Greenfield Community College hosted guests from one of their international partners this week.

The delegation from Abbattabad in Pakistan came to Greenfield to discuss exciting plans for the second year of the Connecting Classrooms project that teachers and pupils from the school are involved in. Abbattabad.

This is the town in Pakistan where the former world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden was found and assassinated. It is home of the ‘Govt Boys School No 3 Abbottabad’ with whom Greenfield Community College is linked.

Pupils from both schools take part in perception changing projects to alter stereotypes and encourage more outward looking learners who will develop into truly global citizens.

The project for the next year will involve pupils from both schools studying the same text. ‘The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a novel narrated by Death and set in 1939 Nazi Germany. The amount of people dying at the hands of war is increasing. Pupils from both countries will study issues and themes from the novel and share answers to set questions through the dedicated ‘Facebook’ and ‘moodle’ forums.

Teachers from Greenfield will have the opportunity to mark and feedback on work from pupils in Pakistan and vice versa. Pupils will have several opportunities to come together through ‘skype’ to discuss their findings and feelings together.

Greenfield hope to send a member of their teaching staff to Abbottabad this academic year to investigate methods of teaching and learning and to share good practice from teachers and pupils here in Newton Aycliffe.