Good afternoon families,

 

I am buzzing! I have just learnt that the 7 days+ I spent working on a Turing Scheme Grant Application has paid dividends with an award of £18k.

 

I have included the project summary below. The project will involve KS2 and possibly KS1 children with a group of older children and staff cycling to Holland and spending time in a school there. The crux now is to find a partner school in Amsterdam in September.

 

Project Overview

West Denton Primary School (WDPS) plans to partner with a Dutch school on a ‘Creative, Healthy and Natural Me’ project’ for the mutual benefit of both school communities. We want our children to appreciate and learn how best to adopt a healthy, holistic lifestyle by comparing and contrasting lifestyles in both countries and then create a road map ‘Life Manual’ with the Dutch students that will benefit both our communities. A key element of this is to spend time talking to and learning with Dutch students and teachers in their school, travelling around Amsterdam to see how people adopt healthy lifestyles and then synthesise cultural learning through the ‘Life Manual’.  

 

We want to take the best learning from both cultures and nurture students to thrive in life.  

 

Aims and Objectives (Summary) 

1. Foster holistic development by creating an understanding of the importance of a healthy, stress-reduced and active lifestyle to enable students to lead a balanced life. 
2. Compare, contrast and learn first-hand about lifestyles in Holland and the UK.  Foster critical thinking by enabling students to reflect upon their habits and Dutch students’ behaviours with regard to their diet, personal wellbeing and activity, to draw conclusions and change their habits/ behaviour by adopting a healthier, stress-reduced and active way of life.  
   3. Ingrain newly developed positive habits, gain co-operation skills, deal with challenges, present own ideas and be open-minded towards new approaches.  
   4. Develop a long-term partnership between WDPS and a Dutch school leading to future projects. Tackle stereotypes and prejudices. Disseminate inter-cultural learning nationally and internationally. 
   5. Support effective and innovative pedagogies, learning environments and strengthen teachers’ professional development in Holland and at WDPS.  

 

Benefits 

When immersing WDPS children in a Dutch school and experiencing Dutch cultural life, staff will guide students to set aspirational life goals so that the Dutch trip has maximum influence and impact for their life chances. A key element to helping to maximise life success is to adopt a healthy lifestyle when you are young. Learning and travelling in Amsterdam with Dutch students will be an important stepping-stone on their life journey. 

 

Key Elements 

-Life Manual with recipes and students’ tips/ ideas for a healthy diet and personal wellbeing. Highlight the positives and areas for improvement in both cultures.  

-Presentation to Dutch families on our joint learning and WDPS families (Videoed).  

- Shared learning platform for teachers and students – ideas for an active, well-balanced life including dealing with stress. 

- More active and healthy students who are more aware of the importance of a balanced lifestyle, a “healthy food” curriculum and long-term activities at school.  

- Symbiotic long-term international relationship between schools.