27.06.23
The following article comes from Laurissa Field, International Coordinator at Holme Grange School.
Following our introductory meeting with the representatives of Tsuda Gakuen, we at Holme Grange School are very excited to solidify and begin our Sister School Partnership journey. We are particularly honoured to pursue our relationship with the flagship GSA school in Japan and cannot wait to begin communicating and creating our projects.
Choosing our location was difficult: we knew we wanted our students to travel East to experience a culture that balances and celebrates modernity with tradition within both their education systems and their culture as a whole. When the GSA suggested Japan, we knew that was where we wanted to connect with a partner school. As a culture who show devotion to a holistic mode of education, creating well-rounded students both academically and personally, we knew we shared many common values.
We are keen to develop our students’ cross-cultural communication and language skills, increasingly crucial skills in our interconnected world. We feel interacting with others their age around the world is vital to this development, and providing the students with means to maintain meaningful connections, and to do this live, is a wonderful opportunity.
We also aim to increase their appreciation and respect of diversity through interactions with a culture they may not have experienced before. We hope to broaden their perspectives, and for they themselves to discover similarities and differences in the daily experiences of our two cultures. Experiential learning is key for our students to become active and competent global citizens.
We look forward to developing a long lasting and mutually beneficial Sister School Partnership!
During the meeting, Claire Robinson, Headteacher at Holme Grange School said: “We are very much looking forward to our partnership. We are a small school of just under 700 children. We go from age 0 – 16. We very much value the pastoral support that we give to our students as well as concentrating on the academic curriculum as we feel that both parts support our children’s growth. We are very much interested in supporting the sustainability agenda and our students are very heavily involved in working to create a world where we focus on the sustainability goals and have an interest in global issues around the world and how we can be part of a group that can make a difference for the future.”
Mr Yutaka Teramoto, Vice Chairman and Headmaster at Tsuda Gakuen, emphasised his desire for students to build on the history between the UK and Japan to support world peace. He looks forward to connecting digitally and hopes to connect in person very soon.
To find out more about our Sister School Partnerships programme and how to get involved, visit our programme page: https://www.globalschoolalliance.com/sister-school-partnerships/.
