Portchester is now officially an International School – Accreditation has been received from the British Council regarding our application for International Schools status.
After a year of gathering and collating information with regard to Portchesters links abroad with other schools, a folder of work was sent to the British Council in London for assessment.
On the 3rd September confirmation was received in school that the award had been granted.
“Education is not just about giving our pupils the tools to live in our culture, but they must also contribute as global citizens,” said Portchester’s international co-ordinator, Mark Harding.
“More than ever we are all living in a global village and we’re thrilled to now be an official International School.”
Recently Portchester School has joined forces with Corfe Hills School and its cluster of pyramid schools to establish links with schools in Guiyang, China. Corfe Hills last year led a delegation of Head teachers to China to strengthen links and it is hoped that this will again be possible in the future. Plans are in motion to organise a delegation from China to England and it is hoped that we will be visited from staff and pupils.
As part of this link we have signed up to the elanguages portal.
The Elanguages web portal has been built for the Pyramid link – each school and each teacher involved has been incorporated into the site and each has their own individual page and a section for their partnership link. It is a fantastic resource and training sessions are being held in each pyramid school to train staff to use the portal.
Each school will begin to display work and resources for their partner schools to see, enjoy and use. The portal has limitless capacity for images, podcasts and resources.
The schools involved with their Chinese partner school is:
- Broadstone First School and Guiyang No 2 Experimental Primary School
- Henbury View First School and Shengfulu Primary School
- Merley First School and Guiyang Huanxi Primary School
- Rushcombe First School and Jiaxiu Primary School
- Springdale First School and Guiyang Experimental Primary School
- Sturminster Marshall First School and Xiao He No 2 Primary School
- Allenbourn Middle School and Miao Miao Experimental School
- Carter Community School and No 2 Experimental Middle School
- Lockyers Middle School and Xintian Nine-year-through School
- Corfe Hills School and No 3 Experimental Middle school
Portchester recently welcomed Mr Onur Kaya from Turkey, who spent five weeks shadowing various teachers around the school.
He was keen to observe all aspects of teaching at Portchester, but was particularly interested in the Restorative Justice system being run by Relationships Manager Paul Kus. In fact he was so impressed that Paul has been invited to Onur's school in October 2009 to introduce the system there.
While here Onur presented an assembly to Year 7 students and answered quesions from them about his school in Izmir and the town where he lives.
Miss Levy has begun the process of linking her form, 7SLE with Onur's class and it is hoped there will be a class exchange visit in the near future.
If you would like to view the presentation Onur has made about his school please click here
In May Miss Levy and Mr Harding visited Mr Kaya's school to teach some English classes
To view a presentation of their trip please click here
Below is a link to the Cem Bakioglu Anadolu High School website where there is also a record of the trip
http://www.cbal.k12.tr/sayfalar/haber/ingiliz_konuklarimizi_ugurladik..._we_addressed_a_farewell_to_our_guests...103.php
Portchester and Avonbourne School recently took part in an International day. The pupils teamed up to try their hand at a host of cultural activities including cooking, writing amd music. They were guided in their creative endevours by guests - award winning author Beverly Naidoo and African Noah Messomo.
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To help develop Portchester's International links, eight Year 11 pupils along with Mr Barnett travelled to Kenya to help two schools. The pupils helped with laying concrete floors in unfinished classrooms, while Mr Barnett taught Science to a class of 86 children.
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The pupils also found time for some mountain climbing, taking in the regions amazing flora and forna. Although tiring and some pupils suffered from mountain sickness, the trip was very popular. The pupils finished the trip by presenting the schools with sporting equipment and because of it's success hope to return in two years time.
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If you would like more information about our International Education program then please click here
