22/4/’21
Dear Parent,
You may have seen an article in this week’s Impartial Reporter relating to the school receiving an award for our Connecting Classrooms project. We were awarded the Intermediate Level of the British Council’s prestigious International School Award in recognition of our work to bring the world into the classroom.
The International School Award celebrates the achievements of schools that do exceptional work in international education. Fostering an international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart of the British Council’s work with schools, so that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need for life and work in today’s world.
Mrs. McVitty and Mrs. O’Connor visited the KK International School in Dharan Nepal, in 2018, and Mrs. McVitty paid another visit in February 2020. We then hosted the KK International School’s Principal and a group of teachers. We shared science and ICT Coding projects which were then disseminated to all children. St. Patrick’s project focused on water and was based on the UN’s sustainable goals for development. Both schools also communicated via Google Classrooms to share their relevant projects. This naturally upskilled us to be prepared for online teaching and learning for the COVID 19 crisis that ensued. Our children gained a lot from these international experiences in terms of supporting their thinking skills, their abilities to work together as a team, and of course, their science and ICT concepts and skills acquisition were at an extremely high standard. In addition, the project supported the school’s global education, which at St. Patrick’s P.S. Mullanaskea, is a high priority.
I would personally like to than both Mrs. O’Connor and Mrs. McVitty who travelled to Nepal during their school holidays to participate in this project. The Nepalese schools have different school holidays from ours, so it was necessary to travel at these times.
John Rolfe MBE, Schools’ Outreach Manager at the British Council, said: ‘St. Patrick’s P.S. Mullanaskea’s international work has earned the school well-deserved recognition with the British Council International School Award’.
‘We are proud and delighted to work with this great school. Many thanks to everyone for all their commitment to developing international work and sharing excellent classroom practice and resources. This is enriching education for its pupils; and their excellent collaborative projects with partner schools overseas are bringing the world into their classrooms. International work is key support for the development of skills young people need to be the globally aware citizens of the future’.
My Very Best wishes,
Ms. O’Neill.
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