With partners in Asia, South America, Africa, North America, Australasia and Europe, the Obamarama hub school has taken twinning to a whole new level.

Prince Henry’s Grammar School Specialist Language College, a community comprehensive in Otley, West Yorkshire, is part of such a large global family, it’s hard to keep a track of them all. Christopher Lillington, one of the assistant head teachers estimates that they have a dozen very active schools and the same number of schools with whom they have irregular contact.

A particular success began when Geography teacher June Brighouse was put in touch with a school in South Africa through a project in Leeds called Positively Global. From that point on the partnership between the two schools grew into a very strong link and Prince Henry’s now visits South Africa at least once a year and has played host to the country’s minister for education, Ina Cronje.

June and Chris are full of very simple ideas that can be implemented across all subjects. They believe that making a personal connection and making learning relevant provides real motivation for their pupils.

“Rather than doing a piece of work just to get a tick,” said Chris, “the children do it to send it to a partner school”. He added that, “it’s not just learning about each other, but learning from each other”. June was also keen to stress that they don’t just ‘use’ their partners when it suits them. “It’s about curriculum development across all our schools” she said.

Despite the school's successes, they admit that not every idea works. Some links aren't quite as fruitful because of language barriers and differences in global curricula, but Prince Henry’s continues to forge new partnerships all the time.

The next big project they want to undertake is an exchange of classrooms using webcam technology with their school in South Africa. They also hope to keep up the momentum with their yearly programme of visits, including exchange programmes with France, Germany, Spain and China and trips to South Africa and Spain. In addition, they currently have two pupils from Nepal who are attending the school on a programme of study.

Prince Henry’s places a great emphasis on global citizenship. A series of display boards around the school form a trail with the question “are you a global citizen” in the corner of each one. They have implemented this in a number of ways, including a piece of work about crime in society and comparing UK and Spanish social problems. The role of education in preventing HIV is something they are also working on with their school in South Africa.

As the hub school for the Obamarama, Prince Henry’s is asking 19 of their partner schools to think about what the US President means to them and their country. They have sent a list of questions for learners across the world to answer, and so far have had very positive replies.

To see how their partner schools have responded so far and to find out more about how Prince Henry’s forged their partnerships, click on one of the links below:

BANGLADESH
Marigold School, Syedpur

FRANCE
Collège Paul Eluard, Montereau

GERMANY
Rhein-Maas Gymnasium, Aachen

DENMARK
Dronninglund Gymnasium, Dronningland

NEPAL
Balodaya Secondary Boarding School, Pokhara

NETHERLANDS
Zeldenrust Steelantcollege, Terneuzen

NORWAY
Jessheim High School, Jessheim

SOUTH AFRICA
Earlington Secondary School, Durban

SPAIN
Colegio Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, Madrid

IES López Neyra, Córdoba

UK
Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley

The Whartons Primary School, Otley

USA
Manheim Central High School, Pennsylvania

How did they do that? 

Prince Henry’s have found developing personal links and established connections is the most successful way of forming school partnerships. 

Using their local council’s civic links with Brno in Czech Republic and Hangzhou in China, Prince Henry's formed partnerships with a school in each country.

They have even had success with a link from a link – they recently made a new partnership with a school in the Netherlands thanks to a recommendation from a school in Spain.

See the DCSF Global Gateway and UKOWLA for more ideas on developing school partnerships via community connections.

Where a more personal link hasn’t been possible, Prince Henry’s has found schools via the DCSF Global Gateway database.

The school also makes great use of the many and varied organisations that provide resources and grants, including:
Leeds Development Education Centre - Positively Global 
DFID - Global School Partnerships
British Council - Comenius
With Comenius Prince Henry's produced a ‘World On Your Plate’ cook book with Poland and Italy that was translated into Polish and Italian.

Fundraising is always a challenge, but Prince Henry’s has had 2 fundraising drives (one for South Africa and one for Nicaragua) and is constantly looking for funding from a variety of sources. 

Prince Henry's are also holders of the International School Award.

Join the Obamarama!  To find out more about how your school can get involved with the Obamarama, click here.

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