Global Partnerships
Queen's Park High School gains funding from the British Council to develop international links with The Lyceum School in Lahore, Pakistan through their Connecting Classrooms Programme.
Earlier this year we were fortunate to have been successful in our bid to the British Council to fund an international exchange of teachers and develop links with a school in another country. We were delighted to discover that we had been paired up with The Lyceum School in Lahore, Pakistan.
On 6th November, Assistant Headteacher, Mr Yeoman travelled to visit the school with the aim of sharing best practice and discovering what education in a developing country looks like. The experience was unforgettable and the reception he received was incredibly warm. Over the course of six days he visited four different schools and spent time with the principals of each; watching lessons, sports events and delivering teacher training to teaching staff in all schools. He spent time working with a group of Year 11 students sharing with them how drama can be used to understand Shakespeare’s Macbeth which they were already studying. The purpose of the visit was also to understand the culture of the country and as such, he had the opportunity to visit The Lahore Fort, a 16th Century Fort built by the Moghuls and used by the British during their occupation in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The history of the UK and Pakistan are intertwined; the British ruled over the area of the subcontinent for nearly 100 years before dividing it up into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. With such a shared history the links between our two nations are obvious and moving forwards, we are looking to develop a range of international projects to share our learning and allow our students to see themselves as members of a global society. The visit culminated in Mr Yeoman becoming a guest of honour at the International Schools’ Awards Ceremony in the capital city, Islamabad. Here he met the minister of education and the Head of Schools to discuss potential partnerships moving ahead. For students at QPHS opportunities are certainly growing and as a forward thinking school, we are progressing to become culturally rich too.
We reciprocated the visit with the arrival of the Lyceum School's Principal, Bushra Anis Naqvi who spent a week with us from 9th-13th December. Her visit afforded us all to talk about education in Pakistan and talk to her about our school and who we are as a community. The Student Leadership Team played an important part in welcoming her with a continental breakfast following with a presentation from Dan Kefford (Head Boy) and Charlotte Carswell (Head Girl) about our school. It was a fantastic week here in the UK as global education, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and socio-economic issues were at the forefront of conversation.
A visit from David Owens of the University of Sheffield allowed us to discuss the development of a core skill curriculum with the support of the Pakistani Government.
Year 12 House Captain, Ioan Gwenter, presented Bushra with a glass sculpture celebrating the international partnership. This was matched with the planting of a tree with A Level Geography students to symbolise the responsibility of us all to play a key role in climate action. We hope our partnership will grow and enable us all to learn and develop our understanding of what it is to be a global partner.