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Waterman Primary
Waterman Primary
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Waterman Primary School,
The Boulevard, Rochford,
SS4 1QF
Head: Mrs.Welch
01702 546237
www.watermanprimaryschool.ik.org
admin@waterman.essex.sch.uk
admin@waterman.essex.sch.uk
“Waterman’s goes International”
Talking with Bruce McMillan, assistant head at Waterman School
(26th January 2012)
Talking with Bruce McMillan, assistant head at Waterman School
(26th January 2012)
While talking with the Head recently she made mention of contacts overseas so while at Waterman’s today, we briefly spoke to Bruce McMillan about it.
Rochford Life: Bruce, I hear the school is going international and crossing geographical boundaries?
Bruce: Well we are hoping to; it’s really only in its early stages. We have applied to the British Council for what is reciprocal funding, we’ve been given initial funding, to build ties with a school in Kenya and we’ve got some teachers coming over in April, and they’ll spend some time here.
Bruce: Well we are hoping to; it’s really only in its early stages. We have applied to the British Council for what is reciprocal funding, we’ve been given initial funding, to build ties with a school in Kenya and we’ve got some teachers coming over in April, and they’ll spend some time here.
RL: Kenya’s a bit unstable at the moment isn’t it?
Bruce: A little bit but that is being monitored.
RL: So what is the purpose of this ultimately?
Bruce: It is being done through the Diocese up in Chelmsford, it’s more through the faith schools that it’s being done but because of our link with Wickford Church of England School, we’ve been able to do this. We put an action plan together and one of the representatives from the Diocese, checks it. There are about ten schools involved, secondary and primary, and she and two other colleagues went out to Kenya in October, I think it was, and visited the schools that we’re partnering up with. The school we’re partnering up with is in Kavengero which is right on the Equator, and that school has some 500 pupils, and we’ll be building ties with them. We recently did a big display here in school with photos from there to start catching the children’s interest.
Bruce: A little bit but that is being monitored.
RL: So what is the purpose of this ultimately?
Bruce: It is being done through the Diocese up in Chelmsford, it’s more through the faith schools that it’s being done but because of our link with Wickford Church of England School, we’ve been able to do this. We put an action plan together and one of the representatives from the Diocese, checks it. There are about ten schools involved, secondary and primary, and she and two other colleagues went out to Kenya in October, I think it was, and visited the schools that we’re partnering up with. The school we’re partnering up with is in Kavengero which is right on the Equator, and that school has some 500 pupils, and we’ll be building ties with them. We recently did a big display here in school with photos from there to start catching the children’s interest.
RL: But you’ve already been doing stuff with New Zealand as well haven’t you?
Bruce: Yes, we’ve already been Skyping a school in New Zealand. I’m from Auckland, one of the bigger cities with bigger schools, but we wanted a school more like this one and my cousin used to teach in this country school in the middle of the North Island. They’re a little bigger with about a hundred pupils. They wrote letters to us and we’ve done some back creating pen friends, and then just before Christmas my class stayed back for pizza and chips and then at 8.30pm when they were arriving at school in New Zealand we had an hour with them on Skype which we were able to display up on a big white board and see the eight pupils at the other end.
RL: That sounds excellent!
Bruce: Oh it was. The kids down under had ‘calf day’ there where they take in their pet sheep or their pet cow to the school and of course our kids said straight away, when are we going to have calf days?
RL: Are you going to contact them like that regularly?
Bruce: Yes hopefully, but of course they are on holiday down there at the moment because it’s their summer holidays, but there’s already been one e-mail from one of the mums asking the parents of one of ours if they can communicate all the time, because she was really keen to see the link. I did them in another school and we had someone just interested in getting a pen-pal and I actually knew someone who was in the Cook Islands at the time and she started writing and I bumped into her about six or seven years later as a teenager and at that stage they were still writing to each other, so you never know where that goes.
RL: Well that’s great. Thanks for the time and sharing Bruce, I know you’re very busy, but it’s been good hearing briefly about the growing world vision here. Who knows where some of the kids may end up going in the years to come! We’ll come back in the future and see how this is progressing.
Bruce: Yes, we’ve already been Skyping a school in New Zealand. I’m from Auckland, one of the bigger cities with bigger schools, but we wanted a school more like this one and my cousin used to teach in this country school in the middle of the North Island. They’re a little bigger with about a hundred pupils. They wrote letters to us and we’ve done some back creating pen friends, and then just before Christmas my class stayed back for pizza and chips and then at 8.30pm when they were arriving at school in New Zealand we had an hour with them on Skype which we were able to display up on a big white board and see the eight pupils at the other end.
RL: That sounds excellent!
Bruce: Oh it was. The kids down under had ‘calf day’ there where they take in their pet sheep or their pet cow to the school and of course our kids said straight away, when are we going to have calf days?
RL: Are you going to contact them like that regularly?
Bruce: Yes hopefully, but of course they are on holiday down there at the moment because it’s their summer holidays, but there’s already been one e-
RL: Well that’s great. Thanks for the time and sharing Bruce, I know you’re very busy, but it’s been good hearing briefly about the growing world vision here. Who knows where some of the kids may end up going in the years to come! We’ll come back in the future and see how this is progressing.