“Our programme of international links has been highly praised by Ofsted,” says Jim Donnelly, Headteacher at Litherland High School in Sefton. “And our students have a much greater knowledge of the world as a result of being involved.” Described by Ofsted as an “outstanding headteacher whose drive and vision are infectious”, Jim passionately believes in giving his students – 99% of whom are from a White British background – the opportunity to understand different cultures and interact with the wider world.

His latest project is a three-year cluster partnership, involving 35 schools from Kaohsiung in Taiwan, Seoul in South Korea and Sefton in the UK, funded through the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms scheme. The focus of the first year has been on health and sports. “In each school, the students find out about developments in their own school and city and then share the information through ICT with students in the other two countries,” explains Jim. The whole of Litherland’s Year 7 is involved.

So how does all this fit in with the curriculum? “We have a curriculum area called Language, Living and Learning and, within this, blocks of time are allocated to themes. The school’s links with countries across the world feature largely among these and, during 2008-09, the links with Taiwan and Korea have been taught as part of this programme.”

Pupils gain understanding –teachers gain expertise

“The benefits for pupils have been immense,” says Jim. “The best thing about the project has been that our students get to know about the lives of other young people from different cultures. Having three countries involved helps them to understand that even countries that are quite near to each other, like Taiwan and Korea, have different languages and different histories.”

Not only has the east Asian connection enriched the curriculum and benefited pupils, it’s also inspired a professional development visit to enhance teaching practice. Thanks to funding from the DCSF Teachers’ International Professional Development (TIPD) programme, 12 Sefton teachers recently visited schools in the South Korean capital of Seoul to examine teaching and learning and classroom management. The group hoped to establish similarities and differences between the two cultures, which would enable teachers to evaluate their own practice and assimilate new ideas. “

The best part of the visit was the dialogue which took place between Korean and Sefton teachers,” says Margaret Ellams, the DCSF TIPD Co-ordinator for Sefton. “Both formal and informal meetings took place, with both groups very keen to exchange philosophies and ideas on teaching and learning.”

Schools from all areas of the borough were represented on the TIPD visit, and included two infant schools, three primary schools and one secondary school. So what did they discover? “Schools in Korea are very different to schools in England, as they have complete uniformity on what is being taught each day,” says Margaret. “All primary schools teach their subjects through the same ICT programmes, which have been developed by the Government.”

One of the advantages  of this approach was that the bright, lively programmes (taught using large screens in the classroom) ensured that all pupils were focused on their learning. Teacher planning time was also reduced. On the other hand, the group felt that total reliance on ICT meant there was little opportunity to use assessment for learning in planning and to match this to individual pupil progress.

Lessons learned from South Korean teaching

So what did the group learn from their  international colleagues? “They were very keen that further software was developed in England for primary schools, as it was very obvious that this reduced planning time and thus workload!” reports Margaret. “And we loved the Korean drumming techniques. It was very impressive to see whole classes performing their drumming routines with expertise and enthusiasm. The use of specialist rooms within elementary schools for Science, Music, Art, Design and Technology was also much envied by the English teachers, for it meant additional space to use specialised equipment, leading to high standards in these lessons.”

On returning to their schools, each of the Sefton teachers did a special assembly for their pupils and staff alongside further work with their own classes. Since then, three of the schools have set up e-mail links with a partner school in South Korea and all of the teachers have incorporated into their classrooms the ideas that the visit gave them. Says Margaret: “All of the Sefton teachers felt they had benefited from the experience, which had allowed them to ‘step back’ from their own teaching style and observe a very different system. They’ve returned home with fresh ideas and renewed energy for their chosen profession.”

Emily Pelter works in the Programme Promotions team at the British Council

More info The British Council’s Connecting Classrooms’ scheme provides grants and free support to help clusters of UK schools link with partners all over the world. For more information and to apply, visit www.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms To find out more about professional development visits overseas through the DCSF Teachers’ International Professional Development programme, visit www.globalgateway.org/tipd To find out who to contact for support with international work in your local authority or local area, visit www.globalgateway.org/regionalsupport Look out for more about this story in the October issues of SecEd, the only weekly newspaper for secondary schools – see www.sec-ed.co.uk