Sixteen year 10 students have recently returned from a highly successful visit to Gymnasium School in Breda, Holland where they took on the challenging but highly rewarding task of planning an international festival for year 7 pupils at the school.
The students were selected after a rigorous application and interview process. Once in Holland, they worked alongside 16 Dutch Young Leaders to plan, deliver and evaluate the festival. The students had to accommodate cultural and linguistic differences in some fascinating debates to decide the format of the festival and the key activities that they would run. Key skills of organisation, delegation communication were put to the test. Eventually, the Young Leaders decided to run a series of small workshops, including Drama, Dance, Art, Sport, music – and even a rap competition for over 200 year 7 pupils!
This highly successful exchange was funded by The Youth Sports Trust, The British Council and Sports College initiatives.
The educational links between Whickham and Gymnasium have been strengthened and both sets of students made many lasting friendships. We hope that an annual Dreams and teams event becomes an established fixture on the school calendar.