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Northrepps Primary School is situated in a rural area near the coast and teaches 58 pupils.
Ecole Publique de St. Laurent d’Olt is in Aveyion, a mainly rural and mountainous region of France. The school teaches 55 pupils.
The partnership was proposed in 2002 as part of a Toulouse – Norfolk job shadowing link.
The schools took part in a joint residential trip in England with children aged 7 to 11 in November 2004. We looked at the similarities and differences between France and England. The children worked, played, slept and ate together. We concentrated on communication skills through team building activities.
During a return residential trip to France in the same school year we looked at similarities and differences between the locations of the schools and at local culture.
In between, we encouraged the children to communicate by email, but found out that it was very difficult for them to cope with this aspect of the work because they are young.
For both schools, the exchange has changed their attitude to foreign languages and has expanded their horizons with regard to different cultures. Staff and pupil mobility was definitely part of our activity. It was funded partly by Comenius and the rest by the British Council and the DARIC.
We made a quilt based on children’s artwork and completed with the help of the Northrepps Village Craft Club. In France, T-shirts were painted and exchanged so that each child has a souvenir and each school a permanent reminder of the trip.
In both schools, diaries of the trip were made.
On a professional level, when dealing with a foreign teacher, you learn and adapt your ideas and methods while at the same time considering an international dimension for your children.
The next step for the partnership is to run a joint residential trip to Brussels to learn more about the EU and to experience a third culture, to also look at shared history and the differing perceptions of historical figures.
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