04.10.23
After four years of building a global community of passionate, dedicated educators who share our mission online, we were delighted to host our very first in-person event at Kingsford Community School in Newham, East London.
To the inspirational staff and students at Kingsford, to our wonderful guests and amazing speakers – we are very excited to bring face-to-face engagements to the Alliance and look forward to hosting similar events in the near future!
You can watch the full recording on our YouTube channel or catch some of the highlights below.
Here is a recap of the event:
Kingsford’s Global Student Ambassadors opened the event with a very warm welcome in their own native language.
Joan Deslandes OBE, Headteacher at Kingsford Community School said:
“We always strive to instil in our young people an awareness of their status as global citizens and as such international work is at the heart of our educational philosophy. In a city and borough as diverse as ours, we have learned that an emphasis on global collaboration better equips our young people to understand, engage with, and respect the diversity of the world around them and learn about how they can make a contribution to that.”
“As the Head of Kingsford, I firmly believe that it is my duty to bring elements of the wider world into Kingsford every day to ensure that no young person is ever excluded from gaining experiences or opportunities that open their mind to the importance of global citizenship.”
“I think that in order to raise aspirations amongst young people, we have had to think of diverse ways of doing this because sometimes aspiration for the young people who come from areas such as ours have been lowered and therefore it’s crucial that schools go the extra mile to provide a fully rounded education for the young people in our care, one which covers both the curriculum necessary to achieve the grades required to succeed, but also to provide them with the soft skills and cultural capital that will allow them to grow and make successes of themselves in the wider world. And this is where the work of the Global School Alliance comes in. The programme that the GSA provides fully informs, supports and enhances the international ethos that we have embedded throughout the Kingsford curriculum.”
The programme that the GSA provides fully informs, supports and enhances the international ethos that we have embedded throughout the Kingsford curriculum.
“The Global School Alliance I know provides an invaluable and supportive framework for Kingsford’s languages and international work and I’m sure it will continue to reflect our global outlook for many years to come. I know that the Global School Alliance can also offer potentially life-changing opportunities for young people. It is essential that the values of Kingsford indeed of all schools reflect a proactive, outward-looking ethos, in order to allow equity and diversity to flourish evermore.”
Chunlei (Leo) Li, Assistant Headteacher at Kingsford Community School
“Educators, where would you want other young people to go in the future and how can we contribute to their personal development and future success? It’s easy to see that all of the questions link with global learning, but what types of global footprint would like the young people to leave?.”
“In today’s age, being global is not an option, it’s a necessity. We’re not just the living and are own towns and cities as a citizens, we are citizens of the world. It is really important for young people to know because our young people are stepping into the future which is more interconnected and independent than ever.”
“This knowledge for our students can not only enrich their learning experiences, but also can help them to become more compassionate and become successful in their future careers. The vision of Kingsford globalisation and in education is we would like our students to be in this world-class environment which can shape our students’ global perspectives and nurture students with cultural competence.”
“We believe all of the student’s potential to achieve is limitless.”
Dr Eric Annan, Director/CEO at Grace Life International School, Ghana
“Education is one of the most important and valuable assets for human development and social transformation. It is the key to unlocking the potential of every individual, foster innovation and creativity, and the foundation for building a prosperous and peaceful world. However, education cannot be achieved in isolation. It requires collaboration, cooperation, coordination and partnership among various stakeholders such as governments, civil society, private sector, and academia, which highlights the dire need for educational partnerships.”
“Educational partnerships are not only beneficial for improving the quality and equity of education within countries, but also for fostering cross-cultural understanding and cooperation among countries. By focusing greatly on developing global links, through partnership, I believe we can address the complex and interrelated challenges faced in the educational sector as a global community.”
John Rolfe MBE, Community & Partnerships Manager at the Global School Alliance
“We’re delighted to be working with thousands of schools on embedding that global journey. We really believe that embedding the essential power partnership with authentic learning experiences. So a big part of our work is to promote the importance of that face to face engagement and we would be delighted to support your own exciting and impactful global journey.”
“This is a whole school journey and is very much about ensuring that global activity is a recognised central, celebrated part of your school ethos.”
“This is the most important community in the world. Educators who are bringing the world into their classroom and sharing this fantastic work.
Lord Jim Knight, Lord Knight of Weymouth, House of Lords
“Schools in my view must be beacons of hope. I regard our school system here in England as the national hope service and our task is to build that better future. To build a more sustainable, more equitable future. It is more sustainable because it’s more equitable and not be isolated and not denying change.”
“Our responsibility as educators is to lead the change and we can’t do it on our own.”
“Empowering young people so that they feel they’ve got things they’ve got control over and they feel hope over, that in turn leads to action.”
“There is no more important time for the Global School Alliance than this. This is a time of great change, division and we should reject division and create empathy for each other. It’s through that celebration of our global diversity and that connection of children and teachers with each other that we can create the empathy and understanding for each other to find the solutions that we need as a species for a planet that is eternal.”
There is no more important time for the Global School Alliance than this.
Colette Cotton, International Coordinator at St Mary’s Primary Academy, Folkestone
“Thanks to the Global School Alliance we now work with our partner school in Bangladesh. We have shared a lot of projects, we have looked at the diversity of each of our schools, things that are the same, loads of collaboration to think critically.”
“The students were all excited about the projects, they liked sharing ideas, they were working collaboratively, it helped them to understand other cultures. New ideas and new perspectives and new friends for teachers and students.”
Baroness Janet Royall, Principal at Somerville College, Oxford
“You transform lives, you inspire, you nurture aspirations, and you put your pupils on the ladder of opportunity. Yes, passing exams is important, but education is so much more. In each country there will be specific challenges, those of you in the UK will probably be facing particular problems in relation to resources and the impact of covid on the mental wellbeing of our children. But you all share the same passion to ensure that our children have the advantage to an education that will make them citizens of the world, exposing them to different cultures, nurturing their understanding of differences and celebrating diversity.”
“Our globalised world has become more fractured and there’s an increasing tendency for tolerance and understanding to be replaced by fear of the other. Our world and our people are too precious to live in fragments. To thrive, we have to foster collaboration, we have to be a force for peace. That’s why the work of the Global School Alliance is so crucial, encouraging and enabling the partnerships that have the power to bring about change. The relationships which you develop and support will shape the way in which your pupils think and act. Your young people will one day be future leaders in their communities, perhaps in their countries, but through your collaborations, you will also be informing and influencing wider society.”
That’s why the work of the Global School Alliance is so crucial, encouraging and enabling the partnerships that have the power to bring about change.
“You are breaking down barriers, broadening horizons and giving young people the tools to be resilient and succeed in a difficult world.”
Robert Ford, CEO & Director at Heritage International Schools, Moldova
“What we do together can make a huge difference.”
“Kurt Hahn, Founder of the International Baccalaureate said if you don’t have the leaders now, create the leaders you need. We do that through our values, we do that through social responsibility, through leadership, through respect, through being able to live in a diverse world, being internationally-minded, being open-minded, being able to embrace all faiths and ethnicities and cultures and see the glory and the joy in this multicultural globe and society that we live in.”
“When you look at great schools, it’s about holistic education. It’s educating for life. It isn’t about passing the next test, or the next stick to jump over, or the next barrier to surmount. It’s creating who are we going to pass the baton.”
“We are really fortunate that the Global School Alliance are bringing us together and being a hub for us so we’re not isolated. The beauty of international education is that we’re never isolated.”
Thomas Camilleri, Founder & CEO, Global School Alliance
“I owe a lot to my Headteacher, to my Head of MFL, to my Chinese teacher.”
“The biggest gift that I received in school was to be given a sense of purpose and direct at the age of 15. From the age of 15 onwards, my journey was to China.”
“The way I see our role in this global picture of education, isn’t for us to dictate any particular way of doing it, but it’s for us to create a space, to create an opportunity to bring you all together.”
“What I hope we are able to do at the GSA is to build the best opportunities and tools to help these young people.”
