Newcastle schools have embraced international partnerships and are connecting with schools across Europe and the world to provide transformational opportunities for children and young people in the city.
There are already over 70 international school partnerships, many developed with the support of International Newcastle and Newcastle City Council (School Effectiveness), as part of a city-wide partnership approach to Empowering Newcastle’s Youth for a Global Future. For the last four years, we have also supported schools to apply for British Council’s International School Award, as well as to the UK’s Turing Scheme to take children and young people abroad, giving them life-changing experiences and enabling them to develop skills which will widen their future education and employment options.
Virtual collaboration
We help schools to connect internationally by brokering partnerships through trusted links and strategic relationships. Many schools work virtually with European and international counterparts, establishing pupil friendships, teacher relationships, joint projects and working on curriculum subjects and across the school community. These bring new perspectives and opportunities to enhance learning and knowledge and develop communication and interpersonal skills.
Turing Scheme 2021-23
Our Lady and St Anne’s primary on their way to Rome in 2023
We helped schools to raise £1.2m for 25 international school visits in the first three rounds of the UK Government’s Turing Scheme.
Over 800 children and 125 staff have been (or will be, up to June 2024) involved in transformational, immersive experiences by travelling to visit schools in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. These children and young people would never had been able to access these opportunities without Turing Scheme support.
The impact of these visits on their confidence, resilience, adaptability and attitude to learning is enormous. Their experiences of travel and immersion in another culture help broaden their horizons, widen perspectives and raise aspirations, as well as enabling them to develop a wide range of employability skills.
International School Award
We support schools to join British Council’s International School Award (ISA), a framework to support international partnerships. We have worked closely with the ISA team and Newcastle schools to develop engagement in this opportunity. Many more schools are about to get the ISA Foundation Certificate by participating in the 2024 Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages, hosted and co-ordinated by International Newcastle.
Turing Scheme 2024-25
Schools’ confidence to engage in applying for funding for international visits has increased. By sharing the learning, impact and experiences of previous years and by offering support, we have engaged more Newcastle schools than ever before in applying to the Turing Scheme for visits in 2025.
Primary, middle and secondary schools, as well as specialist provision have all engaged in our briefings and 1-2-1 meetings since January. Many have had intense support from our CEO, Declan Baharini, and Sarah Edgar (Newcastle City Council – School Effectiveness) to develop their international partnerships and apply to the scheme by the deadline (21st March).
These schools are all targeting the most disadvantaged and underrepresented pupils who can gain the most from the experience and we wish them all the very best of luck with their applications.
Skills and competencies developed through international experiences and connections
