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Why Bring the World into your Classroom?
The very first thing to bear in mind is that having a North-South link
is FUN! It will bring a spark to lessons and a buzz to school life!
Schools with experience of established school links with the South report
a range of aims that can be realised through work with their partner school
by:
· - Contributing to the delivery of the curriculum
in terms of both its content and its underlying values
· - Assisting schools in achieving individual mission statements
and in developing a specific ethos
· - Developing and enriching the wider school community
· - Providing opportunities for continued professional development
of all staff within the school.
For pupils a North-South school link can raise young people's awareness
of interdependence, life in other countries and development issues by:
-Adding enjoyment to learning about overseas localities
for staff and students
- Raising standards and morale in schools
· Providing an additional perspective to the global dimension in
the curriculum
· Promoting responsible attitudes, for example in relation to fellow
citizens and the environment, at local and global levels
· Challenging stereotypes about other cultures
· Including overseas exchange visits
· Improving racial awareness in communities with few Black or Asian
groups
· Acknowledging the heritage of Black or Asian pupils in the school
community
· Helping pupils understand more about the way the world works,
eg globalisation, fair-trade, poverty reduction.
Teachers in schools with North-South links value the following:
- They offer supportive opportunities to challenge
xenophobia, materialism and negative stereotypes of countries in the South
and of different cultures
· - They encourage a deeper and more meaningful understanding of
issues such as interdependence, multiculturalism and threats to the environment
· - They enable all members of the school to learn about, and from,
the partnership
· - They motivate and support teachers in a developing their skills
to engage with these complex global and development issues.
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Effective partnerships
School links should aim to be:
· Long-term: so that the full benefits of
a partnership can be realised. Partnerships should start small, set realistic
aims and build on their partnership year by year, with regular review dates.
· Fully reciprocal: providing an opportunity
for both partners to make an equal contribution, emphasising reciprocity.
- Effective partnerships recognise, value and draw on the differences between
the partners but within a framework of equality of status and opportunity.
- Whole school initiatives: characterised by teamwork within as well as
between the partner schools. Young people, teachers, support staff, governors,
parents, carers and the wider community can all be involved in the planning,
management and evaluation of the project.
- Embedded in the curriculum: within a framework of learning outcomes which
helps young people explore their intercultural and global awareness skills
by fully integrating the partnership in the school's development plan.
- Linked with the local community: Strong community links can raise the
profile of partnerships and increase effective channels of communication.
- Monitored and evaluated throughout: to ensure that they are meeting their
objectives, keeping to their timetable and budget, and as an aid to forward
planning.
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Enriching the curriculum
Linking offers an imaginative and creative way to deliver parts of the
National Curriculum. A link that is embedded in the curriculum will gain
the support of staff, senior management, governors and parents, all of
whom are aware of time constraints.
Linking can contribute to and enhance all areas of the curriculum. To
list just a few:
English providing a real purpose and audience
for writing letters, stories, autobiographies and diaries
Citizenship comparing daily life including transport,
homes, food, clothes, sport and leisure time activities.
Geography sharing weather and climatic data.
ICT: learning to use e-mail and the world wide
web.
PE linking into a world sporting event such as
the Commonwealth Games, World Cup, Olympics
Design and Technology using materials perceived
as waste to make useful objects, with help from partner school, such as
tin boxes, decorated mirrors, wire toys and CD clocks.
Science investigating issues such as waste, comparing
what is thrown away in our own and partner communities.
Music exploring songs, music, drumming and rhythms
from Zimbabwean music.
Challenging stereotypes
During the process of setting up and developing a school link it
is vital that the similarities and differences between the two schools
are acknowledged and celebrated!
Issues to consider:
- Although there is much poverty in the South, not everyone is poor.
There are rich and poor people in all countries, as well as many people
in the middle, just like the UK.
- There are many types of poverty, not only financial. For example, cultural,
material, social and spiritual poverty which can exist anywhere. None
of us are completely poor or completely rich.
- The majority of countries in the South have a colonial past that has
influenced their economic and cultural development. An understanding of
the past gives context to the present.
- Cultural diversity and cultural differences should be met with interest,
sensitivity and open minds.
Resources (see
teaching resources for complete list)
· Artefact boxes
Artefact boxes from southern countries are available to loan. These will
serve to give children an insight in to each other's lives through handling
and studying items which convey everyday life. Pupils can begin to understand
the use of each item as a part of normal life and not as 'exotic' curiosities.
This way a more realistic picture should gradually emerge as the artefacts
are seen in context - whilst considering the influences of environment
and available resources.
Artefacts are an ideal way to stimulate questioning which can lead into
many areas of the curriculum. Used creatively, their use goes far beyond
the traditional areas of geography and art. Objects can be weighed, filled,
measured, re-made from different materials, recycled, written about, used
in drama and used as a focus to explore similarities and differences.
·Exhibition boards
A series of 6 exhibition boards are available for loan from MUNDI
free of charge. The bright and appealing boards promote Mundi's Linking
Lives project (Nottingham and Harare, Zimbabwe) and awareness of North-South
linking in general. The boards could be mounted as part of a display during
parents' evenings, school open days or fairs to encourage the school community.
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