Best practice in school linking

Link Community Development:

- Louise Stuart, Programme Manager- Link, Thorn House, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh- louise@lcd.org.uk - www.lcdinternational.org - 0131 243 2685

Aims of today - Best practice in school linking

1. Principles of a good partnership2. Outcomes of school linking3. How to embed Global citizenship in your

partnership? 4. Fundraising – the dilemma? 5. Summary outcomes

Link believes ‘A good education gives people the skills and knowledge they need to reduce poverty and tackle inequality in their community wherever they live...’

The Link Schools Programme is our initiative to link schools from Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa and Uganda with counterparts in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, USA and Wales.

What do you think are the principles of a good partnership?

• team work • equality• openness• friendship • commitment• respect

• patience • honesty• sacrifice• trust• critical thinking and

reflection

Principles of school linking

What is school linking according to Link Scotland?

1. A facilitated partnership with an African school and its teachers and pupils2. Access to creative resources and networking opportunities3. Printed resources including a linking guide and themed Partnership

Curriculum Projects, to study alongside your partner school4. A Project Manager to support and guide your activities on both sides5. DHL exchange dates for the delivery of materials between schools6. Support to arrange international teacher and pupil visits

1. Developing global citizens“Thanks to the link the children are far more aware of what other countries in Africa are like. They are more

respectful and tolerant of different cultures and people; and relate better to current issues in the media such as Fair trade.”

[Elaine Graham, Killermont Primary School]

Outcomes of school linking

• There is evidence that UK pupils increased their knowledge and understanding about development and global issues and that having a partnership with a school in Africa made this learning real.

2. Capacity building in the North and South“Our link has created exposure to new ideas and has increased the

capacity of the teachers and parents and this has resulted in remarkably improved academic performance of the school...”

“We are more informed than our counterparts in non-link schools... we now have an appetite for teaching that we did not have previously. Now other teachers come here to learn from us as role models.” [Teachers from Isagara Primary School, Uganda]

3. Embeds Global Citizenship in the curriculum“The link has given us an impetus. It’s helped us to think about

what interdisciplinary activities we want to do. It supports Curriculum for Excellence and links already with what we want to see. It’s an evolutionary process.” [Helen Wright, Lockerbie Academy]

“SMT’s don’t want a one-off Global Citizenship course, they want to see it filtered through the curriculum.” [Heather Ferguson, teacher ]

4. Improves quality of education

“Learners have improved in both reading and writing skills”, “It has raised the level of our learners’ thinking capacity”,“It has a good impact as some of our learners can now read and write independently” [Ugandan teachers]

• Promotes equal involvement

• Increases levels of self-esteem in girls

• Exchanging letters promotes a culture of everyone having equal access.

Embedding the link in your school – hints and tips

• Form a linking committee/ global group facilitating a Whole School Approach – more than 1 person

• Involve your school community

• Carry out a baseline evaluation and GC audit

• Include it in your School Improvement Plan

• Develop a Partnership Agreement

• Link to CfE and other whole school initiatives

• Introduce clustering and networking

• Get support from other organisations

• Carry out a Reciprocal Visit

• Plan joint curricular projects

Embedding the link in your school (cont.)

Joint curricular themed resources 1. Environment – (Science, social) climate change, calculating ecological footprints.

2. Health – (HWB) - Diseases & illnesses, Improving health, etc.

2. Global education - (Social) – Education as a human right, consequences of lack of education.

4. Poverty – (Social) – exploring consequences of poverty, ‘poverty trap’ , etc.

5. Gender – (HWB, Social) – basic human rights and gender inequality, etc.

6. Partnership working - (Social)- global debt, what is aid?, etc.

www.linkschools.org/curriculumprojects

gender

environmenthealth

gender

environment

Fundraising – the dilemma?

vs

Outcomes of best practice:

In summary if you have a fully-functional, supported link it can result in …

Improved CPD and capacity building in Africa and Scottish schools with global citizenship embedded throughout the curriculum leading to a quality education.