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International Hutchesons'

Exchange 2

With regular forays to Europe and beyond to perform concerts, take part in exchange trips or to represent the school in various sports, life at Hutchesons' Grammar has long had an international dimension.

Former pupils live and work in every corner of the globe and many of our pupils and staff are seasoned travellers or have friends and family in a diversity of countries. As with the City of Glasgow itself, the Hutchesons' community is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural and our international education programme aims to reflect this.

In a fast-moving, global economy where the pace of change is accelerating, we are keen to ensure that pupils at Hutchesons' have every chance to connect with people and places across the world. Pupils take part in Model United Nations conferences throughout the UK. We are building a network of partner schools which we can tap into at different levels to share ideas and enrich and enhance the curriculum. Online tools have opened up many opportunities to learn about other countries and cultures. We have set up "e-twinning" arrangements with schools in Germany, as well as India and Australia, specifically to exchange ideas on EcoSchools, Geography and Biology. Teachers are exploring how to use blogs and wikis to develop joint projects with other schools and to encourage pupils to engage with their peers or to get first-hand information and feedback.

Exchanges and trips are an important way of developing and cementing relationships. Of especial note is a new S4 exchange opportunity with Goulburn Valley Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. During the summer holidays, pupils from Hutchesons' will attend school in Australia, staying with families and exploring the area. In return, they will host their Australian counterparts at the end of the year.

Since September 2009, Hutchie has been leading an EU-funded Comenius Partnership. This programme will last two years, and involves partner schools from Nurnberg, Bavaria and Radomsko, Poland. The partnership's theme is "urban design and renewal". Pupils are examining the way in which each city uses urban space to enhance the environment.  Over the two years each school will take its turn to host the partners. Pupils and staff from all three schools will work on joint assignments, such as photo-shoots, painting, writing and blogging, as well as taking part in community initiatives such as tree planting. The partnership is sustained by regular e-mail correspondence and through a dedicated blog on the EU's e-twinning website. Already strong bonds of friendship have been established across the three schools, and other activities beyond Comenius are planned, such as a joint Maths project and a German Christmas market at Hutchie.

Through our connection with Goulburn Valley Grammar School we have been invited to join a partnership of independent schools from Australia and the USA set up to look at environmental issues. Each member school hosts, by rotation, an annual week-long conference, during which time pupils take part in focus groups, attend workshops, visit sites and deliver presentations. Key to everything is the idea of young people from different backgrounds working together to learn and reflect on global issues, such as biodiversity, conservation and sustainability, and to devise ways of raising awareness and getting things done in their area.

Through World Challenge, S5 pupils take part in a life-changing six-week expedition overseas, which, while taking them on a journey of self discovery, also teaches them about new cultures and environments. Classics visits to Rome and Florence, Geography field trips to Iceland and winter sports trips to the USA and Switzerland are further testimony to the global reach of Hutchesons'. In all these  ways the aim is to produce pupils who have an international outlook, an empathy with other cultures and who are confident about taking their place in the world.

International Partner Schools