South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | May | 20
From the Gazette, first published Friday 20th May 2005.
NEW East-West links are opening in Thornbury thanks to partnerships forged between the town's Castle School and schools in Russia.
Castle head teacher Melanie Warnes packed her fleeciest "gear" recently when she visited Moscow to find new friends in the East.
She signed pacts with four schools aimed at opening up new channels of communication and co-operation - especially in the field of arts - which will work to everyone's mutual benefit.
One of the new friendships was cemented last week with a visit to Thornbury - much sooner than expected - by a representative from the school with which Castle is set to form the closest bond.
Valery Volkov, deputy head of the unromantically named St Petersburg School Number 619 - interrupted a holiday in the UK to visit Thornbury , meet Castle staff and pupils and "firm up" the project.
"The town and and the school already have very successful links with Bockenem in Germany but we're keen to develop our international links and to extend them further than just the modern languages department," said Ms Warnes.
"I jumped at the chance of going to Moscow as part of the British Council project. We were among 33 British schools seeking partners during a four-day seminar and it was rather like educational speed dating. We set up a very good display and, putting all modesty aside, we found lots of suitors. We were only looking for one partnership school but we ended up with four - two in St Petersburg, one in Tomsk in Siberia and a fourth in Samara, south of Moscow."
The links will include joint projects on the environment and the visual arts which it is hoped will results in exhibitions of students' work in St Petersburg and at the Castle's Octagon art gallery.
Said Ms Warnes: "The exercise was all about finding like-minded schools - schools which, like the Castle, are open to new ways of learning.
"It is going to broaden students' horizons and enrich their education in many different ways. Staff and pupils are very enthusiastic about it."
Russian was not currently on the subject list at the Castle, she said, but it was something that might be looked at in the future.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008