Dorcas Oyugi and Nancy Marinithi, teachers at Utawala Academy in Kenya, recently visited Lakefield Church of England Primary School in the United Kingdom as part of the British Council’s Global School Partnerships programme.

Utawala Academy is an urban school in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, while Lakefield Church of England Primary School is a rural school in Frampton on Severn.

The head teacher at Lakefield School, Fiona Arnison, says the Kenyan teachers’ visit made an impact not only on her staff and students but on the community as a whole.

‘Lakefield is in a tiny corner of England, so many of our children are ignorant about global issues and other cultures. There are few people in the locality from other cultures, and having visitors from Kenya has provoked a lot of comment and discussion from parents and villagers.’

Oyugi, who is Utawala Academy’s head teacher, says the staff and students at Lakefield were extraordinary.

‘Teachers were friendly and demonstrated their willingness to share with us. Their students were disciplined, asked us lots of questions when they saw the Utawala video and watched the photos, and were able to draw similarities and differences. That was quite something.’

DFID Global School Partnerships is a British Council-funded collaboration programme that pairs UK schools with schools in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The programme provides advice, professional development opportunities and grants to schools that use school partnerships as part of their curriculum.

Tedman Aloo, the manager of the programme in Kenya, says it has reached 192 schools and more than 120 000 students.

‘We promote school partnerships between the UK and Africa. The idea is to develop learners in a way that creates employment opportunities, because the way we live today defines how we will be tomorrow,’ says Aloo.

For the British Council the global schools partnership is a practical way of addressing societal problems, he adds.

‘It means exposing young children to these issues (such as climate change and electricity generation) early. By helping these young people we are actually giving students who live miles away in rural Kenya an opportunity to be part of the bigger scale of things and thus creating global citizenship.’

The Lakefield and Utawala Academy partnership started in 2006 but they met for the first time this year, Arnison says.

Apart from the friendship they developed with the Kenyan teachers, Arnison says the partnership between the two schools means an exchange of cultures.

‘Our lives lack the richness of culture and our outlook on so many things is narrow and blinkered. This partnership isn’t about a school in a developed nation supporting a school in a less developed nation. It’s about learning from each other.

‘The discipline, the pupils’ dedication and motivation, the desire to better oneself through academic opportunities, is all plain and obvious in the Utawala rationale, but has made us think about how we can make it more open to our Lakefield children.’

Arnison adds that even though her students were shy when they first met Oyugi and Marinithi they soon warmed to them and a friendship blossomed.

‘Hosting the two staff members was such a privilege; they were so easy to talk to, and we had so much to discuss and share. I can’t wait to go to Utawala.’

Lakefield school teachers will be visiting Utawala and Arnison says they are already over-flowing with ideas.

‘We’d also like to be able to use webcams to make the whole experience more real for the children. Utawala is keen to develop its information and communications technology to make this possible.’

Oyugi says the visit to Lakefield widened her perspective

She adds that even though the two schools do things differently, in some respects they go through the same challenges.

‘They have plenty of resources; they are very advanced in technology and communication, which makes learning and teaching very enjoyable.

Oyugi agreed that Lakefield School benefited enormously from the visit as it widened local people’s view of the world.

‘This partnership will help change stereotypes from both ends,’ she says.

Arnison hopes the partnership will continue and build long-lasting relationships.

In future Oyugi would like to see children of both sides visiting and e-leaning from each other

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