A school link with Link Ethiopia? What’s that all about, then?!
When a school wants to widen its focus and get its children looking outwards into the big, wide world, a school link with another country is a great activity to engage in. Instead of focusing only on their own lives and their own communities, both pupils and teachers can have the chance to experience what it is like to live in another country such as Ethiopia, a country which seems on the surface to have so little in terms of modern luxuries, yet which actually has so much to offer in terms of culture and friendship and human experience.
‘Global awareness’ is a watchword in UK education these days – and thank heavens! Gone are the days when we should be teaching our children that they have everything and that others have nothing. Our lives are different, yes! But there is so much that we can offer each other across the world. That is why adults delight in travelling to other countries, in having first-hand experience of other people’s lives.
(Why don’t you consider one of our tours of Ethiopia that we are leading this autumn? Full details here: http://linkethiopia.org/tour)
And those adventurous adults soon learn that our ‘western’ existence is anything but perfect and all-embracing. By sharing and enjoying mutual experience, we can all begin to learn to live more fully, more meaningfully and more wisely.
So how does a school link deal with that huge ideal?
In another issue of our News Update, we shall go into more detail about exactly what is involved in one of our school links. And for those who can’t wait to know, there is information a-plenty on the Link Ethiopia website at www.linkethiopia.org
But, in a nutshell, schools link with each other to communicate. The children write letters to each other every so often, asking questions about their friends’ lives and telling a little about their own.They share experiences, hopes, ambitions. They draw pictures for each other to show their interests and their culture.
With modern technology developing apace, they will soon be talking to each other, almost ‘in real time’, on Link Ethiopia’s internet blogs.
But a school link with Link Ethiopia is also about sharing some of their learning skills. They use the curriculum support materials that arrive every term to share ideas, to swap opinions, to challenge their own set views on things. And in doing that, they widen their intellectual horizons and begin to see outside of their own boxes.
Whether you live in the north, the south, the east or the west. Whether you are yourself a child at school or whether you have children who are. Or whether perhaps you have children in your extended family who go to school and who are wanting to learn about the world. Whatever your situation, if a school link is something that you might just like to know more about, get in touch with us and ask for more information.
Go on – do it!! [email protected]