International Schools' Programme
At Boston Grammar School, Staff and students have been involved in international work for twelve years. We are the only school in the wider Boston area to have received the full International Schools Award three times running. The prevailing aim of our international work is to bring young people (usually aged 14-17) from different cultures together whilst learning new skills or researching information relevant to their studies. They learn to communicate with each other and understand that whilst differences exist, so do many similarities.
Being able to work and communicate with people from different countries is of ever-increasing importance, despite English being the prevailing world language. To quote Nelson Mandela: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart." Language here should not only be understood as the words we choose, but also the gestures we use, the symbols we relate to and the images we draw upon.
Boston Grammar School has received funds from different bodies allowing us to part or fully fund staff and student travel.
Projects
- UK-German Connection
Funded by Businesses from the UK and Germany with an interest in bilateral cooperation
And
- Le Févre
Funded by the the Le Fevre Foundation and administered by the British Council
Aim: To learn about sports in another country and how it is taught both in and outside school
Product: displays in school and final report
BGS began its relationship with the Holocaust Educational Trust over a decade ago. During that time students and teachers have taken part in a variety of courses and learning opportunities.
In England, by law children are to be taught about the Holocaust as part of the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum. The Holocaust is the only historical event whose study is compulsory on the National Curriculum. As an academy, BGS does not need to follow the National Curriculum, however we believe that learning about the Holocaust is an important and valuable part of our student's education.
In Year 9 we deliver a unit of work especially devised for BGS. Many students develop an interest in further study from their learning at this time. Every year we offer two members of our Sixth Form the opportunity to take part in Lessons from Auschwitz. Any student can apply regardless of the subjects they are taking. The programme is in four parts;
A pre-visit orientation seminar where Holocaust survivors give testimony.
A day visit to Auschwitz Birkenau in Poland where local guides and HET staff lead small groups around the sites.
A post visit seminar and a 'Next Steps' project.
When the young person has completed all four aspects they can join the Ambassador Programme.
It cannot be overstated how much those who have taken part have gained from this opportunity. Meeting and hearing from a Holocaust survivor is a life changing experience and a site visit to a concentration camp is unlike anything else undertaken at school.
Over time, a number of our teaching staff have taken part in CPD with HET and other providers. As well as LFA they have attended seminars in the UK and undertaken study visits to the Yad Vashem in Israel and to Prague. Our commitment to Holocaust education for both staff and students remains strong.
BGS has its own Holocaust memorial, commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day and promotes wider learning about the Holocaust in order to educate every member of the BGS community about the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance.
Cattle truck used for deportation
Gas chamber main camp
Jewish cemetery
Guard tower main camp
View from guard tower in camp 2
Aim: Pupils to research local history stories and narrate/ write them up/ Intercultural exchange and life style comparison
Product: PowerPoints and documents of stories
Aim: To support the Nottingham Diocese in taking a party of sick people to the Lourdes Pilgrimage. Pupils from Boston Grammar School raise funds to participate and support this venture.
Participating countries: Germany, Belgium, Finland, Spain, UK
Aim: Pupils study STEM subjects as taught in the other countries and agree through use of webinars and online polls on key aspects to focus on. Lessons are developed and taught via Adobe Connect.
Products: Webinars and teaching material
Aim: To learn about a different culture whilst studying ways in which waste can be reduced in the two countries.
Product: Project report, exchange of letters and work between schools
Participating countries: Germany, Finland, France, Spain and the UK
Aim: Learn how to write CVs (cultural differences) and conduct interviews (including online). Learn about university application processes in different countries.
Products: Website that illustrates the above for each country:
Administered and Funded by the EU
Participating countries: all European Countries
Aim: to debate current political issues in the European Parliament building in Strassbourg
Administered and funded through the British Council
Aim: Pupils learn about each others countries and schools whilst researching the different concepts of Hunger and food shortages
Product: Displays in classrooms and across school highlighting concept of hunger in the two countries and showing cultural differences.
Administered and funded by the F7C Office
Participating countries: The UK
Aim: to debate current and political issues in the Foreign and Common office Building
Participating countries: Germany, Finland and the UK
Aim: identification of key aspects of sports psychology, analysis of movies to identify key aspects of sports psychology, develop skills to present webinars and PowerPoints, develop presentation rhetorical skills
Products: Recorded webinars, teaching material, PowerPoints
Participating countries: Germany, Poland, Finland, Austria and the UK
Aim: applying key concepts of sports psychology to school life
Products: work shop material, meditation routines, work shops on sport psychology
Participating countries: Austria, Holland, Italy, Germany, Croatia and the UK
Aim: Play music together in different venues, Learn how to film and record live music
Products: CDs, Video and online documents with multilingual music terminology
Participating countries: Germany, Luxembourg and the UK
Aim: Research pedagogics of teaching sport and deliver a sport to pupils from visiting countries not played in their home country, Research key aspects of sports psychology
Products: Conference on sports psychology, video and script on how to teach a sport
Participating countries: Germany, Belgium, Austria and Finland
Aim: research local legends and fairy tales, learn translation methodology, Illustration of written work and turning a story into a play and performing it
Products: Book with collected and illustrated fairy tales and legends, video of performed plays and musical interludes
Unlike the above programmes, school trips are predominantly financed by families themselves. Every trip abroad serves an educational purpose be it learning a language, a skill or furthering an academic understanding or interest. Our most recent trips have been to:
Ski trip
We regularly offer pupils the opportunity to travel abroad. In the last few years we have run trips to France, Germany and a skiing trip Austria on a biannual basis.
Business Studies
A trip to Paris, that just happens to include Disneyland.
Art
We offer a biannual Art trip to New York
Berlin, Germany
Normandy, France
Cern
On a biannual basis we offer 6th formers the chance to travel to Cern and the Hadron Collider in Swizterland.
