Global Learning Hub

Mobberley has always been a place with a spirit for adventure, for thinking globally and for pioneering new ideas in very different contexts. Nobody embodies these attributes more than our famous former resident, George Mallory and his family who have held a close connection to the school and church over many generations.

Today, we continue this tradition by enthusiastically pioneering the Global Learning. We feel it is central to our vision statement of ‘Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors’ that we educate children to be culturally inquisitive, understand other contexts and celebrate difference.

In 2018, Mrs Millington and Mrs Franklin visited Nepal for a week and established a sustainable link with our partner school in Dhobighat, Kathmandu. The teachers took with them a box full of items which gave a flavour of life in Mobberley. The children out there were very interested in our lessons and activities. The staff also brought home a box full of Nepalese items which each of our classes could explore and discuss. Children were able to link up with their fellow pupils through a skype call and both sets of children sang to each other. Two carefully planned enrichment days in July 18 ensured that all our pupils were able to gain a rich cultural experience of Nepalese traditional crafts as well as aspects of Nepalese sport, music, art and cookery.

In May 2018, we arranged for the visit of Mohammed, a Syrian refugee, to speak with all the K.S.2 children in an assembly and class workshops about his experiences in leaving his home of Aleppo and having to travel across the Mediterranean in extremely testing circumstances. This highly emotive and very moving story was highlighted by many pupils as one of the most significant moments of their studies this year.

In June 2019, (after fundraising over £1,500) we were delighted to welcome the Principal of our partner school in Nepal, Mr Badri Baral and one of the Directors of the school, Mr Ramesh Shreshta who visited the school for a week. Both visitors spent time teaching lessons in every class, bringing to life Nepalese traditions, Religious customs, logic problems, artwork, dances, etc. The Mobberley children were thrilled with the opportunity of speaking with and singing to the Nepalese children through the Skype video link. This week really was a very vibrant cultural exchange.

Global Learning is emphasised across each year group with regular ‘Philosophy for Children’ reflection sessions and by building global issues into RE lessons as well as other curriculum study topics.

Our staff have worked hard to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals are at the forefront of our children’s learning. Each class has learnt about 2 of these goals in depth and shared their learning with the rest of the school. The idea being that each child with have investigated, debated, discussed and contributed towards all 17 goals by the time they leave our school. We have chosen an additional 3 goals to focus on as a whole school, which have allowed the children to work with friends, family and their local community to try and make a difference. An Eco team has been established who are now intent on ensuring that we all ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’. Families made pledges to reduce their use of plastics and children contacted businesses in their local community to encourage their reduction in plastic-use. A whole school trip was organised in February 2019 to Chester Zoo which focused on ‘life on land’ and ‘life below water’. Children and parents contributed to making costumes for the Summer show out of recycled materials. Two children from Years 5 and 6 are also part of the newly formed ‘ Knutsford and District Youth Council’, meeting with Town Mayor Councillor Malloy. They have been active in setting up a new sustainable award aimed at businesses who reduce their use of plastics.

Our Global work is part of the Knutsford Global Partnership of Schools. Our group has recently been recognised by a Parliamentary Committee as a National leader in this field of Education. We are very proud of this achievement.

Our latest development is to establish Mobberley as a Global Learning ‘Hub School’ leading a local cluster of schools in establishing and developing links with Global Learning communities across the globe. This work will involve the sharing of pupil communications, cultural celebrations, places of worship study, Teaching Pedagogy, international comparison of work, CPD, Policy and organisational features, Leadership and Management approaches, etc. This will be an exciting time for our little community!