Connecting Bury with Mirpur

Date published: 04/02/2010

Bury Council welcomed school teachers from Mirpur in Pakistan on a two-day visit aimed at finding out more about education in the borough.

The visit enabled them to gain a better understanding of how the UK education system works and provided a great opportunity to meet staff, children and young people in some of Bury’s schools.

Bury Council has secured funding from the British Council to develop an international school linking project between the two areas called the Connecting Classrooms project.

Four schools in Bury - Woodhey High, Holy Trinity Primary, Higher Lane Primary and Greenhill Primary - will work with a group in Mirpur as part of this project.

Mirpur is a division of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, comprising Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber districts, and there are a large number of Pakistani heritage families from this region living in Bury.

Through the Connecting Classrooms partnership, Bury students and teachers will work on classroom-based projects on themes including Global Citizenship, Environmental Action and Cultural Exchange.

The activities aim to broaden pupils’ and teachers’ international horizons, increase motivation in the classroom and prepare young people for life in a global society. Through learning about their partners’ lives and culture, pupils and teachers in Bury will also learn about their own communities, heritage and identity, working with parents and local community groups.

Councillor Diana Ashworth, executive member for children and young people, said: “It is great to welcome the teachers from Mirpur in Pakistan and we look forward to working with them to help develop links between the two areas.”

Martyn Pilling, head teacher of Greenhill Primary School, said: “We are very excited to be working together on this international project and its potential to impact upon our young people’s knowledge and understanding of the wider world in which they live. It is a chance in a lifetime for the boys and girls in our schools to make real connections with young people from another part of the world who live in a different cultural context. We hope that this project will produce lasting links between the schools in and across the UK and their partner schools in Kashmir.”