Thirty years of a successful school exchange partnership is an achievement of which the Mallinckrodt-Gymnasium and Wellington School are very proud. This project will identify what makes a partnership successful and will share findings with the wider community through a partnership handbook while taking time to examine the context of our partnership and to celebrate our success together. The 1600 pupils, 200 staff, families, former pupils and friends of our two communities will be involved through focus groups, cross-curricular work, concerts, sporting events and online activities. Pupils will research the historical context of Germany and the UK from 1871 to the present and will compare and contrast differences in outlook at times of imperialism, war, peace and Brexit. They will interview stakeholders in past and present exchange activities to identify what makes an exchange successful with the intention of improving the experience for future participants. Younger pupils will choose contents for a Time Capsule to be opened at the 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2040. They will consider what represents us today and how this may be viewed in 20 years. Pupils and staff will write a new celebratory anthem to perform at concerts in 2020. They design a programme, perform, record and produce a souvenir CD. Pupils will celebrate success in sports during a festival of sport in Scotland in 2020 to coincide with the celebrations there. The results will include the Partnership Handbook, a Time Capsule, CDs of concerts, a project website, an e-book dedicated to recording the experiences of previous participants and souvenir merchandise. These will impact on our pupils by developing new skills and by making contacts with people they might not otherwise have met. The impact on staff will include a critical understanding of teaching and learning styles in the partner country and an understanding of the curriculum in another European country. Staff will have the opportunity to refresh their language skills. The potential long-term benefits include an even stronger partnership ready to look forward to 2040 and beyond, improved linguistic skills amongst pupils and staff, the development of linguistic and digital skills which will help young people take their place in the workplace of tomorrow, experience of an enterprise activity in an international context, a better understanding of the European context at a time of growing nationalism and change, more links between departments in both schools which will result in an increase in cross-curricular and international work, a Partnership Handbook which will be put in the public domain for the benefit of all who organise international projects and exchanges and at a personal level, firm friendships between participants. This handbook should enable teachers all over Europe wishing to establish a partnership to take advantage of ready-to-use templates to facilitate their preparatory work.
The longevity of our successful school exchange partnership is an achievement of which the Mallinckrodt-Gymnasium and Wellington School are very proud. Since 1990, hundreds of pupils and families and scores of teachers have been involved in our partnership and joint activities. Now, the children and even grandchildren of the first participants are following in the footsteps of the early pioneers, such is the strength of this partnership. The objectives of this project were to examine what makes a strong partnership, to look at the historical links between our communities, to exchange good practice in teaching and learning and to celebrate the success of our partnership through two joint concerts. Unfortunately, the final months of the project were disrupted by Covid. The project included a wide range of activities designed to appeal to participants of all ages. These encompassed music, sport, history, language proficiency and literacy. Pupil participants studied the historical context of German-UK relationships from 1871 to the present day by examining source materials in German and English and interpreting them from both the context of the times in which they were written and the modern context. Pupils made a film to illustrate the activities undertaken during the mobility in Germany. A time capsule was made by younger pupils in both schools and this will be opened at the 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2039-40. The Travelling Ted project (eTwinning) also allowed younger pupils to communicate and to participate in the project. Two bears, identical apart from their hats, had adventures in Dortmund and in Ayr. This encouraged a widening of the impact of the project as the bears were invited to visit businesses and services in the local communities. Pupils worked together to write a handbook about successful exchanges although this was a casualty of Covid and is more limited in scope than intended. The schools planned, rehearsed and performed two concerts together and produced recordings of the highlights. There were five transnational meetings: four Scottish teachers met subject colleagues in Germany where they observed and took part in lessons. Meetings to exchange materials and good practice followed. (The reciprocal visit planned for Scotland had to be cancelled due to Covid.) A small group of German pupils visited Ayr where they worked on the exchange handbook and learned about celebrating success in historical and environmental conservation through workshops led by National Trust for Scotland rangers. In Germany, a small group of Scottish pupils developed an understanding of the historical context through collaborating with their peers. Large-scale mobilities in both directions included many musicians who performed in our two celebratory concerts. The project’s results are both tangible and intangible. There is a project website and an eTwinning project dedicated to Celebrating Success as well as the Travelling Ted project. We have a film, recordings of highlights of our concert, Erasmus boards were on display in our schools, we have developed a range of worksheets and our handbook exists in a truncated form. Intangible results include greater understanding of the historical context of German-UK relations, improved language and literacy skills in English and German, greater cooperation between more staff in both schools, an exchange of good practice. The sheer numbers of young people involved through project-related projects has been a positive result of this project and so has the involvement of parents and school management teams. Parents provided homestay accommodation and were involved with the organisation of the catering for our concerts. They enjoy bringing added value to our schools’ international programmes and the enriching experience of hosting young people in their homes. The expected long-term benefits include a greater awareness of German-UK relationships, especially post-Brexit when there is a fear of fracture. The loss of the Erasmus programme in the UK is of great concern but this is a robust partnership which will survive. Already a longer-term benefit has been observed, German students involved in this project have started their university careers in the UK. We hope that the younger Scottish pupils who were involved in this project will have the opportunity to visit Germany post-Covid and that they will chose to study German. Some pupils are participating in a new Erasmus+ project and are bringing experience gained during Celebrate Success to this. The contacts and friendships forged will bring long-lasting benefits on a personal level to many participants. This is the real success of our partnership – contacts and friendships made over the past thirty+ years are still flourishing and we wish the same for all those involved in Celebrating Success.