Elgin Academy partners with Hadiach Lyceum №1 to share the joy of reading through the UK-Ukraine Schools Partnership Programme
Category: Blog
Elgin Academy in Moray has partnered with Hadiach Lyceum №1, named after Olena Pchilka, in the Poltava region to share the joy of reading and create connections between communities in the UK and Ukraine. This partnership was co-led by Elgin Academy School librarian and CILIPS Vice-president Shelagh Toonen alongside her colleague English teacher Miss Macdonald, and is a moving and considered example of partnership working within a school.
The schools were matched through the British Council’s UK-Ukraine Schools Partnership Programme which is funded by the UK Government. This unique new initiative supports schools to build lasting international partnerships and explore reading as a tool to expand horizons, build confidence and boost mental wellbeing. The programme connects 50 schools in the UK with 50 schools in Ukraine. Classes work together on activities to encourage reading for pleasure, building an understanding of each other’s cultures through a common love for reading.
The participating students had this to say about the partnership project:
“I am really looking forward to going online to meet our partner class.” Ondrej Carpenter
“It is going to be so exciting!” Hadrian Clarke
“It will be so interesting to learn about life in school in Ukraine.” Craig Mackay
“What a valuable experience this will be.” Harrison Whiteside
The class from Elgin wrote letters, made messages on sunflowers and created a film all about life in Elgin Academy which you can view here:
They also selected a novel to share with their partner class. Shelagh recently travelled to Poland to meet and to work with the Ukrainian partner school and shared her pupils’ work, as well as gifts for staff and pupils in Hadiach Lyceum №1. They especially loved the Scottish shortbread and the Elgin Academy badges. The foundational workshops, delivered by the British Council and National Literacy Trust, aim to support partners to develop trauma-informed educational projects and build a sustainable international partnership.
Arriving back in Scotland after what was surely an overwhelming but incredibly moving few days, Shelagh wrote about her experience in a piece called Three Bells, which you can read below:
Three bells and the sounds of bombs and then all into the shelter. This is how our partner school frequently begins their day. In the shelter, they continue their learning and, in fact, our partner class shared photos and videos with us from inside their shelter. Twice a month, they have online learning at home for safety reasons.
Their teacher has a patronymic name and her pupils address her as Kateryna Petvivna. When I met her in Poland last week, she was Katia.
In our partner school, there is no setting in classes. There are no support nor SFL staff. There is one psychologist per school in Ukraine.
And, there are no books.
When Katia saw our gifted books, she was overwhelmed. These were the first physical books she had seen in a very long time. Pupils do not have text books nor do they have library books. Their library has books which are 50 years old. Diversity and inclusion and pupils’ agency and choice are not on the table. Once a year, the school asks parents to give books as gifts. Katia relies on sponsors – parents – to buy books.
She told me that her pupils find reading and learning difficult and they are unmotivated. She asked me several times how we get our pupils to read. Her pupils in class 8A are not confident about their reading.
During the workshops last week, we heard how schools can connect and build cross-cultural understanding through reading for pleasure. Our activities focused on sharing effective practice and developing plans, using trauma-informed approaches. Katia and her Ukrainian colleagues were held at the Polish border for 18 hours and all are clearly experiencing challenging times. One Ukrainian, on hearing fireworks on Saturday night, hid under her bed in the hotel.
We had time to chat, to connect, to look forwards and to laugh. Katia is excited about our project and has done her research into Scotland and even recited a little Robert Burns to me. She is especially excited about the Loch Ness Monster and wants our pupils to tell her more about her real-life Nessie. In one session, the four nations colleagues were asked to share English phrases and idioms. The Ukrainians were flummoxed at:
“I’m cream crackered.”
“What’s the crack?”
“You’ll have had your tea.”
They had the last laugh when they were asked to teach us some Ukrainian:
“я люблю тебе” I love you.
“Ласкаво просимо в Україну” Welcome to Ukraine.
“ти найкращий” You are the best.
We have a plan in place and our activities and progress will be shared with the British Council on a shared Padlet. We are excited about this collaboration with Hadyatsky Lyceum No. 1 8A and Elgin Academy 2.2 classes and to strengthen links and learning, international awareness and to lots of reading for pleasure.
Many thanks to Shelagh for sharing this extremely emotional learning experience with us, we hope it can inspire more work in the future between school libraries and their schools internationally.