Greenfield Community College were privileged to welcome students and visitors from around the world recently, including India, France, Argentina and New Zealand. St Bede’s from Argentina are regular visitors to Durham due to their connection with Bede. This year the emphasis was on sports organised by PE teacher Barbara Davis. It was a great day with over 100 Greenfield students and 67 Argentinian visitors involved in a wide range of activities and challenges including boot camp, rock climbing, trampolining, dodgeball, table tennis, basketball, netball and football – all part of a great day along with partners ROF 59 on the Business Park.. Mrs Davis, was thrilled with the success of the event “We are delighted to build such a lovely friendship and for students to find out more about each other’s culture making friends and connections, some of which are for life” said Mrs Davis. The students had the opportunity to visit Room 13 and sample a SOLE session, enjoying debating big questions such as ‘Should we have a universal language?’ and ‘What makes us different if we are all the same?’ The visit culminated in a fabulous performance of dance where students from Greenfield and Argentina were able to showcase their talents, traditions and customs in an excellent finale. Students from Greenfield on both campuses also recently participated in an International commemorative event at Thiepval where they represented their school, county and country. Some were able to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to talk about the experience. The event marked the conclusion of an International project in which the students studied WW1, explored local links to Durham Light Infantry and other regional battalions. They created art work which represented their thoughts on the war and worked closely with our partner school in Amiens to develop language and social/cultural links. Greenfield have recently welcomed visitors from France as Greenfield are planning a new project with partner school College Arthur Rimbaud in Amiens which will be based on the railways, past, present and future. It is hoped young people will be able to use the history of the railways and the investment in future rail travel by way of Hitachi as a stimulus to look at the impact on our communities, technology, mobility, employment, productivity etc. “As always, we are hoping, through the use of enquiry, for creative outcomes and that the use of arts and languages will be at the heart of the project” said Mrs Dixon, Subject Leader for Performing Arts. Greenfield Arts have played a large role in hosting events like this, offering SOLE sessions to highlight the selforganised style of learning that we promote, as well as the large role we play in the local community. The Engine Heads, who are student ambassadors for the SOLE project, met with visitors from New Zealand and SOLE Central in Newcastle, including Professor Sugata Mitra and colleagues from India, to explain how the project was developing, and see how other schools and countries were using the system. It was a brilliant crossing of cultures and the students were able to see how their hard work is spreading across the globe.
