International Work
At Our Lady of Lourdes, we deliver a curriculum that allows children to explore their world on a local, national and international level. We do this through our planned curriculum and through additional works. Our foreign language curriculum at OLOL is Mandarin. You can see more information about our Mandarin curriculum on the curriculum pages of the website.
We aspire to give all children at OLOL a chance to engage in enrichment and curriculum activities that will
- develop basic skills in English and maths
- develop computing competence
- develop better communication skills
- develop confidence and self-awareness, as well as a range of other lifelong learning attributes such as teamwork, independent learning, cooperation
- develop competence in foreign languages
- develop an awareness of social cohesion and British Values
- develop awareness of other faiths, cultures, traditions and how the lives of children are different/similar all over the world
- develop a deep understanding of the world they are growing up in and will one day work in
- have an opportunity to apply the skills they learn to do depth studies of other countries
Aspirations for our children are high and not tied to the city and country that they live in!
While we expect Brexit to create changes to how we take part in such work, we have always had a multi-tiered focus on Internationalism at OLOL including
- Mandarin Curriculum
- China Bridge International Partnership
- International Pedagogical Development for staff
- British Council Partnerships
- Previous eTwinning projects
- Previous Erasmus+ projects
Since starting international exchanges at OLOL in 2017, staff have had the opportunity to visit
- Turkey – Burhaniye and Alanya on separate visits (4 teachers)
- Sweden - Forest School development (1 Teacher)
- China – Chengdu (2 members of staff)
- Sweden - Head Teacher Shadowing (HT visited 3 HT’s and their schools in Eskilstuna and hosted a return visit from a HT from Vasteras)
For staff taking part in these International Professional Exchanges there are untold personal and professional benefits – all of which benefit the children and community of Our Lady of Lourdes, such as
- becoming a professional ambassador for OLOL and the UK teaching community
- effective professional development for teachers as pedagogy and skills are shared between schools both here and abroad
- improved foreign language skills
- improved computing skills
- having an improved bank of teaching ideas based on their own experiences of travel and working with colleagues in other countries
- becoming more open to new teaching ideas and strategies used by teachers in other settings (while also sharing expertise) such as the use of Shanghai/Singapore maths
- having access to greater support to enable problem-solving and taking on more adventurous projects
Visit from Curt Larsson, Head Teacher from Västerås in Sweden
At Our Lady of Lourdes, we have a formal partnership arrangement with three schools in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Our aim is to engage in long-term activities and exchanges (staff and children) while meeting the agreed aims from our initial China Bridge Meeting.
Our Partner schools in China are:
- Hongzhuanxilu Primary School of Chengdu
- Longjiang Primary School
- Chengdu Shishi Shuangnan Experimental School
The British Council (and the Confucius Institute in China) manage many of these initiatives. Our participation in these activities allows us to broaden the opportunities for OLOL children and staff through whole school collaborative work with other schools.
China Bridge
China Bridge Cont.
China Bridge 3
