Learning on a global level

Melland High School is in The Global Scholars Programme for the second time, following a great success last year. The programme is a ‘world classroom’ in which students learn about a specific topic and how it affects their lives and where they live, interacting by email in an ‘e classroom’ with international students, in a ‘collaboration’ of different schools from all over the world. This year, Melland is in collaboration with schools from Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Fort Lauderdale/Broward, Hawaii, Madrid, Philadelphia, Shanghai and Warsaw.

The KS3 class of 11 students follow the programme every Wednesday morning, when they will be learning about “Nature and our Cities”. The programme is split up into different units over the course of the year. Unit 1 is learning about how to use the e classroom, rules and regulations and introducing themselves and learning about their peers. In Unit 2, students examine nature through a personal lens to discover its essential role in their daily lives, cultures, and physical and mental health. They do field research to notice and document the nature around them and learn to exchange cultural perspectives respectfully and practice these skills in the e-classroom. In the Unit 2 Digital Project, students create a digital guide to share a local natural space, whether it is their schoolyard, a local park, or a garden, with visitors. Students gain a lot from the programme, learning about the world around them and the diversity in different cultures around the world amongst many other aspects.

Melland is not the only BFET school to be on the programme – they first got involved in the programme following Cedar Mount’s success with it. In total, there are 25 countries and 51 cities involved. BFET is a truly global Trust!