Case Study: Ingleby Mill Primary School

Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees

"A trip to poverty stricken Ghana has led to a chain of events which stretches across the world."

The Teeside Evening Gazette, June 2003

Global Teacher placement and the Link Schools Programme

Liz Shaller was selected for the first round of Global Teacher Millennium Award winners and was one of only 10 Global Teachers to go to Ghana. She was placed at Ayuusi-Yine Primary School in October 2001. Both schools have about 600 children on roll but that is where the quantitative comparisons end.

Ingleby Mill is a relatively new school, opened in 1995 on the largest housing estate in Europe. Most of the children's homes are privately owned. The roll has grown from 150 to 600 in just six years, includes a large nursery department and has 21 classes. Mary Alebdem is the Principal of a rural primary school in a remote district of northern Ghana which has eight teachers, including her, and only six classrooms. Many of the learners walk five kilometres to school and back and are often barefoot.

Liz's motivation for applying for the Award was three-fold: she wanted to develop the global awareness she already had in the context of the classroom and was attracted by the two-way benefits for North and South participants. Additionally, it was a personal challenge though at the time she had little idea just what a challenge it would turn out to be!

Mary's ambition in accepting a Global Teacher, despite her anxieties that such a person might be coming to take over the school and to point out faults, was to improve the teaching and learning methods in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving.

Link Community Development's role in helping to maintain the friendship and learning that has developed from this placement is fundamental. In the programme notes to the musical which she wrote, "A Day in Two Lives", Liz acknowledges the strength of the way in which Link works in partnership with departments of education in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa with the aim of improving the prospects of children in the most disadvantaged areas. The Link Schools Programme enables the connections between South and North to develop as fully as possible. As Liz realised, this opportunity was going to provide mutual benefits to children on both sides of the globe.

Activities and benefits

Since her return from Ayuusi-Yine in November 2001 the experiences and lessons that Liz learned have become an integral part of daily life at Ingleby Mill for every child and all the teachers and support staff. Not one, but two, Africa weeks have been held in which global issues have been incorporated into every aspect of the curriculum from art and craft to maths and 'big business'.

Fair Trade became a tasty way of learning about economic issues and sponsored walks were an energetic way of raising money for a project at Ayuusi-Yine Primary school.

'A Day in Two Lives' was so successful that it was selected to be performed at the National Festival of Music for Youth at the Royal Festival Hall in July 2003.

Letters of appreciation highlighted the moving way in which the words and music combined to leave an indelible sense of having understood more of what it means to be a global citizen.

"You captured everything that anyone who has seen the poverty of Africa, has thought and wanted to put across to students, friends and family living in our privileged society. I'm sure those Year 6 pupils will carry that story and experience with them, especially into their secondary education and let's hope they can open up the closed minds they will certainly meet."

(Visitor from One World Centre)

One of the criteria stipulated by Link Community Development for becoming a linked school is that the Southern school becomes more pro-active in raising its own funds. Ayuusi-Yine has already organised a festival of dancing, singing and drumming as well as a reading competition. Carol Maloney from Link attended this event and Chief Naba Apasipanga Ayuusi-Yine II presented the prizes.

Madam Mary (as the Principal is referred to in Ghana) reports that her teachers have gained more confidence by learning new teaching methods and are using their resources better. School action plans now involve the whole staff and the School Development Plan is reviewed annually. Additionally the School Governing Body is more actively involved in the life of the school. They attend meetings more regularly, show interest by visiting the school and take part in fundraising.

In a letter received from the Chief (September 2003) it is clear how much Liz's time at the school is still appreciated:

"I deem it necessary to stand as a mouthpiece of the school and the entire community to thank you very much for contributing to the progress of the school in diverse ways. You have really uplifted the image of the school. The school can now boast of so many things in your name. Thank you for the honour done."

Curriculum and citizenship

Liz's headteacher, Barbara Martin, is equally appreciative of the benefits of being in the Link Schools Programme. She herself went to the Far East in 1972-74 with VSO and also worked in El Salvador during the civil war in 1991-92, under the auspices of her C of E parish in Rochdale. One of her priorities for Ingleby Mill's mission statement was to ensure that the children from this tight, white, mono-culture became aware of their interdependence with people all over the world. She was determined that all her staff should share in this Link Community Development project and is delighted to note how more and more staff are coming to engage with, and own, its criteria year after year. The planning for Africa Week (in reality, Ghana Fortnight) developed the process of working together and the more intangible aspects of developing understanding and changing attitudes.

Global Citizenship is a core strand of Ingleby Mill's curriculum and each year-group, from Nursery / Reception through to Year 6, have a written scheme of work that builds and extends their knowledge and understanding, their skills, values and attitudes. Differentiation for all ability ranges is also part of this scheme, as is performance management for staff, and team leaders have already monitored aspects of the teaching of the subject throughout the school. The Year 6 Geography curriculum has been altered to incorporate the global dimension permanently and money has been allocated to buy new resources for Development Education. The way in which these policies were written involved all the staff and began from the good practice already in place. Global issues were identified in existing practice and further suggestions added, thus building up staff confidence and building in sustainability.

Connecting communities

In setting up the Global Teachers Programme it is hard to know whether Link Community Development could have predicted the full impact of each placement. One teacher placed in one school in one rural area of Africa for just five weeks can be seen to have had a truly exponential effect on an ever widening circle of people. This might include family and friends at the centre, colleagues and professional contacts next, then community groups and local acquaintances, leading to unforeseen connections long after the original placement.

At Ingleby Mill the children's parents became very involved in fundraising to enable Mary Alebdem to visit the UK in October 2003 and also attended assemblies on global citizenship.

In the two years since the placement, Ingleby Mill Primary has raised nearly £5,000. Meeting Madam Mary in person has had a revitalising effect on parents and on the other schools and some offered a further donation after seeing the engagement of their own children in global issues:

"Please accept this donation [of £xx] for your lovely children at school. My son so enjoyed the assembly about Fair Trade Foods and it is so important for the future for this generation of children to think about things globally. Education is the answer to the problem of poverty and ignorance and I wish you every success with your school and a very safe journey home."

(A parent)

All Global Teachers return home knowing, maybe for the first time, that Africa has a lot to teach us here. It is centred in a concept known as Ubuntu. Mary's visit to Ingleby Mill brought the whole African spirit of Ubuntu to life.

"In African culture, ubuntu is the capacity to express compassion, justice, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building, maintaining and strengthening community. ubuntu speaks to our interconnectedness and the responsibility to each other that flows from our connection."

(Barbara Nussbaum, 'Resurgence' Magazine No 221 2003)

Evidence of this culture is abundant at Ingleby Mill and having a Global Teacher in their midst has without doubt enhanced and extended its presence. It spread further when Liz gave talks in her local church and to the Women's Institute as well as visiting three local schools to take assemblies and to give out photo-packs of resources. Further visits into the community by Mary Alebdem turned a vague idea of what 'people in Africa are like' into a living reality and helped to challenge stereotypes and ignorance. Mary was able to talk about the learning that is going on for her children and how they are now able to identify some differences as well as similarities. Polygamy is the normal family system in their lives and they now know that food and clothing are very different here. Football and basketball, however, are the universal language of all children!

Sustainability for the future

Built in to all the preparation prior to going on a Global Teacher placement is the requirement to plan for dissemination of what has been learnt and for sustainability of the partnership that begins on day one of the placement. Communication is not easy and it would be understandable for children in Stockton-on-Tees to discount the photos and the video material as 'just another place in the world'. Having Liz Shaller there to describe the context of her resources made all the difference. "Mrs Shaller had seen it. We knew we could believe it."

A shared activity of mutual benefit to children in both schools is letter- writing. Liz took letters out with her on her placement and started the correspondence. Their wish to "write letters more often" and to continue their fundraising for Ayuusi-Yine are indications that the Link is in safe hands. Mary Alebdem is enthusiastic about her learners' pride in communicating with children in the UK and feels that they are learning more about another culture by doing so.

The future is these children. Few of them had seen a black person before Mary came into their lives, far less spoken to one. This experience is replicated on the other side of the equator when Global Teachers work in their placement schools and live in the neighbourhoods around them - they may well be the first white face seen by those children.

Mary has become their friend and there was a palpable sadness on the occasions of her leaving assemblies. Toby, Kate and Elliot [all 10] want to go and visit Ghana in the future.

"We think it's good to learn about these things when we are young so that when we are older we can do something about the problems. But the Ghanaians are grateful for what they have. They don't feel jealous or sorry for themselves. This has stopped us being so selfish."

They want to find out more about life in Ghana and about the games they play. They have already learned to play Oware (Link Community Development runs an annual Oware championship for all in the Link Schools Programme) but now need to find out about ampe.

"We have really been surprised by how different their lives are; we thought they were living the same kind of lives as us, but now we know that they help their parents more and some of them have no shoes."

The children have noticed changes in their own school that they want to keep: "People seem to be more generous. Everyone wants to take part, so it's joined us together as a community. It's helped us to see what's going on in other classes in our school."

Liz herself was overwhelmed by the support of all her colleagues and especially the encouragement and vision of her headteacher, Barbara Martin. "Their enthusiasm, interest and commitment . to what I was trying to do has been fundamental to our success."

There is a whole range of factors implicit in this link which will ensure its future: key, is the support of the head and a large number of colleagues, enabling policy changes to be embedded and put into practice throughout the curriculum. Another feature was the choice of cluster schools and in one secondary school in particular, Liz was addressing children she had previously taught at Ingleby Mill. This gave added impact to her message and will hopefully help to sustain it when the next group from her primary school transfer there and want to continue with their pen- friend connections.

Once a Global Teacher, always a Global Teacher. Liz Shaller's work has been embedded into the fabric of this school's curriculum, and even more deeply into the hearts and minds of the wider community by organising the visit of Mary Alebdem. This living link has revitalised the whole process of the project and despite the considerable output of emotional energy and time demanded of everyone involved - the spirit of ubuntu will continue to flourish and grow in these two very special communities.

Compiled by Frances Hillier, Education Advisor, Link Community Development UK, Nov 2003