Search
Search
International Partnerships and Work
International Work International School Award Accreditation in:-
July 2015, December 2018 and July 2021
In July 2021, we successfully achieved re-accreditation in the British Council International Schools Award for the third time. As part of this project we worked closely with staff and children from our partner schools in Rajkot, India and France and held various themed activities across school. Monkhouse’s international work includes learning how to say hello and greetings in a
range of languages and using these at different times across the school day, exploring the
commonwealth with our youngest pupils as part of their project on ‘What it's like to be Royal’,
Year Three looked at becoming sustainable by growing and planting food and having a
whole school focus on Fairtrade. By corresponding with pen pals in a school in France
across the year, it not only improved our French language skills, at the same time as
learning about their culture and festivals but allowed our pen pals to develop their English.
During the last year, we recognised the significance of mental health and wellbeing was
vitally important and it raised the awareness of inequality around the world even though we
are all facing this pandemic together. When we returned to school, we created a display of
photographs showing what made us happy and kept us going through the national
lockdown. We worked with our partner schools to share creative work indicating what made
the children happy. Staff and pupils were praised in the letter from the British Council:
Monkhouse’s ongoing international work legacy includes learning how to say hello and greetings in a
range of languages and using these at different times across the school day, exploring the
commonwealth with our youngest pupils as part of their project on ‘What it's like to be Royal’,
Year Three looked at becoming sustainable by growing and planting food and having a
whole school focus on Fairtrade.
During the last year, we recognised the significance of mental health and wellbeing was
vitally important and it raised the awareness of inequality around the world even though we
were all facing this pandemic together. We worked with our partner schools to share creative work indicating what made the children happy.
International Work and Links with other local and international Schools for re accreditation in July 2024
As a school, we have close links with three other international schools;
- Panchshil School, Rajkot, India
- Huafu Primary School, Shenzhen, China
- Jean Rostand, 64 Rue Doyens Albert et Pierre Bouzat, 35700 Rennes.
We have collaborated on a number of projects as part of the International School Award work and look forward to continuing this work.
Our International Projects this year are :-
- British Sign Language Work across school
- Bastille day - Understanding the importance in French history and celebrating this as a school with our partner school
- Holi Festival - understanding the importance of this festival and celebrating this as a whole school with our partner school
- Yoga and wellbeing - recognising the wellbeing benefits of Ypga in school and celebrating this with our partner school
- French Nativity
- Year Six - pen pal exchange with our partner school
- International Art and Culture work - clubs, and events and visitors into school
Our International Corridor Display
International Partner Schools and their locations
Pen Pal Work in Year Six
Year six have enjoyed the activities to help them get to know their pen pals in France this year.
They have sent a power point sharing all the different spaces in our school. They have recorded video messages and sent postcards to their pen pals.
Pen Pal Videos
Video message from our pen pals in France
Postcards to our Pen Pals in France
Panchshil School Information
Some information about Panchshil School
International links with Panchshil School
Celebrating the Hindu Festival of Holi with our partner school in India
Our children have been learning about Holi, the Hindu festival of spring and colour. Across school, they focussed on showing their learning in different ways. In Nursery, they had an amazing morning painting their faces and decorating t-shirts, Year Three used paint to create their own Holi tee shirts.
Across school, we sent messages of happy Holi to our friends at Panchshil School.
Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates spring, love, and new life.
Some families hold religious ceremonies, but for many Holi is more a time for fun. It's a colourful festival, with dancing, singing and throwing of powder paint and coloured water.
Holi is also known as the "festival of colours".
When is Holi?
Holi marks the arrival of spring and the end of winter. It is usually celebrated in March.
How is Holi celebrated?
On the first night of Holi, people light bonfires and throw roasting grains, popcorn, coconut and chickpeas onto them.
The next day, people of all ages go into the streets for fun and paint-throwing. Everyone gets involved!
Hindus have fun by smearing each other with paint and throwing coloured water
Holi Festival March 2024
Christmas Nativity in French
The Key Stage Two children took part in a nativity, where they shared the Christmas story in French. Year 3&4 took on the narration learning all their lines well. All children across Yr 2 - 6 sang 5 songs in French. It was great fun but quite challenging.
Christmas Nativity in French Photos
Christmas Nativity in French
Celebrating wellbeing through Yoga with our International partner School
Panchshil School shared with us how Yoga supports their children to have a positive approach to life.
In school, we have been exploring how Yoga can benefit our children.
Yoga helps children manage their anxiety. The breathing exercises and relaxation techniques learned from practicing yoga can help children with stress management. Teaching children how to reduce stress in a healthy way is an important life skill that will help them as children and as adults.
Yoga can improve children’s emotional regulation. Another benefit of yoga for children is that it helps children learn to be in the present moment while relaxing and gaining a peaceful state of mind, which ultimately improves their emotional regulation.
Yoga boosts children’s self-esteem. Yoga for kids can do wonders for their self-esteem. Perfecting a pose or improving their balance and flexibility can give young children a sense of personal empowerment.
Yoga increases children’s body awareness and mindfulness. Going through a variety of yoga poses helps children learn about their bodies and the movements they’re capable of doing.
Yoga enhances children’s concentration and memory. One of the top benefits of kids’ yoga is that the different types of moves requires children to focus and work on their memorisation skills—both of which can translate over into their academic performance.
Yoga develops children’s strength and flexibility. Yoga helps strengthen children’s growing bodies and helps them improve their flexibility, which can reduce their chance of injury.
Yoga teaches discipline and reduces impulsivity. Yoga can reduce challenging behaviors in the classroom by providing a physical outlet for children to express themselves. It also teaches children about discipline as they work on clearing their minds and perfecting their poses.
In school, we have been exploring how Yoga can benefit our children.
Yoga helps children manage their anxiety. The breathing exercises and relaxation techniques learned from practicing yoga can help children with stress management. Teaching children how to reduce stress in a healthy way is an important life skill that will help them as children and as adults.
Yoga can improve children’s emotional regulation. Another benefit of yoga for children is that it helps children learn to be in the present moment while relaxing and gaining a peaceful state of mind, which ultimately improves their emotional regulation.
Yoga boosts children’s self-esteem. Yoga for kids can do wonders for their self-esteem. Perfecting a pose or improving their balance and flexibility can give young children a sense of personal empowerment.
Yoga increases children’s body awareness and mindfulness. Going through a variety of yoga poses helps children learn about their bodies and the movements they’re capable of doing.
Yoga enhances children’s concentration and memory. One of the top benefits of kids’ yoga is that the different types of moves requires children to focus and work on their memorisation skills—both of which can translate over into their academic performance.
Yoga develops children’s strength and flexibility. Yoga helps strengthen children’s growing bodies and helps them improve their flexibility, which can reduce their chance of injury.
Yoga teaches discipline and reduces impulsivity. Yoga can reduce challenging behaviors in the classroom by providing a physical outlet for children to express themselves. It also teaches children about discipline as they work on clearing their minds and perfecting their poses.
British Sign Language
Each year on 23 September people celebrate the International Day of Sign Languages, to recognise the importance of sign languages around the world.
The aim of the special day is to remind big companies, worldwide organisations and global governments of the importance and significance of sign languages. According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are approximately 72 million deaf people worldwide.
There are over 300 different sign languages and over 70,000 deaf people in the UK have British Sign Language as their first language.
In our school, we have some children with hearing difficulties and want to help them be included.
We have introduced a sign language club which is open to children across the year. In addition, we have learned to sing and sign several songs as a whole school.
International Work with our Partner Schools
International Art and DT Club
MfL Les Olympiques des Animaux
Year Three and Four children joined in the workshop to take on the role of the characters from the show. They spent some weeks preceding the show, learning the lyrics from the songs. Their favourite songs were the Olympic song ( Respect, Amitié) and saute, secoue which was like a rap.
Year 2, 5 &6 joined Year Three and Four in watching the show. Although the show all in French, the children were able to follow this through their french learning as well as from the visual cues given.
We all had such good fun.
A Les Olympiques des Animaux
We had fun learning some songs in French and joining in with the actors.
Our favourite song was all about the Olympic Values - Respect, Amitié.
Our favourite song was all about the Olympic Values - Respect, Amitié.
MfL Les Olympiques des Animaux
Children from Huafu Primary School Visit Monkhouse
Teaching the school a traditional Chinese Song - 好想你 hao xiang ni