Connecting Classrooms

UK - Pakistan link

Connecting Classrooms is a flagship British Council (BC) project that brings together schools in the UK and those in a range of other countries. iEARN UK is very proud to be the first non-LA organisation to be approved as a cluster coordinator for this project.

We were approved to form a cluster with schools from Pakistan. The UK group is

Hugh Gateskill Primary School, Leeds
Southfields Community College, Wandsworth, London
Coleg Gwent, Ebbw Vale.

In mid-May 2009 3 of us attended a BC seminar in Reading. For 4 days we lived and worked together with colleagues from Pakistan. On the second day we took part in a "speed dating" session to help identify our chosen partners. Each group had 10 minutes to talk to each of the Pakistani groups. Then they had 10 minutes to talk to each UK group. We were not sure how this would work but amazingly every group found partners.

We have teamed up with 5 schools from Karachi and we will be working with them for the next 3 years to explore similarities and differences and exchange ideas and thoughts. We will start in September with introductions and digital diaries to help us to get to know each other.

After the seminar we visited Coleg Gwent and Southfields with representatives of our new partners. They were fascinated by the differences between their schools and ours. The most striking difference is that class sizes in Pakistan are up to 60 pupils to one teacher!

In March 2010 we were visited by 2 Headteachers from Karachi. They visited all of the UK sites and met teachers, pupils and parents. The visit was a huge success and really brought Pakistan alive for the young people they met.

Hospitality from the UK centres was amazing and the visitors were treated to dinners, a ballet, and even tea with the Lord Mayor of Leeds, an event I won't forget in a hurry.

Thanks to generous BC funding we hope to visit our partners in Karachi in February 2011