Our International links
At Bawdeswell Primary School, due to the demographics of our local area, our children have very little experience of different races, ethnicities, and cultures. One of our key aims is to ensure that our children develop a knowledge of how people in other countries and from different cultures live, understanding our similarities and celebrating our differences.
The partnership we have with our international link schools really helps to broaden our pupils’ horizons.
In 2021 we established links with the Sakado Azuma Kindergarten in the Saitama Prefecture in Japan, and with the Ndazi Primary School in the Dedza region of Malawi. Our aim with these link schools is that our children learn about different cultures and locations around the world, improving their understanding of global citizenship.
Each year we dedicate a curriculum week to learning about Japan, and a second week to learning about Malawi. The children’s learning builds year on year, so that when they leave us, they should have an excellent understanding of the Japan and Malawi’s geography and cultures, including the similarities and differences to our own geography and culture.
With the Sakado Azuma Kindergarten, our children also learn from exchanging letters, cards, and sharing videos, stories and songs. We are visited each year by the teachers from Japan, who spend time in school with each class teaching them directly about an aspect of Japanese culture. Our children benefit by seeing and understanding the friendships that are built up across the world – they begin to recognise that a language barrier and thousands of miles distance does not stop the formation of friendships and strong partnerships. Each year the Sakado Azuma Kindergarten also invites a representative from Bawdeswell for a week so that we can teach their pupils, as well as build our own knowledge of Japan. Currently two of our team have visited Sakado Azuma Kindergarten. Our children at Bawdeswell are already beginning to build these relationships with our Japanese friends, and they are also already talking about a passion to travel and visit Japan when they are older.
Our partnership with Ndazi Primary School has been facilitated by the Norfolk Dedza Partnership, largely funded by the British Council. With this partnership we work on a joint project with Ndazi and a few other schools in Dedza, focussing on some of the key issues in education. Our work is collated and shared across the whole partnership so that we can learn from each other. When finances allow, the Head teacher from Ndazi will visit our school to teach our children about his school and culture. We hope to return the visit with a Bawdeswell representative too, in order to build on our understanding to share with our pupils. Currently one member of our team has visited Malawi, and this experience fascinates our pupils. During our Malawi week each year, we are also visited by representatives from the Norfolk Dedza Partnership who teach our children about school and life in Malawi.
