International Links
Archibald First School encourages its children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in their school, local community and the wider world. The staff aim to nurture the children on their journey through life so they can grow into safe, caring, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to society and to the world. Archibald and its staff are ambitious and deeply committed to the creative and international curriculum it offers, including teaching Spanish to all pupils from reception to Year 4 and current International partnerships with schools in Europe (Spain) and Africa (Ghana).
The History of Our International Links
Archibald First School has been committed to International work for many years, obtaining the Full International School Award in 2012.
Our first partnership with Bulseschule began in 2011 through Schools on Line and as a first step an informal visit was made by our then MFL leader. Gifts and letters were then exchanged. At this time pupils in Archibald First School learnt German.
Our partnership was further strengthened in 2014 when six teachers from Germany visited our school and the first in depth e-twinning project between the schools was planned. In September 2014, the school began to teach Spanish instead of German in response to the Framework for Languages at Key Stage 2. The school then found another partner school in Spain – La Xara in Denia.
In 2016, three members of AFS visited Gelsenkirchen partly funded by the UK German connection. The time was used in Germany for both schools to communicate with AFS’s Spanish partner school. A year later, two German teachers returned to AFS through funding secured via Erasmus+ which provided the opportunity for closer collaboration.
In March 2018, two Spanish teachers visited AFS and then went to Gelsenkirchen in the autumn. A year later, in 2019, our MFL teacher joined German colleagues in Spain. The partnership was very strong, based on friendship and shared values and the commitment and drive of one of the German Teachers who was an ambassador for e twinning in her region as well as the ICT co coordinator for Gelsenkirchen. Sadly, a very successful 8-year partnership with the schools in Germany and Spain has now waned due to changes to E-twinning following Brexit, staffing, working days, and the pandemic. However, we are delighted that our school is fostering new relationships with schools in and beyond Europe.
Our friends in Spain and Africa
We currently have strong partnerships with schools in Europe and in Africa. Our partner school in Europe is in the south of Spain, in beautiful sunny Seville, and is called CEIP Arias Montano andour partner school in Africa is located in the capital of Ghana, in Accra, and is called Ghana International School.
Seville school - Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria
Ghana school – Ghana International School
Spanish is taught at Archibald from Early Years to year 4 and our links with our partner school in Seville, Spain, enrich the children’s language learning journey. Our exchange with the Seville school began after the two lead contacts, Señora Dunlop and Señora Salgado, met on a week-long CLIL course in July 2023 and both wanted to enhance their children’s learning experience through a mutual meaningful cultural and language exchanges.
The children in year 4 exchanged letters and cards with the children the Seville school to learn about the similarities and differences in their daily lives, food, culture, festivals and languages. The year 4 children initially wrote in English about their home town, some North-East England’s landmarks and climate and a short paragraph in Spanish with their first name, age and where they live accompanied with a simple picture of themselves. The Spanish children wrote about themselves, their home town of Seville, famous landmarks in Andalusia and their different climates.
At Christmas the children exchanged cards and the year 4 children and Spanish children sung some traditional English carols and traditional Spanish Christmas songs such as Feliz Navidad. At Easter the children were shown pictures and videos taken by Señora Salgado in Seville so they could learn about local traditions during Semana Santa. To celebrate World Book Day the children jointly read a book and wrote letters describing what they like to do in their free-time in both Spanish and English.
The partnership with the school in Ghana started because we wanted to broaden our International links to outside Europe in order to further enrich our curriculum and raise awareness and appreciation of other environments and what is happening in the world. The partner school in Ghana, Africa, was chosen because an Archibald member of staff has close family ties with a staff member there, who visited the Archibald children in person for a special assembly in December 2023. The year 1 and 2 children have exchanged Christmas cards and letters with the children in the school in Ghana and learned their beautiful school song “Understanding of Each Other” and will sing it to the children in our partner school in Africa in June 2024.
Language Ambassadors
Language Ambassadors are chosen from year 3 and year 4 to promote the importance of learning another language, read stories to younger children for World Book Day, organise class games such as juego de la oca, 21 and round the world.
Languages of Archibald
Each month, we share and celebrate a language of the month. The language chosen is one spoken by at least one person in our school community.Celebrating Languages
Archibald children celebrate European Day of Languages (EDL) and Spanish Day in September and take part in World Book Day activities in March. In 204, 2023 and 2022 judges commended the Archibald entries to the annual EDL competition organised by the Association for Language Learning. In 2023 the children also received a certificate for their entries to North East Festival of Languages competition on the topic Where Language Can Take You.