“Let’s use the World Cup as a reason for finding out more about the cultures of the countries taking part,” said a Year 7 pupil to Head Teacher Tess Walker.
The
idea
was
formed
and
news
travelled
fast‐the
students
were
excited
with
the
fact
that
their
school
would
be
concentrating
on
a
major
project
based
around
the
World
Cup.
Then,
the
idea
was
taken
to
another
level
‐another
Year
7
pupil
asked
if
our
school
could
partner
with
his
former
school
in
South
Africa
and
create
pen
pals.
Every
tutor
group
then
took
it
in
turns
to
contact
a
pupil
from
the
school
in
Durban,
South
Africa
to
introduce
themselves
and
introduce
the
project,
with
a
helping
hand
from
the
‘Africa
Experience’
programme.
The project began with each tutor group at Ormiston Park Academy and the school in Durban adopting one of the countries that were taking part in South Africa 2010. Not only did they take on the name of a country, they also took on the football nickname that the country was given such as The Three Lions for England and The Pirate Ship for Greece, and then created a national chant to symbolise the country.
Between now and mid‐June 2010, each class from both schools would find out about the culture, history, traditions, food and language of their adopted country and then exchange work. The objective being to observe the differences in the way in which a school from the Western world and a poor school from a poor neighbourhood in Durban, South Africa would approach the various s scheduled tasks, using very different resources to one another.
A week into the programme and a permanent partnership with shown passion and commitment in 2011 to meet their pen pals teachers.
