Primary school gives Nepalese teachers a taste of Telford with teacher exchange program

St George's CofE Primary School has, for the last two weeks, played host to four teachers from the other side of the world in a teacher exchange programme.

The project aims to have teachers learn from each other and allow students to experience a little bit of life from thousands of miles away.

The Telford primary school is working with the charity Classrooms in the Clouds, which works with around 17 schools in the lower Everest region.

St George's headteacher Sally Sixsmith, who is now one of the charity's trustees, was inspired to get involved after meeting Dawa Geljen Sherpa, during a trek in Nepal 10 years ago.

Growing up in the isolated region, Dawa Geljen wasn't able to attend school until he was 10 years old, as the nearest one was an hour's walk away.

Mrs Sixsmith explained: "The charity helps to build earthquake-resistant schools and sponsors female teaching, it's a very male-dominated profession in Nepal.

"When the girls reach puberty they stop going to school because there are no toilets for them to use. When I got back, my school started raising money to build toilets and we had around 20 other schools involved with the project.

"It's a really tough life in school up in the mountains, they have nothing. But they live very fulfilled lives, they're very happy, it's just different.

"It's not about saying we feel sorry for them, the main thing is learning from each other and learning about each others cultures."

The Nepalese teachers have spent the last two weeks teaching children at St George's about life in the mountains and sharing traditional music and dancing.

In return, they've experienced a taste of life in Telford.

Mrs Sixmith said: "They've been observing classes from nursery to year three. They've been particularly keen to see how we cater for children with different abilities, leadership styles and behaviour management.

"They're very keen to make learning more fun – it's quite a practical education system in Nepal.

"They've also walked up The Wrekin, which is a bit different from their mountains! We've taken them out for traditional English food, some of which they've loved but some of which they weren't very keen on at all.

"We've really tried to give them an immersive taste of school life in Telford."

In Easter 2024, seven St George's teachers will head out to Nepal, visiting five of the schools being helped by Classrooms in the Clouds.

As a long-term project, the school is appealing for parents to donate any spare Duplo or Mega Blox that can be sent to Nepal to help the school's mission to make education more fun.

Spare blocks can be taken into the school at any time.