Partner schools involved in the 2021 International School Award application

The ROTA schools:

Sint-Lodewijkscollege, Brugge, Belgium

Gymnasium Waldstrasse, Hattingen, Germany

Elde College, Schijndel, Netherlands

Pintor Antonio Lopez, Tres Cantos, Spain

This partnership started in 1991 through a link between the dioceses of Lincoln and Brugge. This led to the formation of the ROTA project connecting LCHS with four like-minded schools in Belgium, Germany, France and Spain. The title 'ROTA' was chosen because of the cyclical nature of the activities which originally were based on a single annual Sixth Form conference hosted by one school in turn every five years. Over the decades the project has evolved. For a time there was a four nation Year 8 soccer tournament and there have been staff CPD visits. More recently the project has attracted Comenius and now Erasmus+ funding which has led to a more structured year-long programme. The original British, German and Belgian partners are still involved. LCHS hosted in March 2019. The most recent event should have been hosted by Tres Cantos in March 2020 but had to be cancelled at the last minute because of the pandemic. Contact is maintained by email, the website and, until the pandemic, staff meetings during each mobility event. The partners are now discussing some collaborative online projects.

Hebei Tangshan Foreign Language School, China:

The partnership with HTFLS began in 1997 as a result of the civic link between Lincoln and Tangshan established a few years earlier. The initial progress was slow with an exchange of books on 'World Poetry Day' later that year as the main result. The turning point was the Mandarin Immersion Course of 2001 when 24 LCHS pupils and three staff spent three weeks at the University of Nationalities in Beijing and were then able to go to Tangshan. This was a watershed moment. A Chinese group from HTFLS came to Lincoln in 2002 and a succession of exchange visits followed with very few interruptions up to the present day. There have also been Tangshan teachers of English at LCHS through CLA and now Confucius Classroom most years. LCHS has run summer school Immersion courses for Tangshan pupils at Riseholme College and sent staff to lead CPD in Tangshan. We have collaborated on ISA applications in previous years. We hosted a number of fee-paying Chinese students in our Sixth Form earlier until the British Government changed the rules on Tier 4 visas which effectively blocked state schools from doing this. Today the cost of travel and Chinese visas, safeguarding and accommodation issues, a reduction in opportunities through the British Council, real cuts in school budgets in both countries, political shifts and the pandemic all create obstacles. However, we were pleased to have one collaborative activity in this reapplication.

Gymnasium Jiri Ortena, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

The partnership originated in the early 1990's just after "the Fall of the Wall" through a connection at the then agricultural college at Caythorpe and their link with a school in Haslev, Denmark. The first visits took place in 1992-1993 and soon developed into triangular partnership - CED - Czech-English-Danish. A French school joined a few years later, and the partnership became CED+. With Comenius and Erasmus funding it ran rigorous series of Sixth Form activities until 2018. In the 2021 RISA application, the Czech engagement has been through the Travel and Tourism survey. The project on ‘Ghosts’ has been postponed.

Mohamed Derfoufi High School, Morocco:

This link originated in 2010-2011 when Chris Williams was invited to lead ISA training in Morocco. He made three visits to Rabat and Agadir, and met Abdellatif Zoubair, until recently ELT Supervising coordinator, SM Regional Academy for Education and Training, Agadir. They remained in touch and when CCGL was launched, Abdellatif's local expertise paved the way to a strong connection with a cluster of schools.

The current partnership began with a successful CCGL R1 application in October 2018 with the theme 'Zero Waste'. LCHS was the lead school. Maddy Gelder has developed the Water Fountain project with the LCHS environment group while Sally Rowlett is connected with Mohamed Derfoufi for the Travel and Tourism course.

Magooli Childrens' Education Centre, Namayingo, Uganda

This link came through another partnership led by St Peter at Gowts Primary School.  That connection led us to Magooli Childrens' Education Centre had opened in 2019 with the support of the United Methodist Church. It has a focus on orphans and vulnerable children. The original partnership idea was for classes to work together on Susan Hill’s 1983 novel, ‘The Woman in Black’ and then explore the idea of ghost stories from both countries. The Gymnasium Jiri Ortena would also like to be involved in the project with Jess Foster’s class. The pandemic has delayed the project. However, the new link with Namayingo has led to a successful CCGL Round 13 partnership application in June 2021 for five Lincolnshire and four Ugandan partner schools

Rasami British International School, Bangkok,Thailand

One of our Art teachers, Luke Fraser, who worked there from August 2016 to August 2018, contacted the school and suggested the project. He was then put in contact with the current Art teacher at the school to plan and implement the project from May 2021.

Collège Saint Dominique, Chalon-sur-Saône, France:

This new partnership developed through Cat Ogereau and Sue Volak in the Modern Foreign Languages department in spring 2021. It has started with an exchange of letters by email.

Other links:

Colleagues in other schools and organisations have also linked with us recently, but they are not specifically mentioned in the 2021 International School Award application. In some cases the key teachers have moved schools. In others the names of the schools have changed. The links include:

• Gheorghe Lazar National College, Bucharest (since 2002);
• Lycée Aimé Césaire, Clisson, France (since 2006);
• The Finnish Association of Small Secondary Schools (since 2007)
• Warmińsko - Mazurski Ośrodek Doskonalenia Nauczycieli w Olsztynie, Elblag, Poland - CPD centre for teachers (since 2008)
• Amares Secondary School, Portugal (since 2010);
• Khaitan Public School, National Capital Region, India (since 2014);
• Kauno technologijos universiteto inžinerijos licėjus, Lithuania - Lyceum of Engineering of Kaunas university of technology, the school section (since 2017)
• Shri Ram High School, National Capital Region, India (since 2020);