KING’S Ely has been awarded the Quality Label by the British Council for a project using eTwinning, an online community that enables schools across Europe to work together over the internet.
Over the course of the year, pupils have been working with eight other schools in Italy, Spain, Turkey, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, France and Malta to help them understand about different cultures and to expand their horizons. The project involved subjects and skills including ICT, geography, languages and many other areas of the curriculum. As well as sending and receiving letters via post, the children have been able to blog with one another, asking questions directly to their European peers and sharing their work on the eTwinspace.
Languages teacher Lorraine Oldham said: “The project started with a logo competition, with some choosing to create hand-made designs while others opted to use technology. Pupils also wrote about their hometown, exchanged Christmas cards and found out first-hand about life in Norway, producing beautiful pictures of the Northern lights.”
She added: “Everyone at the school has enjoyed working on the project and this award is testament to the incredible work that the children have produced.”
Funded by the European Commission and managed by the British Council in the UK, eTwinning aims to develop knowledge and understanding of different European cultures and languages and help young people gain skills for their futures lives and careers. The eTwinning portal provides an online community for schools in Europe, enabling schools in over 32 countries to link with each other. There are over 93,000 schools registered in the scheme, more than 9,000 of them from the UK.