Newcastle pupils to benefit from funding for visits abroad and international experiences

Congratulations to the ten Newcastle schools awarded grants totalling £400,000 from the Government’s new Turing Scheme. This funding will enable around 400 pupils from across the City to travel to partner schools in Europe and beyond and to gain valuable experiences, new perspectives, connections and skills.

International Newcastle and the City Council supported eight of these schools through the process and will continue to help them build relationships and activities in the lead up to their visits.

Turing Scheme success for Newcastle schools

We were delighted this month, when the Turing Scheme announced the successful schools, which will receive funding for visits to schools in other countries. Ten Newcastle schools were amongst the 114 awards to UK schools in the first ever round of the scheme. Between them, our schools will receive £400,000 in grants for the visits and preparation and will involve staff and around 400 pupils from across the city.

Two secondary, one middle and seven primary schools in Newcastle will receive funding for visits in 2022 to partner schools in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and China.

• Bridgewater School – Primary in Scotswood (Spain, France)
• Gosforth Academy  – Secondary (Germany, France, Spain)
• Gosforth East Middle School (Spain)
• Kenton School – Secondary (China)
• Sacred Heart RC Primary School – Fenham (Italy)
• St John’s Primary School – South Benwell (Spain)
• St Michael’s Primary School – Elswick
• St Paul’s CE Primary School – Elswick (France)
• West Denton Primary School (Netherlands)
• Wingrove Primary School – Fenham (France)

Why international connections and experiences are so important

Young people who have access to such opportunities are more likely to have:

• a greater intercultural awareness at home and abroad and understanding of different perspectives, cultures, attitudes
• a broader understanding of and interest in the wider world, making them more active, global citizens
• greater levels of confidence and resilience
• better communication and social skills
• increased capacity and ambition to achieve better qualifications across the board (even more so if they speak other languages)
• higher aspirations about what they can do, achieve and become
• greater social mobility, especially for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds
• more flexibility, adaptability and creativity in how they think, work with other people and approach challenges
• valuable employability skills and attributes, as well as preparedness for working in a global economy and businesses that operate within and beyond the UK
• greater employment opportunities and career prospects

We outlined these and the importance of ensuring that the UK continues to support international opportunities for young people in our response to the British Council’s All Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry in May 2021. (Click here for International Newcastle’s response)

We work with partners across the city, regionally, nationally and internationally to help achieve the Our Newcastle Our World vision:

Our Work Programme outlines aims, objectives and activities across three complementary strands of activity and the schools success through the Turing Scheme will help contribute to these:

A new approach to supporting schools

The Turing Scheme was introduced in 2021 for the first time, following the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union and from the Erasmus Plus programme, which had supported international exchange for schools, youth, further and higher education and vocational training.

Few Newcastle schools had accessed the Erasmus Plus programme in the past and the new scheme was an opportunity to encourage and support our schools to develop international links and to access funding to support visits to schools in other countries.

International Newcastle worked with Newcastle City Council to raise awareness of the opportunity with all schools in the city. We shared advice and guidance about the Scheme and also hosted webinars with schools in the City to answer questions and provide information and support. We also provided connections with schools in other countries where there were no links. (click here for further information on the new approach).

This is the first time this approach has been taken and it was clearly successful, with all ten Newcastle schools being awarded grants. We are grateful to the schools who did engage with us, in particular during a pandemic, with all the additional pressures they were under.

Another important factor is that the Turing Scheme provides additional funding to support pupils and schools in areas of higher levels of disadvantage to overcome the financial barriers to be able to engage in the activity. Many of the schools and the pupils involved, will not have had an international connections before and these pupils may never have had the opportunities to be involved in international visits and travel before.

Next steps

• We will be providing support to the schools after the summer break, to help them prepare for their visits in 2022
• We will help build connections to partner schools, where they are needed, provide suggestions for activities which can help build relationships between schools, staff and pupils over the next 6 months
• We will offer schools opportunities to link in with language and cultural activities and to partners who may be able to support them
• We will encourage schools to get involved in the Express Yourself NE Festival of Languages in 2022, which will celebrate our languages, cultures and connections to the world
• We will continue to work with our partners to explore and promote new opportunities international connections and experiences

Further information and contact

• Find out more about our support for international connections and languages here
• Contact: Sarah Edgar at Newcastle City Council to register your interest or share information about schools’ international links sarah.edgar@newcastle.gov.uk