International Links
At Archibald we have fostered new international partner links with two schools.
Our partner schools are CEIP Arias Montano in Seville, Spain and Ghana International School in Accra, Ghana.
Seville school – CEIP stands for Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria. http://www.colegioariasmontano.com
Ghana school – https://gis.edu.gh
Archibald First School has been committed to International work for many years, obtaining the Full 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.
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.
We stay in touch using What’s App MS Teams and zoom.
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. Indeed, we look forward to updating the website with examples of our partnership work with the Ghana and Seville schools in the coming months.
