One thing to come out of lockdown was our determination not to let our links with schools abroad slip away. We have an exchange with a school in Spain which has been going since 1995. And we have schools in France with whom we exchange letters.
Having a good relationship with a partner school is vital. We have tried exchanging letters with several schools in France, and it is important to manage expectations. Are classes set or mixed ability? Is the partner school committed to all pupils being able to take part, whatever the level of their language, cultural knowledge, literacy or handwriting? Can deadlines shift without causing a furore? Do the schools share similar ideas about how pupils should be paired up (or should they work in groups?), and how pupils can (or shouldn't) contact each other? What language are they expecting the letters in, and to what extent do these need to be corrected by the teacher? Is the language the most important element, or the cultural contact?
The French pupils then took pictures of the Flat Stanleys enjoying their stay in France, before sending the photos and the Flat Stanley back to England with a letter.
The letter became the least important item, and pupils enjoyed this way of an avatar doing a visit to France for them. One year when the French Stanleys were here in the winter, our pupils made them all cut out Christmas jumpers to return home in!
(Unfortunately last year our Stanleys spent rather longer than they were supposed to, locked down in France!)
Our Year 8 curriculum is based around describing Town, School, Free Time. Writing to introduce yourself to a real French person brings the pupils and the teachers up against the question, "What can you actually say in French." I have written in a previous post about how we use authentic tasks as a driver for the curriculum and to make sure we equip pupils with the French they need in order to express themselves. A mixture of pictures, a paragraph in English, and a paragraph in French seems to be the best option. Although some pupils like to send sweets, football stickers, fishing hooks (?!) etc...
For our Year 10 pupils who would have been hoping to go to Spain on the exchange this year, we have tried to make a virtual exchange experience. This video shows how I asked them to create a virtual tour of the school with a voice over. It would be just as easy to make one to show the town that pupils live in using images from google street view.
city. They have really gone to town, with music, voice-over and humour.
The pupils have a shared folder on google drive where they can write to each other. At the moment the exchanges are directed by the teachers - all the pupils produce something on the same topic - but they are asking if they can just be in touch on social media.
Meanwhile, with the Year 9 Spanish beginners, we have had a similar letter exchange via shared google documents, hoping it might inspire them to sign up for the real exchange next year!
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