Teesdale School in Barnard Castle heard this week that it had been successful in a bid for EU funding to support a link with a school in Bulgaria. The funding will enable students from Teesdale, who are following the Construction course, to work with Bulgarian students on a building project over the next two years. The partner school is in Koprivshtitsa, a small rural town which is famous for its old buildings and the use of traditional materials in construction. Teesdale School was one of 32 schools in the UK and the only school in the North-East to be awarded this grant.
The link between the schools follows an approach from Craig Harper, a former student of Teesdale, who now lives and works in Bulgaria. Craig was aware that the school in Koprivshtitsa was looking for an English school to work with and that Teesdale School held an International Award. Subsequent discussions led to both schools agreeing a partnership which has now been awarded a Comenius grant from the EU.
The grant means that 12 students from Teesdale will visit Bulgaria in October. They will be looking with their Bulgarian counterparts at developing construction techniques using traditional and renewable materials. The Bulgarian students will then return to Teesdale in April next year where they will be accommodated at the Hub and will work on a similar project over here.
Commenting in the award, Headteacher, Paul Harrison said: ‘This is great news. Most overseas trips tend to focus on languages but this project is unique. It will enable our Construction students, some of whom do not have opportunities to travel, to explore a different culture and learn about traditional methods used in Eastern Europe. We also hope that it will raise their awareness of the need for people in the Construction industry to work in other countries or alongside other nationalities.’
Contact Paul Harrison 01833 638166

Staff and students at Teesdale School had the great privilege of entertaining two staff from our partner school in Shijazhuang, near Beijing, from Monday 8th to Tuesday 9th March. Mr Zhao, Deputy Head Teacher and Mr Shi, Deputy Director of the Academic Division spent a week in England visiting London and Cambridge before visiting their partner schools in the north east and then rounded off their week by visiting Edinburgh before returning to China. The staff seen below at the Mansion House in Newcastle visited lessons and undertook a tour of the Bowes Museum on Monday as well answering questions from Teesdale students about life in China and Chinese schools. They then visited the co-hosting school Tudhoe Grange in Spennymoor on Tuesday and still found time to go shopping in Newcastle!

The purpose of the visit was to create links between Teesdale School and School 41 in Shijazhuang with a view to sending students from both Teesdale and Tudhoe Grange Schools on a study visit to China in 2011. Representatives from the three schools attended the function at the Mansion House in Newcastle in order to formally sign a declaration of their commitment to forge meaningful educational links between the staff and students of the schools. There are plans to send staff from Teesdale School to China this summer to undertake some teaching and to find out more about Chinese culture and their education system.

Mrs Bedwell, who co-ordinated the visit in school, said: “The visit has been a fabulous learning opportunity for all concerned. For example, our visitors were extremely interested in the way schools in the UK deliver vocational education, something which is not so common within the school system in China. Meanwhile, our students were extremely impressed at the personal qualities exhibited by our visitors; by how interested they were in all aspects of the British education system and how generous they were towards strangers. It is clear that we have much to learn from each other and we look forward to developing the next stage of our partnership when we go on a return visit to China this summer”.

Headteacher, Paul Harrison, was presented with the International School Award for 2009-2012 by BBC journalist George Alagiah at a ceremony in London on Friday 16th October. This is the second time the school has received this prestigious award in recognition of the school's high quality international work.

Teesdale Year 7 students have been opening up international links with a children’s home in Nepal. On hearing that student Oliver Hamilton was visiting Nepal during the Easter holidays the year group decided that they wanted to support the local children’s home Rokpa. After consultation with Oliver the Children’s home, the students and Head of Year Nicole Read, they came up with the idea of making and donating pencil cases for every child as there are limited funds and stationary available. The students also enclosed a personal note in the pencil cases. Nicole Read set the students the task of fundraising “ I wanted this to be driven by the students, they needed to plan, organise and make up the pencil cases themselves under the guidance and support from their Form Tutors”. “It was so good to see the children opening the pencil cases “ said Oliver.

The students thoroughly enjoyed both the making of the pencil cases and the fundraising. The target for each form was £50, they achieved this by helping in the kitchen, completing a sponsored run, baking cake sales, guess the amount of sweets in the jar challenge and setting up Wii and playstation challenges. Nicole Read Head of Year said “ I am so proud of the students. They have worked very hard and have shown a fabulous amount of commitment to this project and the notes that they put in the pencil cases were very touching. They are a credit to our school”.