At Shelford School we are aware of the increasing need for children to be prepared to take their place in a world community; to become ‘global citizens’. Such preparation is integrated naturally into the children’s broad and balanced curriculum, and is fundamentally about promoting and developing an understanding of and a respect for one’s self and other people.
The whole experience of Internationalism at Shelford School is in line with our vision. In particular, this is evident in how pupils work collaboratively both in the classroom and in partnership with a number of schools overseas; pupils achieve their potential as evidenced in becoming the global citizens of the future; and the entire school community continue to look for further ways to develop their understanding of and commitment to improving life outcomes for themselves and others.
The Internationalism Big Ideas are:
Identity and Belonging - Developing a positive sense of who we are, and feeling that we are valued and respected as part of a family and community.
Fairness and Equality - Understanding fairness and equality increases children's tolerance and appreciation for diversity. Fairness means treating people according to their needs, which does not always mean it will be equal. Equality means treating everyone exactly the same.
Rights and Responsibilities – Appreciating that in order to be good citizens and make our communities better, we must understand our rights and responsibilities. Rights are freedoms we have that are protected by laws, while responsibilities are duties or things that we should do.
Conflict Resolution – Developing problem-solving skills to helps them to identify problems and choose best solutions.
Sustainable Living - Understanding how our lifestyle choices impact the world around us. Making changes to help protect animals, plants and our natural resources so that future generations will be able to enjoy them.
International School Award Assessor's Comments
"This is a strong Impact Evaluation from Great and Little Shelford CE (A) Primary School in this challenging year, and I am recommending it for Reaccreditation of the International School Award. Well done! You did very well to produce 14 activities for your application in this pandemic year, which are varied, motivating and detailed. It is interesting to read in 'Impact on Teachers' that: 'Despite Covid, we continued existing and fostered new collaborations with partner schools' and 'We adopted online tools, e.g. Padlet, to share, communicate and celebrate information around the world. We made more use of video technology, but traditional letter writing to pen pals remains a popular task in KS2'. Three collaborative activities between the UK school and the partner school(s) abroad must be presented for Reaccreditation, which you will know, which are 1 Lockdown Around the World, 8 Life Across the Pond and 9 Bonjour, Pen Pal! Activities 2 Getting to Know You, 3 Picture News, 4 Sharing Opinions of Environmental Responsibility, 6 Identity, 7 Let's Explore - Kenya, and 12 Life Below the Nile, are collaborative too and activities 1, 8 and 9 evidence a clear sharing of information on the part of the partner school, either in the activity itself or through one of the 2 links to Padlet you provided. Activity 9 also serves as the requisite foreign language one, which shows pupils learning both language and about the culture of the country. I am pleased to see that you followed your Action Plan feedback to refer to both elements in the 'activities' section. All the other Impact Evaluation sections are excellent, and you can be rightly proud of your school being a Runner Up in the Pearson World Changers Awards (Languages' category) and achieving the Picture News Impact Award. Good luck in your continuing and developing international journey in the next three years!"
Picture News has proved to be a fantastic resource for our children here at Shelford. Each week, Picture News chooses a current news story, turns it into a vibrant poster with a thought provoking question and provides us with brilliant linked resources for Early Years, KS1 and KS2. Picture News is a powerful way to help keep our children up to date with the fast-changing world around them. Helping to challenge their ideas and pre-conceptions; ultimately this will help to broaden their horizons and enable them to deal with the modern world. Children across the school have said how much they enjoy each week's Picture News edition and that they always look forward to debating the next big question! If you want to find out more about what we've been discussing each week, please see above for some examples of posters and below for coverage documents for recent terms.
International Day 2018
We enjoyed a fantastic day with an international focus last Friday. We thought about one of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development: Quality Education for All.
The day began with an informative and interactive whole school assembly with the charity Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED). We considered what it might be like not to go to school. At first, many of us gave suggestions of what ‘better’ things we would do with our time if we weren’t at school, but we were challenged to think about how this would even be possible without having been to school to learn! We also thought the absence of school in our lives would make it difficult to make friends and be successful in the future. How would we get jobs to be able to buy lovely things, let alone necessities like food, clothing and houses? We then heard about some of the children CAMFED work with and were surprised by some of the information we heard. Everyone left the assembly with a lot to think about and much to be thankful for.
CAMFED worked with all KS2 classes throughout the remainder of the day. The aims were:
- To learn about the children they work with
- To consider why school is important for fulfilling your ambitions and potential
- To see how different a child’s life can be with education
Reception and KS1 shared a powerful picture book, ‘The Way to School’, which showed the difficult journeys some children across the world have to make just to get to school. They were shocked to see that some had to cross rivers, use dangerous bridges and even climb mountains! This seemed so different to simply walking, riding their bikes/scooters or driving to school. They shared their favourite things about school and ideas included ‘making friends’ and ‘learning lots of new things’. They thought about what they would miss out on if they couldn’t go to school and concluded that they are very fortunate. Year 2 also had fun learning about Canada, where Miss Bachewich was born! They practised line dancing, compared the weather to the UK and investigated the Canadian flag.
During the day, we shared our most recent correspondence from our partner school, St Paul’s in Kenya. They sent us a beautiful, handmade flag and some collages of traditional houses. All classes admired the work and responded by making their own Union Jack flags and pictures of our homes. We very much look forward to sending these to Kenya in time for Christmas!
Our first Used Book Sale was a tremendous success! Thank you to those who supported the event, whether by donating books and cakes, buying books and cakes ... or both! The event was extremely well attended and we received lots of positive feedback from pupils and parents. We have also been able to stock our school library, classroom reading corners and Rainbow Pre-School with some of the unsold books.
We raised an incredible total of £344.93 which will be sent to CAMFED to thank them for their input towards our International Day. The CAMFED representatives were so impressed with our pupils and commented on how well-behaved and engaged they were.
A very special thank you must go to Mrs Kellock and the School Councillors for setting up the book sale, and to the PTFA who kindly gave up their time to run the bake sale. Thank you to everyone for your support and contribution. Enjoy your 'new' used books and perhaps due to the success of this event we will look to hold another in the future.
We are delighted to announce that at the end of the Summer term 2018, Shelford School was awarded the Full Accreditation for the International School Award! We have been on our global learning journey over the course of the past three years and are delighted with this recognition for our school. Please see our Assessor's feedback below. Many thanks go to the wider school community for working with us in helping to establish such an enriching global learning curriculum for our children.
Great and Little Shelford CofE (Aided) Primary School has provided sufficient evidence to be recommended for the British Council International School Award. With the full support of the Senior Leadership Team your Impact Evaluation has addressed the issues highlighted in the Action Plan feedback. Supplemented by an international curriculum event, the school provides a collaborative, creative curriculum with strong links with pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning. Teachers seek to improve good practice through attending in-house learning CPD and you have acknowledged the supportive impact of the ‘Think Global’ course. As a result, international themes are integrated across different subject areas, with parents recognising the value of your approach, to pupils’ overall development. Exposure to the meaningful opportunities and experiences you present enables pupils to develop self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence, through learning. They also have a voice regarding international activities. You emphasise the relevance and enjoyment aspect of the collaborative project with your Kenya partner school. The evaluation process has allowed you to conclude that they have nurtured a positive awareness of current issues and developed a better understanding of their connectivity to their international peers. The ‘normal day’ activities you describe encompass a variety of subject areas pupils can relate to on a personal level. You provide a concise description of how pupils’ involvement with Fair Trade enables them to make considered lifestyle choices and consider their role as citizens. This activity received excellent practical support from local businesses, leading to the school achieving well-deserved accreditation, for its work on giving pupils a greater depth of understanding and respect for other cultures. You recognise the commitment and enthusiasm of teachers who ensure that your pupils’ achievements are shared and celebrated with the wider school community. Great and Little Shelford CofE (Aided) Primary School has received a positive response to its international work from parents, visiting speakers, community groups and a range of other organisations. Such relationships and support allow you to confidently seek further actions in order to embed learning into the curriculum. This is evident in the attention given to introducing consistency, and implementing clear objectives, in order to consolidate the Modern Foreign Language link with your French partner school. It is commendable that you propose to ‘maximise learning opportunities’ for the school population through sharing good practice and strengthening links with other local schools.
- The International School Award team British Council
Our International Week at Shelford School was a great success! Thank you to everyone involved in planning, preparing and delivering the activities last week. We were very lucky to have a number of family and friends volunteer to help in school as well as organisations that came in to enrich our learning.
The week began with our fabulous team of Teaching Assistants acting as air-hostesses at our airport which really helped to ignite the children’s enthusiasm for the week ahead. The children thoroughly enjoyed their airport experience and were excited to be ‘visiting’ different countries to explore other traditions and cultures.
Throughout the week the children learned lots of new things and levels of excitement and enthusiasm were maintained with a number of creative activities including baking, dancing and singing. We had visits from charities ActionAid and Hands Up Education in Action to tell us about the work they do in developing countries. Each class participated in a tailored workshop, some with ActionAid and others with Lorraine Theobald, a multicultural dance specialist. They said our children were “delightful, enthusiastic and extremely well behaved.”
To conclude the week’s events, all pupils rotated around the classrooms to get a taste of what had been going on across the school. Sandwiched in between this carousel was my highlight of the week: a magnificent performance on Friday morning where each class dressed up for the occasion and showcased something they had learned. We had such fun performing and watching the range of dances and songs – it truly was a lovely way to celebrate such a successful week!
Thank you again for helping with the sponsored homework challenge and for the preparation of dressing up outfits. We raised a substantial amount from our fundraising which has been shared between a number of nominated charities. Classes chose ActionAid, Hands Up Education in Action and WaterAid to receive these funds.
My favourite part was when we flew to India on the flight because we had cabin crew serving drinks and when we were checked in at the airport with our passports. When we got to India, Saisha’s mum came in and talked about India and we learned a dance called mango dancing. On Friday our whole class dressed in Indian clothing. I wore a top which I made. In assembly we did a dance and watched all the other year groups. Henry, Y2
On Monday, Year 2 flew from Shelford airport (in the school hall) to India. Then we coloured in the Indian flag, learned some facts and Saisha’s mum talked to us about India. On Tuesday we acted out the story of Diwali with Mrs Kellock. The next day we wrote the story of Diwali next to little pictures. On Thursday we practised some Bollywood dancing- it was tiring! On Firday we dressed up in saris and turbans, ate popadums and showed our Bollywood dancing to the whole school. Emma, Y2
On Monday we kicked off International Week with an airport and we were travelling to Brazil. On Tuesday we learned about the weather in Brazil and wrote reports. On Wednesday we had a great workshop and made some accessories for our Samba dance. On Thursday there was a fun Hands Up assembly. It was probably my favourite day on Friday as we got to see lots of other work which other classes had been doing and we had a big performance in the hall. We did our Samba carnival dance – it was great fun! Guy, Y4
Last week we had international week. On Monday we went to the airport (our hall!). We pretended that we were going to Brazil. We learned about the geography of the country and its weather. Later in the week we made delicious Brigadeiros chocolates and we had an exciting workshop. On Friday we performed our carnival dance to the rest of the school and they also performed to us. Lucy, Y4
On the first week back of term Shelford school turned into an airport! Christopher’s mum came in as she is an air hostess. The classes all flew to different countries. I will be talking about Brazil as that was Year 4’s destination. Brazil is the largest country in South America. It is where the Equator is so the weather is warm year round. The capital city is Brasilia, but lots of people think it’s Rio. The biggest city is Sao Paolo. Brazil is the perfect place for a holiday! There’s football to be watched, adventures to be had and wild creatures to be seen in the Amazon Rainforest. Oliver, Y4