Two years after our first collaboration, this January a group of 22 students from the University of Delaware have been working with us to carry out in-depth research on different Education systems and observe day-to-day life in our school.
The heads of Lower and Upper School, Miss Jane-Mitchell Smith and Miss Róisín Barbeito, worked hard to allocate the groups in the school over two weeks. They became part of our team of teachers and children, and they confirmed they learned many things about how St. Peter’s builds its community of learners.
Guided and supported by Mr. William Lewis, their university professor, this group of future teachers had the chance of observing, analysing and teaching in some classes. They were involved in some of the projects that are currently being worked upon in the school.
The team got a chance to see different topics of PBL, Creative Learning Projects and even a performance by the British children’s poet, Paul Cookson, who masterfully engaged the auditorium filled with primary school children and teachers, sharing his hilarious poetry, which good-naturedly poked fun at schools and teachers. Of course the children LOVED that!
On the last day of their visit, the whole group participated in a panel discussion to reflect upon new methodologies in teaching, innovation, multiculturalism, differentiation in the class, classroom management and many other subjects. Apart from the students from Delaware, some of our teachers also participated in the panel discussion. The round table ended with Mr Simon handling Mr Bill Lewis an Star of the Week certificate. Here is a video of the activity:
At the end of their placement, the students will prepare a research report, which will reflect upon St. Peter’s educational project. After having attended different workshops and debated in groups about what they have observed these days, they will try to identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
This is a very special partnership for us. In 2015 another group from Delaware, together with Mr Lewis, helped us to reinforce our University Programme, which aims to build bridges between universities and schools. This is an amazing opportunity to create a permanent network of research that guarantees a fruitful and challenging link between university and school. The final aim: to learn together.
We would like to thanks Mr Lewis and his group of 22 teachers for this amazing partnership. Thank you again. It’s been a pleasure to learn together!!
Carme Escorcia
University Programme
