Four teachers from New Zealand are travelling from the other side of the world to find out how Wales provides bilingual education.
The teachers won the chance to visit Wales as part of the Linking Minds Scholarship - an international award for young teachers in New Zealand who have been identified as future leaders in education.
Charlotte Borowski, Jenna Chenery, Vai Mahutariki and Nickie Slater will fly in from New Zealand on 27 September to spend almost two weeks learning about how bilingual education is planned and delivered in Wales.
As well as visiting schools in North and South Wales, the teachers will be meeting with Meri Huws the Welsh Language Commissioner and representatives of the National Assembly and CILT Cymru, Wales’ national centre for languages.
Staff from the National Museum Wales will also be talking to the teachers about how the museum service provides a bilingual education service.
British Council Wales is hosting the visit and its head of education, Chris Lewis, said: “Wales and New Zealand are both champions of indigenous language revival and bilingual education. Our visitors are looking forward to learning about Welsh education and we are keen to hear about their work with Te Reo Maori, the Maori language.”
Schools to be visited:
Ysgol Gymraeg Treganna, Cardiff
Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Lôn Las, Llansamlet, Swansea
Ysgol Bro Alun, Gwersyllt, Wrexham
Ysgol Plas Coch, Wrexham
The Teachers
Charlotte Borowski, primary school teacher at Papatoetoe South School in South Auckland.
Jenna Chenery, secondary school teacher at Mount Hutt College, Methven, Canterbury.
Vai Mahutariki, head of the Maori department at Onslow College, Wellington.
Nickie Slater, primary school teacher at Eastern Hutt School, Wellington region.
Linking Minds Scholarship
The Linking Minds Scholarship has been available since 2003. It is a prestigious international award for young teachers who identify themselves as emerging leaders, and has a particular focus on teachers who are interested in bilingual education.
The scholarship is funded by the British Council, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the New Zealand Teachers Council and the NZ-UK Link Foundation, and aims to recognise and promote effective teaching by providing international experience for teachers early in their careers.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide.
We work in more than 100 countries and our 7000 staff – including 2000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the Arts and delivering education and society programmes.
We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publically-funded grant-in-aid provides less than 25 per cent of our turnover which last year was £781m. The rest of our revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally.
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