Portsmouth Grammar School has been working with Kikaaya College School in Uganda as Partners in Learning for more than 15 years. We spoke to the lead teachers at the two schools to find out why the partnership is so successful and what they are planning for the future.
My name is Fiona Titheridge. I'm a teacher of geography at the Portsmouth Grammar School in the UK. I set up the link with Kikaaya [pronounced Chikaya] College School through the British Council back in 2007.
Hello, I'm Mubiru Charles. Previously I was the Headmaster of Kikaaya College School and currently I'm the Director of the school.
Where do you see the future of your partnership?
Fiona Titheridge: I want to have more video conferencing, especially for the Pupils Uganda Group. The pupils and the staff respond so positively when we meet on video. It really brightens everybody up, it brings a lot of joy and it's very motivating.
We'd like to develop a debate about sustainability and conservation between the two schools. We’d do it before our Year 7 pupils visit a wildlife animal sanctuary that houses many animals that are wild in Uganda. We would really appreciate talking to our Ugandan friends about the animals that are their native species and about conservation work before we go to see some of them in captivity.
Mr Mubiru: I’m looking at our past achievements and we want to strengthen what we achieved.
In the past, we had a project of planting trees. We are going to plant more trees and I hope Portsmouth will reciprocate in planting trees in the UK because the environment is a very sensitive issue globally and through this link we are going to continue protecting our environment.
We also want to link up more subjects across the curriculum, so that we have more connection, both schools share experiences, share knowledge, because we've seen it helping a lot in the past. I know it's going to help in improving our curriculum.
Then again we are looking at a possibility of CPD whereby we are going to have sharing experiences among other teachers, so that it could improve the process of learning and teaching.
The culture part, we are going to strengthen more. Whenever there is an event at Portsmouth, we shall be participating online. And whenever there is an event here, we want Portsmouth also to be participating online.
