Newport to Nigeria

For the past year, Llanwern High School has been a part of an exciting collaboration organised by the British Council Connecting Classrooms Programme. This learning programme connects schools from the UK to other parts of the world, in this instance, Newport to Nigeria.

After attending the launch of DARPL at Llanwern High, we got to see first hand the connection between the classroom at Government secondary school, Jiwa in Abuja, Nigeria and the pupils of the award-winning school in action and got to say hi. This was right up our street, so we wanted to learn more and asked if we could meet with Obaje Chogo Ekele, who is a senior education officer, to find out how the exchange has enriched the school’s teaching and learning.

The school is a government funded school with over 2,300 students, located near the Zuma Rock, a famous landmark, outside of the capital of Abuja. During our zoom conversation, Obaje was able to virtually show me around the school, as well as the view of the famous rock in the distance. Just like some schools in Wales have breath-taking views of the Welsh hills and countryside, the view from the government school was equally beautiful.

Obaje explains that the partnership has afforded the students a better understanding of Wales, and the UK. They, like many other countries, did not realise Wales was a separate nation with its own language. They were also surprised to learn that Wales was a very diverse country and enjoyed connecting online to see the many different skin shades of the pupils and staff.

The interaction between the schools have allowed them to co-exist and replicate the same projects. Llanwern shared their hydrophonics science project and the Government school shares their project on biogas. Obaje said that the exchange has afforded them not just the technical aspects of teaching and learning material, such as lesson plans, scheme of works and curriculum, but the teachers and pupils have been energised to a new way of critical thinking and problem solving. He said that, often, the graduates of the school, whose ages range from 12 to 18, sometimes lack critical thinking skills and are lost as to know what to do when they leave. But, he said that this opportunity has helped with personal, social and emotional development of the students.

The British Council Connecting Classrooms also offers face-to face classroom exchange, where teachers can spend time at their partnering school. Something both schools hope to take part in the future to experience first-hand the differences, but also combine their similarities. This is excellent work in raising global citizens, helping students to develop a more diverse understanding of global awareness and interconnection, whilst still acknowledging different cultures and experiences.

Developing Global Citizens

Furthermore, Obaje describes the benefits as a teacher, stating that the partnership with Llanwern school has exposed him to the cultural diversity that exists around the world, thereby affording him a more balanced and well-adjusted perspective to other cultures, which has also taught him to give a good account of his ambassadorial loyalty to his country, Nigeria. He has also been exposed to some aspects of digital literacy skills where he saw how Padlet was used for the first time. The knowledge alone that his school is on the international global learning map has ignited a new fire, amongst the students, teachers and the parents, in terms of behavioural changes in their attitude and commitment to learning and their performance this term. The support the parents deploy in meeting their educational needs, like textbooks, which has taken a new turn positively. The school administrator is so proud of this partnership and has lent his support in so many ways, to make sure it adds to his credit administratively. My fellow colleagues have shown their solidarity as well, in so many ways, and have lent their support, where necessary.

Deputy Headteacher, Sian Smith

Explained;

Our engagement with programme not only allowed our pupils to research the country, it allowed us to engage with the Nigerian pupils through live online meetings to talk about similarities and differences in terms of their journeys to school, where they learn best and what makes them happy.

The pupils then worked together on a joint hydroponics project, towards one of the sustainable development goals (global goals) and one of our pupils insisted that there be a President of our STEAM club because there was one in Nigeria! Our teachers have met online to discuss and share resources on numerous occasions and we have sent videos to each other of assemblies, lessons and the school building. Sometimes the technology is a challenge (in both countries!) but because we both value the connection and opportunity, we make it work.