INTERNATIONAL THINKING


Alison Thomas continues our focus on


international links with a visit to Sir Bernard Lovell School where they have taken time to develop their partnerships and projects


I


T WAS a bright winter’s day in 2009 and something unusual was afoot at the Sir Bernard Lovell School near Bristol. Standing in the playground was a genuine, fully equipped space rocket, brought here by high- tech company Starchaser Industries as part of its Space4Schools educational programme. A


group of year 8 pupils had gathered nearby, but for now all eyes were fixed on the skies.They had just launched their own model replicas, designed and built with the help of the Starchaser team. Meanwhile, in the new International Enterprise


Hub, years 9 and 10 were engaged in a three-way video conference with friends in India and Taiwan. They had a lot to discuss, from the ancient cosmic resonance of Stonehenge to the modern-day achievements of the South Gloucestershire school’s namesake; from their Indian partners’ discoveries at the 18th century Jantar Mantar observatory in New Delhi, to the Taiwanese students’ latest observations from their own, on-site observatory. Organised to mark the culmination of the


International Year ofAstronomy, this special event was an opportunity for older students to devote a whole day to pursuing ongoing international research while their younger schoolmates enjoyed an exciting introduction to the theory and practice of rocket science and reflected on the wider, philosophical issues. “The concept was man, not only in relation to the


rest of the world, but to the cosmos.Who are we?What are we doing here? It was another way of expanding the children’s vision,” explained Jane Gardner, assistant headteacher and director of internationalism. Funding came from the school’s reward as secondary


school winner of the British Council’s Link2Learn awards 2009. The prize money will also go towards financing a visit by one or more students from Taiwan and New Delhi to consolidate relationships and carry forward the trilateral collaboration. “We call them student ambassadors. Our ethos is


learning on behalf of others. Only small groups of pupils can travel abroad, so when they come back they cascade the learning. It’s a thread that runs through all of our international activities,” Ms Gardner said. The contribution of six year 12 students following a


visit to three partner schools in Morogoro in Tanzania illustrates the power of this approach. During their stay they played a full part in the


life of the community. They helped with decoration and repairs, took part in daily prayers and singing, fetched water from the well and watered crops. They played English language games with primary children, discussed education and politics with their secondary peers and cared for the children of theAmani Centre for the Disabled, where they were lodged. On their return they spent the following year


delivering presentations to governors, parent bodies and school assemblies and running small groups for pupils who might be interested in learning more and maybe visiting Tanzania themselves one day. They have now left school but their influence lingers on. Moreover, two of them have expressed an interest in joining the next excursion as youth guides. The Link2Learn award recognises the school’s


recent achievements. However, it has a long tradition of promoting global learning since becoming a language college in 1996. It might seem surprising therefore to discover that it only has one International SchoolAward (ISA) to its name, but for Ms Gardner the delay was a strategic device. “I wanted to wait until every department had written


the global dimension into their schemes of work before I applied, so that we had that before us as a goal. That is now a reality. In addition, internationalism is included in performance management, it’s on the job description of every member of the senior leadership team and it’s a question that is asked at every interview, even temporary contracts. If you achieve what you’re aiming for early on, people don’t keep pushing the frontiers,” she explained. It also takes time to change attitudes and perceptions,


not only those of the pupils, but of the staff who are entrusted with opening their eyes. When Ms Gardner first took on the role of director of internationalism she hoped to make an impact fairly quickly. Since then she has learned to accept a slower pace of change, in the knowledge that it is bearing fruit in the long term.


SecEd • June 17 2010 Collaboration: Sir Bernard Lovell students with some of the children from the Amani Centre for the Disabled in Morogoro in Tanzania


A smile is a smile wherever you go


When it comes to international exchanges, taking


things slowly is paramount, especially when the partnership crosses the north/south divide. The year 12 ambassadors who shared their Tanzanian experience with such effect started preparing for the trip in year 10. The foundations were laid during an in-depth,


exploratory visit by the school’s executive headteacher, DavidTurrell, together with the headteacher ofWarmley Park Special School, the vice principal of The City of Bristol College, and two professors from London University. Shortly afterwards, the students embarked on a


project withWarmley Park School, which brought them into contact with special needs children and addressed the themes of difference and inclusion. A meeting with a physiotherapist, who had worked at the Amani Centre, put this work into context and extra-curricular lessons in Swahili ensured they could communicate at a basic level.


similarities, no matter how big the differences. It’s a question of meeting up on common ground


‘ They also held many discussions with Ms Gardner


about their motivation for making the trip and what they hoped to learn. “Students have a tendency to think, ‘they’re poorer


than us, we’re going to help them’.That mindset had to change.We weren’t going as donors, we were going as collaborators. First we had to get rid of the concept of ‘them’. Then we had to decide ‘what are we working on together?’We started planning projects 18 months in advance that we would develop with our colleagues in Morogoro,” she explained. The school also commissioned a researcher who


spent a month evaluating the build-up to the visit and another in Tanzania to prepare for the arrival of the


students and accompanying member of staff. During their stay she observed their interactions and she remained for a further two weeks to monitor what happened when they had gone. The impetus for this rigour was a deep concern,


which Ms Gardner shared with Mr Turrell, that what they were doing was morally and ethically responsible. “There’s nothing worse than going abroad to gaze


at other people’s cultures, then coming back and saying how wonderful it was and that’s the end of it,” she explained. “The ethos at the base of any international exchange


is understanding that there are many similarities, no matter how big the differences. It’s a question of meeting up on common ground. That holds true wherever your partners are, whether it’s in Taiwan, with its cutting- edge technology, or Morogoro, with its rudimentary electricity and wind-up lights.” The Taiwanese link is part of a much bigger


The ethos at the base of any international exchange is understanding that there are many


initiative called Broadening Horizons, which brings Taiwanese teachers into schools across the SouthWest to share their country’s vibrant culture and provide expert tuition in Mandarin Chinese. Ms Gardner co-ordinates the scheme, which


was launched by local MEP Graham Watson and is supported at government level by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan and the cultural division of the Taipei Representatives Office in the UK. Now in its third year, it already has a complement of


10 schools, which come together for conferences and all have links with a school in Taiwan. Visit any of these establishments and you cannot fail to notice theTaiwanese influence. Beautiful calligraphy


’


adorns the walls and on Chinese New Year the whole school is drawn into the celebrations. The impact can be felt in other ways too. When


Ms Gardner recently put on a docu-drama on the sensitive issue of people-trafficking, she produced it in English and Mandarin, since some of the participants were learning the language. Their performance was inspirational and some of them want to visit Taiwan next year. Representatives from this family of schools were


among the guests who gathered at the Sir Bernard Lovell School last October. So too were Graham Watson, Taiwanese dignitaries, Tanzanian colleagues and none other than Sir Bernard Lovell himself. The occasion was the opening of the International


Enterprise Hub, an innovative, open-plan environment, which provides a stimulating venue for international activities and experimental learning. It is also the focus for links with industry, at home and abroad, and embeds internationalism in the work of the Diplomas across the Kingswood Partnership, the consortium of six schools and a college to which the Sir Bernard Lovell School belongs. It is all part of the school’s continuing drive to


develop “strong, empathetic, culturally aware global citizens”, to quote Mr Turrell from his introduction to the school’s ISA portfolio. That description certainly applies to the Tanzania


team.When asked what they had learned, their answers included “not to make assumptions”, “to accept and work with other people’s strengths and limitations”, and “the importance of entering a novel situation prepared to accept change and adapt to meet new challenges”. One girl summed up her conclusion with moving


simplicity: “A smile is a smile wherever you go in the world.”


SecEd • Alison Thomas is a freelance education journalist.


Further information • The Sir Bernard Lovell School: www.sblonline. org.uk


• Space4schools: http://space4schools.com • Broadening Horizons: www.broadeninghorizons- uk-taiwan.com


• InternationalSchoolAward (managed by the British Council): www.globalgateway.org/isa


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