The International Schools Award was first established in 1999 and Hetton School has now received the full award for a third time.

 

Hetton is one of about only 40 schools nationally to be awarded the International School Award in 3 consecutive applications.  The school has been given this award to recognise the international work that is carried out throughout the school in both the curriculum as well as through extra curriculum activities.  Below is an outline of some of the current international activities that have been taking place in school.

Comenius Project

In 2008 Hetton School was fortunate to be successful at obtaining funding for a fourth Comenius project “21st Century Young Europeans”.  Our partner schools for this project are Collège Jean Moulin in Arnouville (http://www.clg-moulin-arnouville.ac-versailles.fr/site/), in the outskirts of Paris, and KGS Wiesmoor (http://www.kgs-wiesmoor.de/).  Wiesmoor is in north-west Germany, between Bremen and the Netherlands.  We have received funding from the European Union to do this project.
The project involves various curriculum and extra curriculum areas completing work on an agreed element of the project and then when the work is complete one of the host schools would having a meeting where the other schools could attend and present their work.  Below is an outline of some of the work and visits to the different Schools. 

March 2010 –Paris Visit
Some year 9 pupils have just returned from a visit to our French Partner School in the suburbs of Paris.  They all had a good time visiting the French School as well as the sights of Paris.  They presented some work they had done on the topic of media.  In Paris the students from Hetton also worked with French and German students to produce a video and blog about the visit.  Follow the link to find out more about the visit http://blog.crdp-versailles.fr/comeniusjournal/

March 2009 – Partner schools visit Wiesmoor Germany
On 23rd March, Mrs Seccombe, Mr Smith and Miss Edwards travelled to Wiesmoor to celebrate the first part of the project “Youth and Music”.  Young people from each school had practiced and recorded two songs which they felt best represented the young people in their school.  Hetton was represented by “Kill the Past”, a group of Year 9 pupils Zac Burnside, Adam Creaser, Stephen Morrell and Zac Henderson.  They now have quite a following amongst the German pupils!
The meeting was attended by some German pupils and also by a class of French pupils.  Between them they chose a song that they would perform together, then practiced it and recorded it.  The song that they chose was Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway”, and everyone played an instrument or sang on the final recording.  For most people this meant learning to play an instrument that they had never tried before.

May 2009 – Partner schools visit Hetton
In May 2009 Hetton School was fortunate to host staff and students from our French and German schools.  The visit lasted 5 days and included many activities. 

The staff and students from Germany and France spent two days in Hetton School where they sampled lessons and were given a tour of the school.  Students from Hetton and the partner schools presented their work on the topic of Ecology using either PowerPoint or a video as well as working on a collaborative project.  The visitors and some students from Hetton also spent a day at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Parks where they continued with the theme of Ecology by participating in pod dipping. 

 

October 2009 – Partner schools visit Hetton, England
In May 2009 Hetton School again hosted the partner schools but this time the theme was Literature.  All schools presented their work on chosen author.  The students from Hetton were from in year 8 and they presented work on the Author of Charles Dickens and the book he wrote entitled A Christmas Carol. 

As part of the visit there were a number of activities that took place. Mrs Diaz prepared an English Tea party that was enjoyed by all.  The year 11 sports Leadership Group gave up an evening of their time to lead sport activities in the Dance Studios and Gym. One evening was spent bowling and continuing with the theme of Literature some year 8 students and the visitors went to Beamish where they had a presentation about works of literature that had been dramatised or turned into films using Beamish as a set.  The visitors also developed an understanding of the history of North East England. 

March 2010 – Partner schools will visit Paris, France
In March some year 9 pupils will be visiting the French school to present some work on Media. 

The French School have just recently informed us of the itinerary for the week and it looks exciting.  More information will follow about the visit to Paris. 

May 2010 – Partner visit Wiesmoor, Germany
In May a selection of pupils and staff will visit our partner school Wiesmoor in Germany where we will collate all of the work from previous meetings.  More information will follow about this project. 

Future Comenius Projects
The school is now in the process of submitting an application for further funding to complete a Comenius Project.  Should we be successful we are hoping to carry out project work within the theme of “The Environment and Climate Change” and if all goes well we will be working with schools in France, Germany and Poland. 

China Link

Hetton School has been fortunate to be selected by the local authority to have a link school in China.  Our link school is in Harbin which is in North East China within the province of Heilongjiang. 

Harbin is the 10th largest city in China and can be found on the Songhua River. 

 

We have been linked with Number 76 Middle School in Harbin and there are lots of exciting activities planned between the two schools over the next few years.   The aim of the link is for students in both schools to learn more about the different cultures. 

China Club
Every Tuesday evening from 3.15 -4.15 China Club takes place in the school library.  The China Club have been learning about many aspects of China including Chinese culture, Chinese food, Chinese New Year activities as well as Chinese art.  They have also been exchanging emails and letters with pupils from our partner School in Harbin. 

China Holiday Club
In the summer holidays year 7 and 8 pupils had the opportunity take part in China summer schools where many exciting activities took place.  The pupils learnt Kung Fu/Dragon   dancing as well being taught Chinese cooking.

Japanese Club

Every other Wednesday a Japanese Club takes place in A6 with Mr Hindle.  This is a very practical club where pupils look at all things related to Japan.  Activities that have taken place include: Origami, Japanese school life, language written and spoken, Earthquake training and Japanese celebrations.  The club has even started writing letters to students in Japan.  

Link School in India
Hetton is now at the very early stages of developing a link with a school in India.  It is hoped that both schools with work on a Geography project.  More information about this link will follow shortly.