Blog
Our 'Turks and Caicos Conch Festival' 2016
Annually our school takes great pride in replicating the world famous annual 'Turks and Caicos Conch Festival'.
October is National Heritage Month at the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). This year’s theme is:
“Our Culture, Our Heritage, Our Turks and Caicos.”
There are many planned events throughout the islands but one of the most exciting children’s event was the third annual ISTCI Conch Festival which took place on Friday October 21. The children spent the day engaged in activities which they were learning about the heritage of this nation. Part of this involved learning about conch and its relevance to the history of the TCI.
Creating the perfect Conch recipe
Each class was very excited about taking part in this event. Each class prepared a conch dish that would entered in our own conch festival. The morning was very busy. Children washing, chopping, cutting, measuring and competing for that honour of being the ISTCI Conch Festival winner!! Many parents came to help each class adding their special touch to the recipes.
The Grade 4 class was very lucky to have two wonderful mothers come into the class. Mrs. Zaneta Burton and Mrs. Sophia Thomas came into school to show the children their special techniques and help prepare a traditional conch salad and a tropical conch salad.
Mr. Williams and Mrs. Ewing helped Grade 5 cook up a storm and produce beautifully crisp cracked conch and conch fritters.
We are very thankful to the support of the all the parents that helped cook and taste the dishes too.
Welcoming the Judges
- Wayne Garland, Training and Development Manager for WIHL
- Darnell Fulford, Market Manager at Blue Haven
- Ajay Vyas, Manager at Garam Masala, The Vix and Chopsticks
Which class would receive the conch trophy?
After much deliberation the judges praised all of the entrants as they said that the overall standard was very high. They just wanted to eat more!
Third place was awarded to the Grade 4 children and Mrs Saunders for their 'Traditional Conch Salad'.
In second place were the children from Grade 6 and Mrs Jimenez with 'who's 'Cool Coconut Curry', which impressed the judges.
This year's winners however were the Grade 2 children with Mr. Bell with their 'Crazy Good Conch Curry'. They were very happy and proud of their very tasty curry!
The Presentation
1st place: Grade 2 - 'Crazy Good Conch Curry'
2nd place: Grade 6 - 'Cool Coconut Curry'
3rd place: Grade 4 -'Traditional Conch Salad'
Congratulations to everyone! It was a wonderful event! The children presented the judges with a little gift from the International School of the TCI.
Check out our 2015 Conch Festival article in the TCI Sun Newspaper and read the full article in the e-paper TC Weekly News