Five Scottish schools are celebrating after winning an International School Award (ISA).
The five schools to be given awards are St. Thomas RC Primary School, Moray; Cauldeen Primary School, Inverness; Knox Academy, East Lothian; St Georges School, Edinburgh; Shawlands Academy and International School, Glasgow.
BBC broadcaster and journalist George Alagiah will present them with their awards at a celebratory dinner to be held in London on 8 October.
All five schools will receive the awards in recognition of their outstanding work in integrating international education into their school curriculum and encouraging their students to become true global citizens.
What is the International School Award?
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) International School Award recognises good practice in curriculum-based international work in schools. The scheme is open to all schools across the UK and schools that gain the Award are accredited for three years. For schools to attain the award they need to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to international education.
Cathy Francis, St Thomas’s International school co-ordinator, said:
‘We are all delighted at St Thomas RC Primary to gain our school’s first DCSF full International School Award. We are a small school of some 53 pupils, mostly from the rural community of Keith in Moray. Our achievement has come as a result of our whole school commitment to Global Citizenship and International Education.
‘Each member of staff and every child have joined in with activities designed to develop global awareness, linked to the pleasure, pride and responsibility of being a global citizen. Our activities have impacted on our wider school community and parents have enthusiastically embraced this work.’
The school achieved their ISA by forming international links with schools in Ireland, Canada, France, Poland and Pakistan. They developed a range of activities across the curriculum including exchanging letters about their community life in Moray with pen pals in Canada. Some of the younger children were also learning Irish from a visiting teacher from Donegal.
Staff and pupils also made extensive use of our e-Twinning portal that helps schools develop links across Europe and provides information and resources on how to work effectively together. Using the portal's resources, they worked with children in Poland to produce a bilingual calendar and art exhibition that was displayed in their local library.
For St Thomas’s RC Primary School this was a double celebration, as they have also been named runners up in the HSBC and British Council Link2Learn awards and are to receive an award £1500.
Head teacher Gerard Farrell said: ‘We have become one of the few schools in Scotland to have achieved full International School Award status. This award has been gained through the hard work and commitment of pupils and staff at our school to learn about the big wide world out there.
‘We consider ourselves global citizens but more importantly have gained a deeper understanding of our place in the world and our responsibilities in this role. We would encourage anyone out there to apply for ISA status as there is a huge amount of fantastic work being done already in schools, with staff, pupils and parents deriving great benefits from it.
‘What we hadn't fully realised were the benefits from having our work recognised and validated from outwith our school community. This has had a huge impact on the way we all think about ourselves and the role we play in the wider community.’
For more information on International School Awards and how to become involved e-mail isaschemeenquiries@britishcouncil.org
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