Siden er opdateret 10-12-2006

TWIN SCHOOL PROJECT

Background and idea
As Himalayan Project supports several schools in the Solu Khumbu area, Nepal, school development projects are always welcome if idea and quality seems acceptable. As a result of a discussion among some of the teaching members of Himalayan Project in Denmark the idea of a Twin School Project came up as a natural addition to the running school activities. The basis of the idea is to widen the knowledge of other cultures in both Nepali and Danish schools and at the same time increase the global understanding between two nations, which can learn a lot from each other. This is not meant to be an academic communication, but a communication between the pupils in the Nepali and the Danish schools. To all young people it is important to be aware of their surrounding world and be able to take a stand and understand global news and activities to develop into real global citizens who can help their country be even better on both a social and at an educational and work-related matter.
That is the main idea with this project – to learn from each other across the world. Every pupil around the world can learn something valuable from a project like this…

Purpose
As mentioned above the general purpose of this project is to increase the understanding and knowledge of other cultures. By doing this communication a lot of other thing are achieved as well: - The pupils learn how to communicate with another person by using the English language
- The pupils get a realistic picture of another country and its people
- The pupils learn how to make friends and important contacts outside their normal area
- The whole school and its teachers can get inspired and motivated by the new communication
- The relations within Himalayan Projects many activities and the people involved can be made even closer than it is today by this enlightening.

Expectations
To make a Twin School Project like this work for both parts it is very important that both parts in the communication are committed to the project and are responsible about deadlines. To secure this it is necessary to point out a responsible teacher who can make all deadlines and expectations be fulfilled. The Twin School Project must be made an official tradition at the school and especially in the selected class, which is going to do the exact communication. This seems necessary to make the project as successful and substantial as possible.

Commitments
As a result of the expectations outlined above both schools involved in this project, Loding School in Nepal and Studsgaard Free School in Denmark, have to secure that the correspondence lives up to the expectations outlined.
Studsgaard Free School in Denmark has arranged that a 6th grade class will create a “welcome-package” for Loding School. At Loding School the responsible teacher or the headmaster has to choose which class is most capable of making this correspondence work at an acceptable level (see the other passages).
When the class is pointed out it is important that this class stays on the project for as long as possible – at least for one year – to secure a nice flow in the correspondence during the year. In the following passage the deadlines and some ideas for the content are presented.

Deadlines
October 2006: The Welcome package from Studsgaard Free School is delivered and presented by Papa Kurt who secures a good start for the project.
The welcome-package includes:
- a presentation of each pupil in the class.
- some short facts about the area and Denmark in general.
- some questions for the pupils in Loding school.

January 2007: Loding School has to send their first package to Studsgaard Free School including:
- a presentaion of each pupil in the class.
- some short facts about the area and the daily life in Loding.
- good answers to the questions from the Danish pupils.
- some questions for the Danish pupils.

March 2007: Studsgaard Free School answers the package from Loding School:
- precise and illustrative answers to the questions asked.
- some more stories and information about school-activities, family life and other typical things in their lives.
- New questions are asked

May 2007: Loding School responds to the package from Denmark:
- answers to the questions asked by the Danish pupils
- some more stories about Nepali stories, traditions, school, family or other typical things in their lives.
- New questions are asked to the Danish pupils

Conclusion
This is pretty much the idea of this Twin School Project and all parts of this paper are equally important to secure a fulfilling of the aims mentioned. The deadlines are to be followed as close as possible to make the correspondence effective and at a high level. Then if everything has gone smoothly the same program should be followed for the year after. Of course it is possible to come up with some new and better ways of doing it, but as a start this is how it will be.
We are looking forward to a joyful and hopefully long correspondence project. The HP Twin School Project are set to go!

On behalf of the Himlayan Project

Daniel Laursen
Teacher at Studsgaard Free School