natural disasters as part of our IDL context for learning. Ellie shared her experience of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that followed in Japan, telling us all about what she went through personally, what devastating effects both disasters had, and how the people affected worked together to rebuild their lives and their cities. She also told us about a memorial in Ishinomaki which has the words, ‘Ganbarou! Ishinomaki.’ We learned that this was a message of hope at a time when the people of Japan didn’t have any.

Mrs Findlay also shared her story of an earthquake she encountered in Rhodes while on holiday with her family. She told us how people had to react quickly despite being completely unprepared, as well giving us some advice about what to do to try and stay safe in an earthquake. She also shared how each of her family members reacted to the shock of the event. Both visitors shared very different experiences, but both were caused by the same extremely dangerous and highly unpredictable natural disaster.

A big thank you to both of our visitors for sharing their experiences. It was invaluble for us to hear first hand about how terrifying these disasters can be, and how much damage they can cause.