Mexico and Cumbria schools link up - earthquakes strike both!

Francisco Villa School in Mexico City has been closed for more than a week as a result of the swine flu outbreak. 

Pupils and teachers there have been keeping in touch with friends at their twin school in the UK, Ulverston Victoria High School, or UVHS. 

On Tuesday, a group of teachers from Francisco Villa in Mexico City gathered at one of their homes for an online video conference with a group of pupils and staff at UVSH in Cumbria.

Mexican teachers kept their face masks on during the link up.  

Conversation centred on the swine flu outbreak exploring the consequences for business, especially street traders and taxi drivers whose children attend Francisco Villa School.   

The schools also a shared remarkable co-incidence. 

"They had an Earthquake, 5.7 on the Richter scale," explains UK teacher Shaun Rayner, "not an unusual occurrence but we also in Ulverston had an earthquake, 3.7 on the Richter scale, a very rare occurrence."

Pupils at UVHS have been exploring moral issues raised by the swine flu

RE teacher Pat Hannam who co-ordinates the link for Ulverston Victoria High School, encouraged her Year 9 pupils to engage in a 'philosophical enquiry' about the swine flu outbreak.

Pupils watched a film on the BBC News website about the origins of the swine flu in Mexico and then discussed whether the virus could be considered a 'natural evil' or whether there is a moral dimension.

"It was an interesting discussion which linked into good and evil in the curriculum," comments Pat Hannam. "They asked whether something has to be deliberate to be evil, or whether you could accidentally do something morally evil. Then the discussion broadened to the way the animals were looked after."

Pat said that the young people concluded that you might be able to do something really bad by accident, and that in this case, someone might be culpable for the swine flu outbreak.
Two children in the class are planning to visit Francisco Villa School in November this year.

Read the first World Class story from UVHS and Francisco Villa, Mexico City, 28 April.

How did they do that?

Ulverston Victoria High School's partnership with 'Secundaria Tecnica 44 - Francisco Villa' in Mexico City started in January 2001 as part of a British Council Mexico project on Human Rights and Interactive Citizenship.

In the early days, UVHS developed the linking project through their Philosophy Club.  There have been several visits by staff and pupils from both schools to one another's schools as well as joint participation in events including the First International Youth Congress (2006).   Pupils from Cumbria plan to visit Mexico in October 2009.

As well as extensive fund raising activities in the community in Ulverston, the school partnership has attracted two major grants, a Reciprocal Teacher Award (2002), and Curriculum Development Award (2004) through DFID Global School Partnerships.   

In January UVHS became UNESCO Associated School, and they working for their International School Award.

Read more about their partnership on their mexicolink website.

Read more about the swine flu outbreak from BBC News.

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