St Joan of Arc Primary School and Bashu Primary School, Chougging, China

St Joan of Arc Primary School (Primary/Nursery) is in an area of severe disadvantage in Bootle, Merseyside. There are 278 pupils on roll, growing to 460 after a merger with a neighbouring school in September 2008.

Details of the partner school

Bashu Primary School, Chougging, China has 3000 students. There is a new International School on the same site.

When did the partnership start?  How was the partner school located?

The partnership began in May 2002 following a visit to Chougging for ten headteachers organised by the British Council and Local Authority through the Teachers International Professional Development scheme.

Case study of a particular activity or all joint activities to date

The visits between teachers/headteachers to both schools have been very positive. The relationships are now strong and supportive and our partnership agreement has helped both schools. The visits of children from both schools to each others schools have been outstanding. Many of the perceived problems did not happen because both schools were familiar with school partnerships. The quality of the experience and the relationships that developed were genuinely life changing visit for the children at both schools. The partnership has raised expectations and aspirations within our school and the wider community so that this work has now become a driver for regeneration.

The learning experiences have been the same for both schools but the language input from the Chinese teachers has been of great benefit to the English pupils. The mobility between the schools on the UK side has been supported by the British Council, the school itself and Local Authority.

Other information

We intend to build on recent projects.  We are planning a long term sports project stimulated by the Olympic Games and both schools have begun a new project on ‘Healthy Food’. We hope to continue and extend language teaching.

We are currently working on joint professional development through Bashu School joining the Janus Community \Alliance. This is a network of 11 schools. We will publish joint research projects through our website working as a ‘Think Tank’. The Headteacher of BASHU school spoke at the Janus Conference last year. The Janus Netwoork will benefit from research and teacher development. Other schools in the Network have just begun their own partnerships in Chourgging supported by the twinning arrangement with Sefton Local Authority.

Further pupil visits are also on the agenda using the Liverpool Capital of Culture Year 2008 and the opening of our new school in September 2008 as an opportunity to invite performing arts students from Bashu school to perform in the new school.