16 Jul 2014

It was a fun filled day as students and teachers of Lotsane Senior Secondary School welcomed their colleagues from Charleston Academy in Scotland.

Since the two schools partnered together through British Council’s initiative of Connecting Classrooms through global partnerships, the bond between the two grows stronger every year.

Lotsane School head Mr Tshokologo Dineo said the two schools were always looking forward to meeting one another and share best practices.

He expressed his happiness for having hosted Charleston Academy and ensuring that the partnership becomes a success. “The partnership between the two schools has grown in leaps and bounds,” he said.

Last year the local students and teachers visited Scotland but this time around Charleston Academy’s 35 students and five teachers visited Lotsane Senior School.

During this visit, it is a norm for visiting students to attend classes while on the other hand their teachers are allocated classes to teach. With the mission to become a school of excellence, Lotsane collaborates with Charleston Academy in the areas of Art and Physical Education which has brought about a positive impact in the teaching and learning of art.

The local Art students participated in a mural for the London Olympic Games at the British High Commissioner’s place and Mr Dineo announced that this on its own boosted Art students’ morale and confidence such that results of Art in 2012 BGCSE showed a great improvement from 53.05 per cent to 77.8 per cent in 2012.

To encourage hard work amongst students, students who get the opportunity to visit Scotland are selected on the basis of performance such that only students who have done exceptionally well in their academics are given that opportunity. “We have since realised that this has created a healthy academic competition among our students resulting in slight improvement in our 2012 BGCSE results,” he said.

One student Tsaone Gosiamang was offered an opportunity to participate in a high level event that is the 2011 Jubilee Celebrations in London.

This student, Mr Dineo said was motivated such that he became top in this school by scoring 48 points in the 2012 BGCSE results which qualified him for Top Achievers Scholarship.

Mr Dineo also stated that the British Council through Connecting Classrooms initiative gave his school platform to for a joint grant with their partner Charleston Academy in which they won 1 500 pounds.

The fund, he said will be used for the travel of one Biology teacher to Scotland who will be on a bench marking exercise during the coming school vacation. “We expect Charleston Academy to do the same as this will go a long way in promoting inter-cultural exchange and the best practices in the learning and teaching,” he said.

The Scottish on the other hand looks up to this partnership as some form of inter-cultural exchange. Coming from a country that appreciate the benefits of embracing different cultures, the Scottish are happy to learn Setswana culture and its significance to the economy of this country.

Charleston Academy’s head teacher Mr Chris O’Neill is always looking forward to visiting Lotsane School. He says he is always enjoying a warm welcome he receives from Lotsane adding that Batswana and the Scottish have a lot in common.

He says the Scottish people are warm fun-loving, compassionate and generous nation. The students and their teachers did not come empty handed but brought with them some knitted items for infants which they donated to Palapye hospital maternity ward and House of Hope orphanage.

Ms Mairi Sutherland, a teacher at Charleston Academy says knitting is a strong tradition which comes a long way amongst the Scottish people. The knitted items were done with the support of the community through the Parents Council which is equivalent to the local Parents Teachers Association.

The academy also donated books for Lotsane School library and some software which can assist in setting up the school website. Next year the local students will be visiting Scotland and Lotsane Senior School is already preparing for that trip. ENDS