During the last week, Caroline Remont from our twin city of Nancy’s team for international relations in education (DAREIC) has been visiting schools and colleges in the City to help develop emerging partnerships and establish new links with partners in France.
Caroline has been hosted by St Cuthbert’s High School all week and has met teachers, students and pupils from Newcastle College, Newcastle Sixth Form College and primary schools – St Bede’s, Mountfield, Thomas Walling, St Teresa’s, St Cuthbert’s, Wingrove and Bridgewater, as well as Marine Park First School in Whitley Bay.
Caroline has also been exploring opportunities for future work placements for students from Nancy and Newcastle, which will be followed up by another visit from Nancy colleagues in the Autumn.
On behalf of the “DAREIC” -Délégation Académique aux Relations Internationales et Européennes et à la Coopération” in Nancy, I would like to say thank you to St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School and to International Newcastle for hosting me during this one-week visit to Newcastle. It has been very rewarding to learn more about the British school system by visiting schools of all levels, from Nursery to Year 13.
This visit has also allowed to meet teachers and headteachers in person and exchange about the benefits of cultural exchanges for students whatever their age. The encounters will permit to build more partnerships between Newcastle schools and Nancy schools over the coming years, so that the students find a palpable purpose to learning a foreign language by doing distant collaborative work with their partners and when possible by visiting each other.
Caroline Remont, DAREIC Nancy-Metz
In addition to this visit, teachers from Nancy schools linked with Wingrove and Bridgewater Primaries spent a week in the City this month at International House, improving their English skills and connecting with their partner schools. Teachers from all these schools were able to meet with Caroline to share their experiences.
We provided support to develop the itinerary for a week of visits across the City and the enthusiasm from colleagues in education has been amazing. Schools and colleges can now do so much online to establish relationships, run joint projects and interact across the curriculum. These links bring so many benefits to both schools and pupils and helps raise aspirations and open up opportunities for future learning and career choices. Caroline and DAREIC have made such a positive difference in establishing these international connections.
Declan Baharini, International Newcastle
Work placements – opportunities for young people
St Teresa’s Primary hosted a Nancy University student for a month long work placement in June in their school and in other local organisations, arranged by teacher, Tony Knox. Work placements in both cities are opportunities we hope to support in future for students from Newcastle and Nancy and can be life-changing in terms of their education and future career opportunities.
As well as exploring work placements for students from Newcastle, we are working with Nancy to find hosts for around 10 work placements for young people who are 17 years old for one month at the end of May/June 2023 in Newcastle businesses and organisations. The kinds of placements they are looking for are in logistics, retail, sales and receptionist or administrative positions. Teachers from Nancy will visit Newcastle in the Autumn to prepare for the placements. They have funding to support their students in terms of travel and accommodation.
If you are interested in hosting a work placement, please contact declan@internationalnewcastle.org.uk
Our partnership with Nancy
Newcastle and Nancy have been twin cities since 1954 and have been building co-operation and collaboration over the years in civic, cultural, business and education relationships.
In the last two years, International Newcastle and the City Council have worked closely with Caroline and DAREIC to develop 20 new partnerships with primary, middle, secondary schools, Newcastle Sixth Form College and Newcastle College – with more in the pipeline.
These partnerships enable teachers and pupils to develop relationships which can be life changing and transformative for teaching and learning languages and across the curriculum, in establishing opportunities to develop new friendships, wider perspectives and new experiences, to build confidence and aspirations and improve future education and career choices. There is also the potential for visits to Nancy and we support education establishments to access funding for visits abroad (to France and worldwide) via the UK’s Turing Scheme.
We have a simple process for matching Newcastle and Nancy partners and provide additional support to help partnerships get established and grow.
- Click here for details about our links with Nancy, the history of our cities’ relationship, information about the city of Nancy and the region of Nancy-Metz and how Newcastle schools and colleges can develop an education partnership
- Click here to find out more and all the contact details for how we support international links, languages and cultural diversity