This year, pupils from Kinlochbervie in the Scottish Highlands took part in our Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme by partnering with Sachangwan Secondary School and Nguzu River Primary in Kenya.
The distance between the schools, which we are reliably told by Kinlochbervie students is exactly 4623 miles as the crow flies, didn’t stop students speaking, giving tours of their schools and teaching each other about their culture.
Via letters, and a video directed by S1 pupils, Kinlochbervie students told their Kenyan peers about otters, lochs, shinty, fishing and snow. In a video response, the Sachangwan students showed off their impressive school grounds, sang, and planted trees in honour of the partnership. There were dance performances on both sides and in footage yet unseen by British Council Scotland, the Kenyan students learned to ceilidh dance.
However the partnership didn’t stop at school tours and dancing. The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme , delivered by the British Council in partnership with the Department of International Development, provides teachers with the resources and training to teach internationally. As part of this, partnered schools work together on a project focusing on one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Kinlochbervie and Sachangwan students chose to focus on gender equality, exploring the issue as part of their Modern Studies (High School) and Citizenship (Primary School) courses. In the summer, P5-S2 pupils hosted an event in Kinlochbervie to celebrate their work on the project. The event featured live performances from the Scottish pupils and video performances by Kenyan pupils around the gender equality theme.
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