Connecting Classrooms Near East and North Africa contact seminar Selsdon, 6 th -8 th November 2010

Outline of today’s session The partnerships Successes; Challenges and ways of overcoming them; Communicating; Involving students;

Where I am from Chris Williams Former History teacher Former Deputy Head and then Acting Headteacher at large school Special Projects Consultant at Lincoln Christ's Hospital School Partner Adviser in Lincolnshire – Local Authority reprepresentative British Council Ambassador for the East Midlands

The projects in which I am working Afghanistan ( ): Year 3 The partners? UK – Lincoln cluster – three schools Afghanistan – Mazar-el-Sharif – five schools My roles ? Local authority representative Lead person in one of the schools

The projects in which I am working Sub-Saharan Africa ( ): Year 1 The partners? Nigeria – Lagos Island – three schools (Y1) Uganda – Mukono – three schools (Y1) UK – Louth cluster – three schools (Y1) (Each cluster will add three more schools in Y2 and again in Y3) My role ? Local authority representative

The projects in which I am working China ( ): Year 1 The partners? China – nine schools in Zhuhai Lincolnshire – nine schools south of Lincoln My role ? Support for the local authority representative in writing application and general advice

Five successes 1.Finding a good name for the project to unite the Nigerian, Ugandan and UK partners: Mvoakraba “Tiny seeds to great trees” Mvule (UG), Oak (UK), Araba (NIG) – pron. Mow - krab – a)

Five Successes 2. An early visit to the UK by a team from one of the Mvoakraba partners in October 2010

Five Successes 3. Afghanistan - teaching units in two of the UK schools -Secondary school – Year 7 Study Skills -Primary school – Six week theme for the Year 5 class embracing most subjects e.g numeracy. literacy, art etc.

Five Successes 4. Afghanistan – hands- on activities in partner schools in both countries: -Greenhouses have been built from old plastic bottles; -Vegetable plots have been created, and crops compared

Five Successes 5. Afghanistan – I visited Kabul in September 2010 to meet partners; - Year 3 planning took place; -Outcomes (products) were exchanged; -School assemblies on my visit have been well received

Five challenges and ways of overcoming them 1. Communications ChallengeSolution No replies from partners Involve British Council in both countries No replies from partners Have at least two contacts in each school

Five challenges and ways of overcoming them 2. Technology ChallengeSolution Limited ICT hardware and software Use the most widespread packages Use snail-mail – children like original hand-written items Consider mobile phone communications

Five challenges and ways of overcoming them 3. Language (and cultural) differences ChallengeSolution Not understanding Involve local community e.g. pupil native speakers Mis- understanding Spend time on key words Review documents ClarityShort sentences. Precise activities

Five challenges and ways of overcoming them 4. Time scales ChallengeSolution Different term- dates Find out the different school years very early Travel datesPlan very early to facilitate visa applications Reporting and evaluation Do this from the start e.g. use ISA forms

Five challenges and ways of overcoming them 5. Leadership and teams ChallengeSolution Lack of dynamism in team Involve a school senior leader Too much reliance on LA representative Do not have LA representative from any of the cluster schools Narrowness of the team Involve two/three per school

Communicating in the UK cluster - how? when? where? Afghanistan Despite close distances, communications have mainly been by , with termly meetings at most Sub-Saharan Africa Key communication is between heads of the three Year One schools at regular general meetings. Mvoakraba is a fixed agenda item

Involving students All schools in the cluster -Disability Awareness event -Tree-planting event Primary schools - Monks Abbey weather project - letter exchanges Secondary schools

General advice with which to finish this presentation Build a team Share the tasks across the cluster Keep the activity content simple to start with e.g. weather data e.g. ‘my journey to school’ e.g. ‘my food this week’ Plan the first visit as early as possible in Year 1

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