The partnership between my school The Little Kingdom at Theni, Tamil Nadu and The Ysgol Llwelyn School, Rhyl, Wales, started on a strong note of friendship two years ago. We worked together to ensure students from both schools learn about the language, culture, heritage and curriculum of both the countries through plenty of projects.  

At the outset, we were granted the Teacher Reciprocal Visit Grant by the British Council and I had the privilege of visiting the Welsh school during March 2007 along with the director of the school.

Rhyl is a lovely town with a serene ambience. Ysgol Llwelyn is a 50-year-old primary school with classes Nursery to Year 6. It boasts of student strength of over 700 and is aesthetic, spacious, well- maintained and equipped with the necessary infrastructure.  

Our Year 7 students had prepared a project, a game called 'Vanigam which means ‘trade’ in English. This game works on the lines of the English game Monopoly. We had focused on the important cities of Tamil Nadu, leaders of the state and the services provided by the Government. A lot of details on festivals, rivers and the culture of Tamil Nadu were incorporated in the game.

As the Welsh children played the game, they learnt a lot about the towns they visited, which was highlighted in a handbook written by the children, accompanied with lovely pictures of that particular town or city and its importance. This game also dealt with the civic amenities provided by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The children also learnt about the Indian currency system with denominations, as our children had designed currency notes with the values of notes that we use here.

We had designed the project meticulously to create an interest in Tamil Nadu for the children of The Ysgol Llwelyn School. We had introduced the curriculum laterally so that the children work and learn along with play.

We were able to answer a lot of questions related to India after the children played Vanigam. The teacher from Ysgol Llwelyn Mr. Geraint Rowe, who will be visiting our school in August this year, will be bringing along with him a similar project on Wales.

There was a lot for us to learn too. The Welsh school has access to a lot of innovative technology and teaching methodology which we plan to implement in our school. We had vowed to discuss global issues in class at both the schools and to work on more joint projects to enable children to understand and respect diversity thus leading to sustainable long-term development.

We had seen Wales only through videos and photos, which provided a very basic view of the lifestyle, geographical structure and history about Wales. Through direct links, our children now have a very real context for learning as we were able to take a lot of material evidence and provide answers to various questions from our students on Wales.

As the result of this partnership, we have planned to observe the month of March each year as The Welsh Month and India Day in both the schools, respectively.