Dear International Co-ordinator,

Thank you for submitting your International School Award Impact Evaluation form. We are delighted to inform you that it has been approved by our assessors. Congratulations!

Your school is hereby accredited from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2025.

"This is a good application from the Drive Community Primary School and meets the standard for International School Award Reaccreditation. Well done!

espite the difficulties you have assembled evidence to show your commitment to the International School Award programme over the last two years rather than the normal pre-Covid Reaccreditation cycle of twelve months.

Although the pandemic has meant that you have understandably moved away from the timetable of the approved Action Plan, you have demonstrated your commitment to a minimum of seven eligible activities between September 2020 and July 2022. Several of these activities are collaborative with your overseas partner in Sicily. 

Thank you for taking part in the International School Award. Please convey our very best wishes and many congratulations to all staff and pupils both in the UK and overseas who have taken part in the scheme.

On World Book Day, Signor De Feliche  told us all about his favourite childhood book  "Telephone Tales" by Gianni Rodari. We found out about the author as well as listening to the story in Italian and English.

Roman Cookery-"Stuffed doormice"

Year 3  had a Zoom meeting with Imran who told them all about the life of Mohammed and Muslims. They also has a Zoom meeting with David, a Christian, who held a question and answer session with the whole school before reading a "Geordie" version of  "The Good Samaritan." They also had a visit from a member of the Jewish community who talked about the Jewish faith. Lots of the children could remember facts from their studies last year. They  decorated the yard with Islamic art using pastels and shared everything they had learned about Islam with the rest of the school during Fridays whole school zoom assembly.

In Italian we have been learning all about Christmas celebrations in Italy. We performed a Christmas song we had been learning for our Italian friends in Sicily on Zoom. They performed a song that they had been learning in English then we asked each other some questions about how we celebrate Christmas. It was great fun seeing the children in Sicily.

As part of Eco Week across school, we looked at recycling symbols on packaging, found out what happened to "Freddie the fish" on his journey down stream from the river source to where it enters the sea. We also sent this activity to our partner school in Sicily for them to try in their World Ocean activities. We also used recycled materials as planters for bulbs. We all worked together to collect crisp packets which were then turned into a blanket for the homeless.   

Across school activities took place to celebrate World Mental health Day. In Year 3 we wrote kind words on paper aeroplanes then sent them to each other. We also designed and decorated pebbles which we than exchanged as an act of kindness. We also dressed up with odd socks.We sent our Sicilian partner school some of our ideas for them to try out.

World Ocean Day

We prepared information about the sea surrounding the UK, the North East coast as well as birds and sea creatures. Our Partner school in Sicily sent us information about the Mediterranean sea as well as creatures that would be found there. Signor De Feliche translated the in our Italian lessons.

World Book Day 2021

We exchanged stories with our partner school in Sicily as part of World Book Day. We sent them an English reading of The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle and sent them some activities linked to the story to help them learn some English words. Their teacher, Signore Origlio, sent us an Italian version of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and some activities linked to the story. Signor De Feliche also explained the vocabulary and we practiced it in our Italian lessons.

Christmas Tree Decorations 2019

In December, The Drive Primary School participated in a Christmas tree decoration exchange with 27 schools in Europe.

Interfaith Week 2019

We celebrated Interfaith Week by learning about different cultures, faiths and relgions. We learnt a Buddhist dance, made lotus flowers, created Hamsa Hands of Jain and painted Diwali lamps.

Swedish Visitors 2019

Our visitors from Sweden have been teaching us all about the Dala horse and St Lucia celebrations.

School Games Day 2019

In Summer 2019, we celebrated the Cricket World Cup.

Swedish Stories October 2018-2019

In October 2018 and March 2019, our Swedish visitors helped us to learn some simple Swedish stories by Swedish authors.

World Book Day Celebrations 2018

For World Book Day, each year focused on a different author.

International Day of Happiness 2018

We have been talking about things that made us happy. We wrote a list of the most important ones and shared them with the class. We also found out about what makes children in other parts of the world happy, after watch some video clips on the British Council schools resource website. After finding out where Ethiopia was, in Africa, we found out about a little girl called Amran. 

World Maths Day 2018

We had lots of fun competing with other pupils around the world!

World Religion Day 2018
You may or may not know that World Religions Day falls on Sunday 21st January 2018.  It is important that pupils are aware of religions around the world and are given opportunities to develop respect and tolerances by becoming better informed about how and why people worship in different ways.  The more knowledgeable they are about different religious beliefs the better chance they will have of living in harmony. 

Children already learn about specific religions appropriate to their age groups but over  the next few days  we will be  providing the opportunity to extend their learning even further.