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International School Award
International School Award - Full Accreditation 2023-2024
WE HAVE DONE IT!
Alongside our recent success stories in PE and ecological initiatives, the school has also this week received its British Council fully accredited, International Award! Our on-going partnerships with schools in Cambodia, Mexico, France and Spain continue to provide our children with the opportunities to learn about international culture and the diversity we can celebrate across the world. We will publish our feedback form here for all to read!
To celebrate, the school is going to repeat last year’s extremely successful French
Patisserie and Spanish Tapas event on Tuesday 23rd July from 1.15pm. Parents
and guardians are welcome to join their children for pastries, traditional tapas snacks as well as fresh juice, coffees and crepes in the school hall.
As we expect the event to be as popular as last year and to help us prepare appropriate quantities, please can families sign-up via this Microsoft Form
Our final judgement for full accreditation
Thank you for submitting your International School Award Impact Evaluation form. We are delighted to inform you that it has been approved by our assessors. Congratulations!
Your school is hereby accredited from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2027. To ensure that there is no gap in your accreditation, you will need to submit your next action plan for reaccreditation in just over 2 years. The actual deadline will be announced on our website nearer the time.
Congratulations on working so hard to co-ordinate such an impressive range of work as an International Co-ordinator! You are a credit to the school and the wider community.
We will be printing certificates of achievement. If the name of your school or your head teacher has changed since you submitted your action plan, please inform us at isa@britishcouncil.org in the next two weeks to ensure we have the correct information for your certificate of achievement. You will be invited to attend an award ceremony where you will receive your certificate and will celebrate your success with other international coordinators and The British Council
We hope that the scope of your excellent international activities will continue to develop and benefit the school community; your support, commitment, creativity and innovative international work is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking part in the International School Award. Please convey our very best wishes and many congratulations to all staff and pupils both in the UK and overseas who have taken part in the scheme. Please also contact your local media to inform them about your successful international work - this is a great achievement and one that deserves celebrating and sharing widely.
We wish you the best as you continue with your international journey.
Feedback from the British Council regarding our current International Award work!
This is a strong action plan from Countess Gytha Primary School, which builds on previous good practices and is easily approved. The summary shows the extent of all the International and Global teaching and learning that takes place and internationalism is at the core of the curriculum. There is a vast range of opportunities for each child to engage in the arts, and to develop a deep understanding of other cultures, languages, and countries. You have presented 7 exciting and fun activities which will be carried out throughout the school year by the majority of the pupils. All of these enhance the teaching and learning of both foreign languages and global issues. You have 4 partner schools both in Europe and worldwide. You have presented some interesting collaborative activities with each of the partner schools covering the required language element as well as topics including traditional games, multiple faiths, food and climate action. Alongside the listed 7 activities you have also included a further 4 which include, Fair Trade, recycling, language ambassadors ( also on your school website) and World Book Day. The evidence you have stated for each activity is exemplary and I am sure the summer assessor will be interested in reading these. It is very helpful and useful that the International tab on the school website is comprehensive which provides a useful tool for both the wider community and the assessors of this application. Good luck with all your global and international work!
Extra activities for our International Award
Recycling
Eco Warriors are a team of children passionate about protecting and saving our planet. They understand how important our planet is and that we must do our best to care for it. The Eco-Warriors work together as a team to make positive changes to our school to make it a more environmentally friendly place and think about how we can help our community become more green. They raise our awareness about sustainability and encourage everyone to be good at recycling and saving energy. We encourage good habits for the future and our planet.
They actively promote:-
Recycling:
- Paper and card
- Batteries
- Textiles
- Printer cartridges
- Food
Saving energy:
- Switching off lights
- Switching off ICT equipment, rather than leaving it on standby
- Closing doors to keep heat in
Conserving energy:
- Water saving push top taps
- Taking care of our equipment so that it lasts well
- Using resources in a way that minimises waste
Care for the environment
- Encourage walking rather that using cars to travel to school.
- Using litter bins to keep our school and local area clean
- Managing our raised beds, planters and Environmental areas to be rich habitats
We have written our own Eco code
Book swap
Recycling drink pouches into coin purses
Using drink bottles for our poppy display
Recycling clothes
Our caring and sharing rail
World Book Day
Whatever our age, we all loved dressing up on Thursday for our annual World Book Day! We shared our favourite books and stories and participated in the Eco book swap organised by The Eco Team and Mr Gallagher. The children loved sitting down in the 'reading lounge' to enjoy a quiet read and some classes even had hot-chocolate and biscuits a d read books from around the world.
Thank you so much to the PTFA for gifting the books for the prizes for the Best Dressed in each class. The costumes looked incredible. We even had a special visitor to give out the prizes! Bookman commented on the outstanding efforts from the children.
Country and Language of the month
World map and news display - old display and updated version
School in a bag charity receives donation - April
We were delighted to be able to donate £60 to School in a Bag, which has enabled us to purchase three school bags for three worthy children in Tanzania.
Our own Colour Run linking with the Hindu Festival of Holi
Summer Term 2023
Whole School Enjoy Celebrating Chinese New Year 🧧
Language Ambassadors lead School Assembly
This Sunday marks this year’s Lunar New Year and our Language Ambassadors welcomed all to an assembly on Monday, highlighting the event of The Year of The Rabbit and what it means to those in China and around the world. Merlin class also prepared a tasty treat of Egg-Fried rice that they had prepared and shared with Mr Gordon. Xié xié!
World Cup Display Takes Pride of Place in School Hall
Using The World Cup to research countries that are participating
Our newly appointed Language Ambassadors help prepare bunting and flags ready for our European Day of Languages on Monday 26th September.
Celebrating our Good News!
This week we received the news that we have achieved the British Council Intermediate International Dimension Award. Since September, the school has worked hard to further embed international work into the curriculum, thereby making their students more aware of global issues.
We have gained experience of working on collaborative projects with schools in Spain and France, deepening the impact of learning and increasing levels of collaborative activities.
The British Council commented, “As a school, Countess Gytha have an excellent range of activities seeking to develop and embed a whole school commitment to international teaching and learning. There is an evident commitment to make global connections and undertake and understand global challenges. The school’s commitment to support young learners, who are keen to take action to bring about a better world, is admirable. The work in your small school to highlight issues around the natural world and climate change are excellent, as are your projects highlighting international issues and looking at countries, flags, faiths and culture around the world.”
Well done everyone. We are looking forward to building on this award, throughout the coming year and we are aiming for full accreditation by July 2023!
The International School Award (ISA) celebrates the achievements of schools that do exceptional work in international education. Fostering an international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart of the British Council’s work with schools, so that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need for life work in today’s world.