International School Award

 

Trinity is currently applying for their third International School Award. Many of you will have seen the ISA logo on letters sent home or on the flag which regularly flies from one of our flag poles.

To be awarded an International School Award it is necessary to write an Action Plan and to keep a record of different types of international work carried out in a school during one academic year. The Action Plan comprises seven areas.

Cross Curricular

Year 9 pupils studying German will start the year with a unit entitled Medien (Media).

This will involve earning the correct German for computing terms, conducting research into German speaking musicians, modern day bands and composers. They will find out about Reality TV in Germany and which programmes are broadcast in both countries. Finally they will have the opportunity to watch a German film in German and be a film critic.

This part of the Action Plan has now been successfully completed.

Wider Community

Trinity is part of a Comenius Partnership working alongside schools in Italy, Finland, France and Austria. This is a new partnership and we plan to call on pupils there when we conduct our annual MFL Master Class in July. G&T pupils from local primary schools will spend a morning at Trinity finding out about our partner schools – the countries, cities, language and culture. Pupils in our partner schools will send messages and replies will be written during the Master Class session.

This activity has taken place and was a great success.

Majority of Pupils

The aim is to celebrate World Book Day and further increase interest in international literature. Pupils whose mother tongue is not English will be encouraged to share the literature of their home country and we will introduce literature from France, Germany and Spain as well as from the countries of our partner schools.

Long after this event pupils continued to read international literature and in particular German literature.

Majority of Curricular Subjects

This year Trinity will combine European Day of Languages with a Well Being Day. European Day of Languages is a regular event at Trinity and staff and pupils are encouraged to greet each other in languages as far ranging as Korean, Welsh and Swahili. Language facts will be posted around the school – for example did you know that bungalow is originally a Hindi word? We will also link with our partner schools as the Well Being day is a legacy from our previous Comenius project at the end of which it was agreed that each school would host a common day in September.

This activity took place and was much enjoyed by all.

Curriculum Based Activity

The music department will be teaching pupils in both Key Stages about world music. This will include a study of The Blues and its background as well as a study of the music of Bali and the importance of music in other cultures. They will study the music, the instruments and the composers as well as having the opportunity to compose music in a different style. GCSE pupils will study music from Africa and India as well as Europe. The aim is to open pupils’ eyes to different styles of music and to give them an understanding of the value placed music in other cultures.

This activity has now taken place and the aims were achieved in full.

Collaborative Activity with another Partner

As part of their annual visit to London the European Class from College 2 Durendael in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands will be paying a visit to Trinity to get a taste of English school life. They will meet with our pupils and experience a range of lessons as well as giving presentations to our pupils. They will enjoy a typical English school lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings before heading back to London and the stage musical Wicked.

Once again this activity proved a great success will pupils from both schools. The Dutch pupils were able to have taster lessons in Hebrew, art and even had the chance to make a CD of songs from Wicked in their taster music lesson. Their presentations were much appreciated, particularly the one which included free waffles! All concerned are looking forward to next year!

All Year Round Activity

2010 saw the start of our new Comenius Project entitled “The Student Voice across Europe”. Trinity is the coordinating school for this project and we are working alongside partners from previous projects in Finland and Italy as well as new partners in Austria and France. We have covered three topics or “voices” this year – The Voice of Technology, The Performing Voice and Different Voices. The work involved has included surveys on the use of facebook, the value of having drama on the curriculum and an exploration of the number of languages spoken in our five institutions. We have met twice in Ancenis, France and Eisenstadt, Austria and Trinity has been represented by Ambassador Pupils who had the opportunity to take part in performances alongside professionals in the theatre in Ancenis and experiencing a boarding school in Austria.

The first year has been completed successfully and we are currently looking forward to our next meeting in Finland in September. This meeting will be called The Silent Voice and work has already begun. The meeting will also provide us with the opportunity to plan our next project.