This was sponsored by the British Council, to plan joint collaborative projects through the Connecting Classrooms Programme of the British Council.
Mr Donovan Beukes from Northampton Academy, who is the cluster coordinator for this new partnership in the Middle-East, said: “The joint aims of this link for both the UK and Kuwaiti schools are to give the pupils opportunities to be part of the global community, involving local communities in the projects, challenging perceptions and to improve the standards of students’ spoken language.”
“An important objective for this Middle-East link in Kuwait is to provide opportunities for our pupils to develop their own understanding of different societies and be able to make friends with pupils from different cultures. As well as providing pupils and staff with opportunities to participate in joint curriculum projects in both countries”.
Pupils aged 11- 14 years will be able to participate in this exciting new partnership; as well as the wider community and staff at all the participating schools; which will aim to involve the following curriculum areas: Active Citizenship, Languages and Identity, Global issues and Intercultural dialogue. In the coming months work, letters, and ideas will be exchanged between UK and Kuwaiti pupils and staff, with an exchange visit planned in 2011. This equitable partnership will be a benefit to both countries.
The United Learning Trust Academy Cluster of Northampton Academy, Kettering Buccleuch Academy and Manchester Academy hopes to establish a strong link with their Kuwaiti partners to benefit the whole community by exchanging human resources, enterprise and business skills and most importantly, to connect their pupils to another culture, language and becoming true Global citizens. In this belief the Academies are continuously developing partnership links and have developed another international link with schools in India.
At the contact seminar in Kuwait are:
Back Row (from left to right) - Eman Al Rifae, Qais Al Majed, Peter Palmer (Kettering Buccleach Academy), Husseiny El-Sayed Azzazzy, Mr Stephen Forbes (Director of the British Council in Kuwait), Donovan Beukes (Northampton Academy), Rafat Abutaleb (Project Delivery Manager BC Kuwait), Denise Waddington (Assistand Director of BC Kuwait) and Nouf Alajmi.
Front Row (from left to right) - Zeinab Al Ahmady, Huda Hussein, Jane Capstick (Northampton Academy), and Claire Smith (Manchester Academy)