Students at Blackheath High School in Greenwich have been finding out about Nigeria through a school link with Enugu State.
A student at the school talked to BBC London's Lainy Malkani about what she has learnt from the school partnership.
Understanding Nigeria
Banke is a student at Blackheath High School. Her parents are from Nigeria. Although she visits Nigeria regularly, the link opened her eyes to parts of the country she wasn’t familiar with.
“Because I’m from quite a privileged background, I normally visit the Lagos commercial district,” she explained. “I’ve never been to the less privileged districts that I don’t know about.”
She felt that the link had given her a better understanding of Nigeria and of what school is like for students there.
“I think it’s important to learn about the country that you came from,” she said. “You should know more about yourself, you should be quite diverse.”
"A chance to be proud of my country"
The link has given her a chance to talk about Nigeria with her school friends and challenge some of their assumptions.
“Some of my friends ask if they know what coke is in Nigeria or if they know about H&M,” she explains.
“I tell them that quite a lot of Nigerian school kids know a lot about England for some reason. Most of my cousins in Nigeria support Arsenal.”
Banke feels that her school’s partnership has given her a chance to tell her class about her family’s country and culture. “It gives me a chance to be proud of my country,” she explained, “It says: I’m from this country.”
Widening Horizons
The link has given students at Blackheath a chance to learn about a country outside Europe.
The students felt that in a changing world it was important for them to be widening their horizons and learning about countries in Asia and Africa.
“Maybe not enough English children know about other countries,” Banke said.
“They might know France or Italy but not expanding countries like in Africa. There are some countries like India that we don’t learn about.”
How did they do that?
If your school would like to twin with a school in Enugu State, Nigeria you can find out more and join the project through the elanguages website.
The teachers' visit to Enugu State was funded by the British Council.
Join BBC World Class and our partners will help you twin.
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