Stringer International
International Dimension
- Ambassador: Stringer's Assistant Head International Coordinator has been appointed by the Foreign Office/British Council as a Comenius and Twinning Ambassador to encourage other UK schools to build on the international experience that Stringer has developed over the years and make links with other schools around Europe.
- BISS: Brighton International Summer School is a private English Language School based at Dorothy Stringer. It brings school groups from many different countries from around the world to Stringer for schort 'integrated' study programmes. We believe such visits are of great cultural and educational benefit to our own pupils as well as to our overseas guests. BISS is accredited by the British Council.
- Cameroon Project: Supported by Department for International Development Global Schools Partnership grants. Linking Stringer with Lycee Classique de Kaele. A Partnership Agreement has been drawn up between two schools outlining cooperation in five curriculum areas (MFL, Geography, Art and Design, Science and Sport). Stringer's Head of Geography visited Cameroon in Jan 2006, and deputy headteacher from Cameroon visited us in May 2007. Two teachers from Stringer will visit Cameroon every year for next 3 years. Photo diaries and pupil letters have been exchanged. Fundraising in this country to support development of library in Kaele, including weekly Cameroon Cafe. Community event Cameroon Evening took place 26 March 2008. Cameroon and West Africa was our theme for Children’s Parade at Brighton Festival this year.
- Comenius Language Assistant: This year Dorothy Stringer is hosting a Comenius-funded assistant from France who supports the learning of French, and a German assistant from the University of Munster to support the learning of German in exam classes.
- Comenius Project: We are working with schools from France, Germany, Italy and Finland on the project 'Environmental Education for Sustainable Development'. Some of the meetings between teachers and pupils take place via videoconferencing. An International Litter Day took place between the schools on 24 January 2008.
- Comenius Project 'LangSportUnited': This European Union-funded two year project with our partner school in Madrid will subsidize our pupils to spend 10 days in Spain, including time in Madrid as well as undertaking water sports on the Mediterranean near Valencia.
- Comenius Training: Eight teachers have participated in Comenius-funded language courses over the past four years in Spain, France and Portugal to improve their linguistic and methodological competence and to enable them to teach at a higher level.
- Ghana Project: 19 pupils from Stringer visited Ghana for 11 days in Feb 2008. This trip now happens every February. They visited the Kumasi Senior Technical High School, our link school, where our pupils are undertaking joint curriculum work with their Ghanaian counterparts on biodiversity, energy use, virtual sport and story-telling.
- Global Work Across Curriculum: Substantial work involving an international element is taking place in twelve different areas of the curriculum.
- International School Award: Stringer received this award in 2007 from the DCSF/British Council, in recognition of "the huge variety of international projects embedded in the curriculum". During the course of the year, thirty four different international activities were taking place within the school. Stringer now has "sustainable and ongoing" links with schools in 11 different European countries, as well as in Cameroon, Ghana, Nepal and the USA. We believe strongly that young people should be given opportunities to broaden their horizons so that they see themselves as global citizens.
- Interreg IVA Project: 'Education-Enterprise-Prosperity', supported by European Regional Development Fund, linking Stringer with Institution St. Joseph in Le Havre, France. Now in its sixth year. Facilitates pupil trips and exchanges between two schools. Over 200 Stringer pupils per year travel to Normandy, and approximately 20 Stringer staff for professional seminars with their French counterparts. Pupil trips and exchanges in different curriculum areas (Modern Languages, Music, History, Sport, Art, Business Studies). Pupils meet their partners via videoconferencing prior to trips.
- Palistine Project: We have a link with the Bardala School in the Palestinian West Bank. All pupils have participated in an assembly setting the background to the link against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A teacher from Stringer spent 10 days in Palestine visiting the Bardala School during the Easter holidays as part of an educational delegation. Pupils from our Human Rights Group have done a live link-up with Palestinian pupils on Skype.
- School Trips: Apart from the Interreg supported trips to France, other international school trips taking place this year are the German Exchange to the Black Forest, Spanish Exchange to Madrid, Handball/Cricket Exchange to Stuttgart, Drama trip to New York, Sports trip to Paris, History trip to Berlin, History trip to Ypres, Skiing trip to Italy, as well as other trips to Barcelona and Venice.
