As part of a long history of collaborative work between SAI International School and Churchdown Village Infant School, Gloucester UK, we have been awarded a Connecting Classrooms Grant providing opportunity for us to work together face-to-face on embedding the core skills in the classroom. Part of this programme is a visit from the partner school will and the development of a pilot project with Core Skills at the heart.

We are excited about our partner schools visit this November and had a remarkable opportunity to showcase our work in Delhi at the Leaning for a Sustainable Future, Teachers Conference. As an Indo-UK Team we presented our pilot project on the implementation of Core Skills in the classroom through lesson plan adaptation. Only 10 teams from India – UK were selected and it was a privilege to be a part of such a prestigious programme.

The conference had power house speakers from UK and India including Mr. Gareth Mills an adviser to the UK Government when working for England’s Curriculum Authority. Gareth now works with organisations and schools in the UK, Europe and Asia helping to design curricular and learning experiences for leaders, teachers and students. His portfolio includes work with The International Baccalaureate Organisation, UNESCO and The National Foundation for Education Research.

“A  good design can inspire and motivate – poor design frustrates and disheartens. It’s the same for learning as it is in the rest of life” said Mr. Mills during his speech.

The Connecting Classrooms Grant period is for 3 years and will focus on the advance of different Core Skills each year. Our pilot project with a weekly exchange of lessons plans with a focus on the execution of core skills in the classroom.  The first core skill to be covered will be Global Citizenship for two months, followed by critical thinking and problem-solving. The entire project will culminate in an exchange of reports from each school highlighting its benefits in the classroom environment and overall positive or negative impact on the students. There will be an in depth look at how to design any lesson towards core skill development in students and a core skill check list will be developed and shared. During their visit UK partner school conducted sample lesson plans in the classroom with our KG II and Class I students and teachers, launching our exchange of lessons on the the topic “Myself” with a focus on the core skill of Global Citizenship.

These classroom activities are just the beginning in a continuous exchange of core skills lesson plans on global citizenship and deep learning through problem solving and critical thinking.