Chums is a partnership of three schools that spans three continents of Africa, North America and Europe. Chumbageni Primary School at Tanga, Tanzania; The Key School, an independent school at Annapolis, Maryland, USA; and Somers Park Primary at Malvern, Worchestershire, UK constitute the group. The group name evolves from Chumbageni School and the affectionate English term for friends: chums.
The primary aim of the group is to develop a strong ethos of the global village for the pupils of all three schools, creating a strong channel of communication between pupils to deliver understanding of differing and shared beliefs, values and concepts.
To achieve this global village ethos all three schools commit to two core objectives:
- Strategies to develop the knowledge and skills that individual pupils have a positive awareness of citizenship, and the confidence to make a contribution locally and globally. Vitally linked to this is a clear idea of our interdependence with personal responsibilities for contributions to that relationship.
- Each school will endeavour to develop strong sustainability practices as a result of shared ideas, skills and knowledge.
This aim, and the two core objectives, will be delivered through the following shared actions:
- The achievement of regular, confident and persistent communications between lead staff at each school to plan, regulate, monitor and audit developments to ensure goals are achieved and high standards of relationships are enjoyed by all in the three communities.
- A regular e-email route between the three groups, with all communications copied to the third party, will ensure disciplined and continued responses.
- Visits to be arranged wherever possible between the three groups, or two sides of the triangle, to allow conferencing to take place.
- This will permit exchanges of good learning practice in the three schools, so strengthening the quality of provision for pupils in all three schools. Staff can discuss leadership and management issues, teaching and learning styles.
- Pupils will find a variety of forms for communicating appropriate to their age to ensure they build up a relationship with partners in each school that can be developed over a long period of time.
- This will include an exchange of cuddly animals for five to seven year olds that travel to pupils homes with photos and diaries kept before being send to the second and then third school. Seven to nine year olds will write to each other and exchange art work, nine to eleven year olds will employ e-mail and send electronic images.
- The three schools will exchange artifacts, images, flags, maps and symbols so that these may be displayed in each school and used as teaching aids.
- Each school will have a dedicated area that symbolises and celebrates the link between the three.
- This might be a display board, artifact table, zone or class area.
- Each school will plan to incorporate the study of the localities of the other two within their geography, history, or PSHE programmes.
- Sustainability will be a significant part of discussions and linked work between the three schools.
- Tree planting will take place at all three schools as symbols of the life force of the link and as contributions to the local micro climate. Schools will communicate to each other sustainability issues for each environment and strategies employed to secure improvements. This will form a vital theme at any conferencing.
- Each school will seek to promote the work of Chums in the surrounding community, promoting the objectives of the triangle and seeking support in achieving those goals and continuing their good practice.
This statement has been agreed between the three lead teachers representing the constitute schools: