King’s Ely reaccredited with International School Award

King’s Ely has received reaccreditation of the British Council’s prestigious International School Award for its ‘exemplary’ work with students overseas.

The International School Award is a badge of honour for schools that do outstanding work in international education, such as establishing links with partner schools in different parts of the world. The globally recognised accreditation helps schools to enrich learning and improve teaching by guiding their international learning activities, from introducing international education into the curriculum to embedding it within a school’s culture.

King’s Ely was first awarded the International Schools Award in 2012. The award lasts for three years and when applying for reaccreditation, schools have to prove that they are working above and beyond to promote international learning and fostering links with schools and organisations overseas.

In their feedback report to King’s Ely, an assessor from the International School Award said: ‘Your pupils are privileged to engage with internationally based lessons from an early age and this clearly gives them the confidence, as well as the skills, to use foreign languages in real collaborative contexts with their peers in your many partner schools. I have flagged your application as an example of good practice, as the language activities that you provide and the international school partnerships that you have created are exemplary. We hope that the scope of your excellent international activities will continue to develop and benefit the school community; your support, commitment, creativity and innovative international work is greatly appreciated.’

The reaccreditation comes just weeks after King’s Ely was officially recognised as an ‘eTwinning School’ at the eTwinning National Conference. The Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Co-ordinator at King’s Ely Junior, Lorraine Oldham, was on hand to collect the plaque, as well as the Quality Label awards that all four of King’s Ely’s eTwinning projects received. As if that was not enough to celebrate, Ted’s Travels, one of Mrs Oldham’s eTwinning projects that she has run with King’s Ely Junior pupils, also won a Highly Commended award at the conference.

The MFL departments at King’s Ely are a hive of activity and we thrive on developing linguistic competence in all our pupils while offering a wide range of enrichment opportunities. Strong links with our partner schools, such as in France, Germany and Spain, allows us to make learning a language a rich and real experience, through the use of projects on which to base students’ learning.

To find out more about opportunities at King’s Ely, please visit www.kingsely.org.