With current events threatening to make the UK ever more insular and closed off from the rest of the world, it’s important to consider the vital role international school partnerships play in introducing young people to other cultures and ways of life. By expanding their view of how their peers around the world experience life and education, these kinds of partnerships are creating the global citizens and activists of the future.
Partnerships are creating the global citizens and activists of the future.
Working together
Working with around 250 schools across Scotland as members of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, I have the chance to see the incredible variety of school partnerships between Scotland and Malawi. No two are the same in what they want to achieve or the experiences they share. What they do have in common is the friendships that are created between teachers, pupils and communities in these two countries.
Beath High School in Fife held a Malawi lunch recently in school to celebrate their longstanding friendship with Mapanga and Njale schools in Malawi. At the lunch pupils shared Malawian inspired food with local councillors, parents or guardians and teachers, raising awareness of how far the impact of this partnership reaches across the community in Cowdenbeath.
Partnership activities in schools connect pupils across years, classes and social group boundaries.
These kinds of friendships start simply with one or two goals identified that both schools would like to work on over a set period. These goals are set out in a partnership agreement and reviewed annually or as often as needed, to ensure expectations and priorities are being met on both sides. The partnership between Scotland and Malawi is defined overall by a set of 11 Partnership Principles, which helps partners work and achieve their goals together.
Diverse experiences
I’m privileged to see the impact that these partnerships have on the lives of young people here in Scotland, and through their experiences, on the lives of young people in Malawi too. Partnership activities in schools connect pupils across years, classes and social group boundaries, exposing them to a diversity of thought and experience, as well as sparking an interest in subject areas that they’ve never thought of before.
Pupils develop skills in areas outside of the academic fields too: pupils at Gleniffer High School in Paisley design their entire itinerary from start to finish before they visit their partners in Malawi, working on their teamwork, communication and problem solving skills before they even leave the country.
Challenging practice
For teachers, the experience enhances their practice, asking them to consider how to use resources differently and offering insight into teaching in vastly different circumstances and environments. A school partnership also offers an easy way to embed Learning for Sustainability into any number of subject areas across the curriculum. The door is open to exploring how any number of different issues are affecting communities both at home and abroad in countries like Malawi.
Biggar and Peebles High Schools have both been working with partner schools in the southern region of Malawi on the issue of period poverty, getting hands on experience of the materials and support needed to enable more girls to stay in education.
Connecting Classrooms
The support for school partnerships couldn’t be stronger in Scotland. The new Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme launched by the British Council and the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) last year offers funding and training to support schools at all stages of partnership working. With the DECs across Scotland acting as a Local Advisor, teachers can get support throughout the application process and there’s up to £3000 on offer for schools in a partnership or up to £35,000 for clusters of partnerships comprised of, at least two schools in the UK and two in other eligible countries around the world. There’s also an array of CPD courses available across Scotland for free looking at subjects like the Global Goals and school partnerships.
The need has never been greater to bring a little of the wider world into our local communities.
We all know the importance and vital role education in our schools plays in defining society and the need has never been greater to bring a little of the wider world into our local communities here in Scotland. School partnerships are a brilliant way to share experiences, outlooks and friendships across international borders and with the support available, there has never been a better, or more pressing, time to start a partnership in schools across Scotland.
