Portugal 2008

JOINT CURRICULUM PROJECT

The London Nautical School, United Kingdom and Agrupamento de Escolas de Dom Manuel 1 – Tavira, Portugal

The background to this partnership is that we wanted to extend our relationship with Portuguese schools beyond an existing link with a school in Portugal where we have an effective programme of e-pen pals involving our Year 7&8 students.

The Project Co-ordinator has been in discussion with the view of setting up a partnership between The London Nautical School and Dom Manuel 1 – Tavira and put forward proposals to their respective school leaderships. The proposal was for a partnership which would focus on students in Years 9&10 and therefore complement the proposed link. It was also felt that the contrasting experience of an inner city London school and a town in the south of Portugal would be of mutual benefit to the students of the two schools.

This partnership is to be ‘rolled out’ from September 2007 with the aim to identify the potential of developing cross-curriculum projects which would reflect the London Nautical School’s ethos in nautical studies. This funding application focuses on one such project, although, it is linked to the action plans in both schools basing itself on sustainable development education.

The title of the project in English is ‘ International Citizenship in schools’ whilst in

Portuguese it is known as: ‘Cidadania Internacional nas escolas’

The project which we are seeking funding is a pilot project involving two groups of approximately 16 students one from the United Kingdom and one from Portugal which will prepare for the delivery of a key topic, ‘Citizenship and its international dimensions’, as part of the new 21^st Century cross-curricula GCSE course.

It will be a joint collaboration between the MFL, PE, English, Mathematics, History, Geography, ICT, Art and Business Studies Departments in each school. The students involved will undertake a joint research project comparing citizenship in the UK and in Portugal. They will work in groups composed of students from both partner schools and will visit the partner school to collect data and work on joint presentations.

The immediate outcomes for the pilot project will be that the student will:

learn about a key area of citizenship in an exciting and innovative way
develop their written and conversational skills in Portuguese/English including their specific citizenship vocabulary
develop their skills in research, group work; independent learning and ICT skills
learn about the relevance and importance of citizenship and MFL for young people and therefore encourage greater take up of MFL at GCSE and of MFL post-16
learn about different cultures and environments and therefore enrich their overall educational experience

The overall outcome will be for the two schools to develop a sustainable and viable cross-curriculum unit on Citizenship. At LNS this unit will be delivered as part of the new 21^st Century Citizenship GCSE course to Year 10 students studying Spanish and Portuguese from September 2008 with students from the pilot project playing an integral role in its delivery. At Dom Manuel 1 - Tavira, it will contribute to the school’s sustainable education programme. In both schools, the collaboration will provide unique opportunities for Citizenship and English to be taught in an innovative and motivating manner.

A further intended outcome will be the development of partnerships between our feeder primary schools and local primary schools in Lambeth. We work already with 6 Primaries in our area and we have experience of collaborating with them on delivering language lessons as well as the outreach work we undertake as a school with a rich Modern Foreign Languages and Citizenship ethos embedded in our nautical history. We are currently working with these primary schools in the development of the MFL Strategy for Primary Schools and we intend to use the link with Dom Manuel 1 - Tavira to demonstrate the benefits and viability of links between our respective feeder schools. One of our feeder Primary Schools uses Portuguese as a means to teach both Portuguese and non-Portuguese speakers, subjects normally taught in English.

MONTH	ACTIVITIES PLANNED	RATIONALE/CURRICULUM FIT
September 2006 October 2006 February 2008 Day 1 Day 2 Days 3/4 Day 5 April 2007 June 2007 July 2007	Students introduced to the project. Small groups established of the London Nautical School and Dom Manuel 1 – Tavira students. Students undertake research into the role of Citizenship in their respective countries. Students make e-mail contact with members of the Group and share information about themselves. Students share results of their research with other members of their group in partner school. English students prepare electronic presentation in Portuguese (e.g power point) and Portuguese students vice versa. Teachers and pupils from UK visit Dom Manuel 1 - tavira Groups meet together to discuss the project and the plan for the visit. Groups then visit surrounding area with Dom Mnauel 1 - Tavira students acting as guides. Groups meet in school and discuss their presentations. Groups work together on learning vocabulary and pronunciation of key word related to project. Students visit local Caravela. Groups work together to write up data. Students make presentations in English and Portuguese comparing findings, statistics, differences and similarities Students prepare presentation for school website in English and Portuguese and for Year 9 Assembly and/or Citizenship lessons. Groups hold a series of video conferences to discuss outcome of project as part of evaluation. Staff involved evaluate project and, if outcome is positive, plan for delivery of new cross curriculum unit for 2007-8 involving joint research, video conferencing, etc, for delivery of 21st Century Citizenship with Modern Foreign Languages	Students learn about nature of Citizenship in both countries. Students develop research skills and independent learning skills using internet and other research methods. Students develop written Portuguese/English communication skills. Students develop e-mail skills Students develop knowledge of scientific terms in respective foreign language. …..Students develop ICT skills in Portuguese and vice versa. Students develop conversational skills; …..students learn about the …..environment and students share different cultural experiences. Students develop their scientific vocabulary in respective language. Students learn about data-gathering. Students support each other in written and conversational English/Portuguese Students develop presentational skills. Students learn about differences and similarities between the environments of inner city and the country All students further develop presentational and ICT skills. Students develop presentational skills. Students further embed conversational and ICT skills.