Connecting Classrooms
Connecting Classrooms West Sussex UK, Uganda, South Africa
Celebrating Inclusion in West Sussex
One of the most important aspects of Sackville’s project with Africa is our SEN links with two local special education schools. On Wednesday 7th February students from Newick House in Burgess Hill and Manor Green College in Crawley visited Sackville for a collaborative learning event. The event was hosted by Sackville students from all key stages and included students in Key Stages 4 and 5 who are studying Health and Social Care.
Nick Falk was there with 7F who greeted the visiting students as they arrived. Anne Jakins welcomed everyone and showed the students some of the gifts that Sackville has collected for the Ugandan Schools. Some of the teachers attending the event are to visit schools in Mbale, Eastern Uganda over Half Term. This will include a school with a Special Needs Unit. The West Sussex teachers will be teaching ICT skills to the staff and students in Mbale and looking forward to a return visit from Ugandan staff in July.
Following a drink and biscuit break, our visiting students presented their research on Uganda. They had created montages and a power point presentation. Students from all three schools joined in a discussion, sharing their ideas and perceptions of what they thought Africa would be like.
The afternoon was a huge success and all the participating schools look forward to meeting again to explore the collaborative venture and celebrate inclusion in our schools.
Tom Brown teacher from Newick House said “it was an extremely worthwhile activity for our pupils. It gave them an opportunity to display their work and to speak about their project on Uganda to a wide audience.” The pupils enthusiastically joined in discussions about Africa and gave their perceptions of what they thought Africa might be like. For many of the pupils this was their first experience of a mainstream secondary school and it was a very positive.
Shelley Eckersley and Julie Watson teachers from Manor Green College added “the children mixed well and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It builds on our theme of Global Citizenship. The students coped well with meeting so many new people and we were pleased at how confident our students were. We are looking forward to developing the links between our schools”.
Anne Jakins
8th February 2007