Visit to a UK partner school

DFID Global School Partnerships are an exciting and innovative way of enhancing teaching and learning. This programme offers a range of advice and guidance, professional development opportunities and grants to schools that are using their partnership to embed a global dimension in the curriculum.

St. Mary’s College (Primary School), Kegalle has established a partnership with Whitehill Primary School in Halifax, UK in 2006 in order to raise young people’s awareness of development issues and to equip them with the skills and knowledge to become active global citizens.

Being the link coordinator of DGSP, myself, an English trained teacher, holding a diploma in TESL, B.ED in English and M.ED in English of St. Mary’s College, Kegalle, was awarded the Global Curriculum Project Grant for short reciprocal visit funded by the Department of International Development (DFID). Part of the requirement of this grant is visiting the partner school in UK.

After having established the learning partnership for nearly three years from 2006, this visit to the UK helped to establish a small basis for collaboration for the school in future educational curriculum based projects.

During the visit taken place from 30th October to 10th November, I learnt about the school and the culture, observed the lessons in different age groups to gain insight of the curriculum and teaching methods, attended the meetings with local government authority to evaluate the work already exchanged between the two schools, planned future curriculum based projects and revised existing partnership agreement.

On the very first day, we were welcome to the partner school by the head teacher Roy Hepplestone and leadership team of Whitehill primary school at the morning assembly.

It was the starting of winter in UK. But the small students were playing in the open air. They are used to the chilly, cold weather. It was my second experience of winter in UK.

My primary concern was to spend maximum time with the students to gain first hand knowledge of the teaching learning process and the curriculum in UK school. So, I had a nice opportunity to tell them “Traditional Stories in Sri Lankan context” following the questions from the students. I taught them how to greet saying “Ayubowan” and taught how to count from one to ten in Sinhala. They were keen to know about our country, weather, animals, flowers, food items and specially the dresses as we were in a different kind of dress, the saree.

Some students raised questions which required elaborative answers where I happened to write the wordings on the white boards. I contributed in whatever way possible to make them more interesting and effective. It was an inspiration to all the teachers. I was not just observing classes but I had been a committed teacher there.

The lessons which they were doing with the assistance of modern technology grabbed the attention of the students. They were really interesting and the students had work sheets in which they were instructed to do the activities. A compact disc on important places of Sri Lanka was also fallen into discussion.

The gifted children were able to write more than drawing while the average children equally drew and wrote. The slow learners had more opportunities to draw but one sentence in writing depending on their level of ability.

It was child centered learning where the students played a role of active participants in the learning process. One answered at a time while the others were eagerly waiting with their raised hands quiet silently.

All the students were well disciplined in every respect: when having meals, play time, learning and changing for a break. The teachers were not so tired by teaching due to fully equipped excessive resources used in the teaching process.

Through classroom observation, I gained much insight into the British curriculum, syllabus and extra curricular activities of primary schoolchildren whom were gifted with modern technological equipment in the teaching learning process. The measures taken to motivate backward or the weaker students, average students and the gifted students were very interesting.

After that, we compared the economic, social and environmental issues of UK and Sri Lanka. There is a vast difference between the two countries.

My view is that the teachers in Sri Lankan context can easily adopt the teaching methods to suit the local curriculum. If the teachers are provided with more resources and teaching materials, creative and innovative teachers can overcome the challenges to achieve the goals in teaching learning process in Sri Lanka. It will be a huge success amidst the less resources in our country.

During the visit, we had an important opportunity to be with the Mayor and Mayoress of Calderdale, Halifax, UK, where our students’ creative work done, using the waste materials in Sri Lanka were highly appreciated. Our students actively involved in the project work in preparing the greeting cards with seashells, seeds, pressed flowers and leaves, coconut husks and grains. They had produced a work of an extraordinary high standard.

I should be thankful to the Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha, for approving this programme which enables our students to be global citizens.

Priyadarshani M.B. Link Coordinator - GSP

St. Mary’s College, Kegalle