It was only November last year (2011) when Grangetown Primary School, Sunderland and Columbus School, Kathmandu were introduced to each other by GSP. Both schools attended training in their own countries and both were so keen that they decided to try submitting a Reciprocal Visit grant application in spite of the tight turn around. Reliable and frequent communication was set up immediately and ensuring quick progress was possible. With a clear understanding of the principles of GSP, the schools were starting from on the same basis. They swiftly agreed the aims and vision for the partnership and moved on to discussing potential curricular project ideas.
In a very short space of time, the partnership managed to start implementing some of the project work in their schools and produced a strong application, which they submitted just before Christmas. That’s determination for you! Everybody involved was delighted to hear about the approval of their grant.
They are planning to collaborate on topics such as: biographies and ambitions – sense of the future; looking at household and school waste – taking care of the environment; looking at talents – celebrating the contributions of others; family life in Sunderland and Kathmandu – discussing examples of belonging to a community. These are just a few examples; the plans are ambitious, but also realistic.
Great excitement is bubbling up within this partnership, but also a commitment to building sustainability at the very early stages of their partnership journey:
“Two of my staff are set to visit our link GSP school in Nepal in June this year! They’re both young teachers and are very excited to have been given this opportunity to travel halfway across the world to meet their colleagues and the children in a primary school in Kathmandu. We are in regular contact with our partner school, and I’m sure that an excellent project will grow from this.”
Head teacher, Grangetown Primary School