Connecting Classrooms

What did you do during February half term?  I was given the opportunity to represent Cholsey School at a Connecting Classrooms seminar in Amman, Jordan run by the British Council.  The opportunity arose following our OPEN critical thinking training.  I travelled to Jordan together with 19 other teachers from around the UK.  We met up with a similar number of teachers from the MENA area (Middle East & North Africa).  During the course of the five days I learnt so much about the political situation in the Middle East, about the plight of Palestinian refugees, about the culture of the MENA region and about teaching in special schools in England and the problems faced by teachers in Scotland and in Northern Ireland, particularly since Stormont hasn’t sat for 12 months.

The main purpose of the visit was to establish a connection between Cholsey Primary School and Sukhneh Prep Girls School in Zarqa – a village on the outskirts of Amman.  The school is run by UNRWA for Palestinian refugees.  Half of the day the building houses a boys’ school and the other half of the day it is a girls’ school.  The partner teacher and I collaborated to plan a programme of work, to be undertaken by both schools.  The programme is called “Knowing Me Knowing You”.  Through this project we aim to gain a better awareness of the lives of the two schools and our families, our similarities and our differences.  Topics covered are our villages, our families, our school uniforms, and food.  We will share our thoughts and ideas through the wonder of the internet.

This is a very exciting project which I will hope to share with you via the school website and blog.  We hope that this will be the start of a long and fruitful collaboration between the two schools.

Mrs Crickmore