International Work at St Bernadette's
International Award by the British Council
In 2010 we began exploring the possibility of working as an international school. This was the beginning of a great journey which has enabled us to make new friends and have new experiences with children and staff from other schools.
We began by working with Colegio Miramadrid (in Madrid, Spain) and this still continues today. We also began with Lokomotywa (in Sopot, Poland) and we extended our activities to work with Istituto Carducci Fattori (in Rosignano, Italy) and now Charles Auray Elementary School (in Paris, France).
These links have been very beneficial to all of our children and staff. They take part across the whole school in a number of activities such as newsletters, pen-pals, Zoom calls, teddy bear travels and joint projects such as sustainability. One of the highlights is our pupil exchange programme with Miramadrid which allows 20 pupils to come to us in March and we take a similar amount to Madrid in May.
We have our own Lourdes group who travel each Easter with HCPT on a pilgrimage to the Grotto where Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette on numerous occasions. We have been doing this for the past 12 years and it has benefitted over 150 members of our community.
In 2023 we were delighted to be awarded the International Award by the British Council in recognition of all of the hard work that goes on to make our international work so successful. Our work is very unique and is a real strength of our school.
