Case Studies
St. Dominic's High School (Santa Sabina), Sutton and Masongola Secondary School, Zomba, Malawi
Background
This is a newly formed partnership that grew organically following a Trócaire study trip for teachers to Malawi in 2008, which Sara Bradshaw - a teacher in Santa Sabina and WorldWise project coordinator in the school - participated in. She returned there in the summer of 2008 to teach at Masongola Secondary School and a link between the schools was established. Both schools formally joined the WorldWise programme in 2009.
Focus
The aims of the project are to enable mutual learning of partners’ culture, to understand daily life through letter writing and profile exchange and to investigate development issues through joint project work. In recognition of the importance of development education there is now a Development Education module in Transition year and several R.E. classes in Santa Sabina which are involved in projects with Masongola students. Development issues are also explored in many Geography and CSPE classes. See our partnership agreement for more detailed information.
Progress
Following an initial exchange of student profiles between both schools, participating students are now involved in joint project work on environment, rights and responsibilities, and health. Students in Santa Sabina have also been enthusiastically involved in workshops given by Self Help Africa, as part of the WorldWise/IDEA student workshops currently available to all WorldWise schools. Students from both schools are currently engaged in a recycling project which is progressing very well. The highlight this year was a WorldWise teacher visit in November 2009 by Masongola teachers Ellen Chapita (WorldWise project coordinator) and Enock Abraham. This was a wonderful experience and brought the project to life for the entire school community in Santa Sabina. Read more about the visit from the partner teachers' perspective in Ms. Chapita and Mr. Abraham's report. The visit was also an opportunity for both schools to revisit and revise their partnership agreement, in order to plan for the future of the project.
Future
As this is the first year of this partnerships, both schools are happy with the strong foundation that has been laid and look forward to gaining a deeper insight into each others' cultures, and to exploring development issues together. They are also excited about opening the project up to more students and teachers in more and varied subject areas in both schools in the future.
Good practice elements from this partnership
Partnership agreement
