Teachers' meeting in Palestine

On Saturday, the teachers participating in the Teachers in Action project met in Abu Dis. That meant people travelling from all over the West Bank - and remember that in the current situation in Palestine, travel is not easy and checkpoints in particular can be dangerous.So it was great that people got there from  Bil'in and Hebron and other parts of the West Bank, though teachers from Jenin couldn't manage it unfortunately and their colleagues will be in touch with them.

As well as practical issues about travel etc, the teachers discussed the programme and what they are bringing with them to show the teachers from the UK - pictures, presentations about their experience as teachers and their schools and students. The teachers discussed the Palestinian day at the residential, what they want to get from school visits and public events and what they want to bring to them.

Meanwhile in the UK, teachers are on holiday for Christmas and the New Year (and hope they have a good holiday after a long, hard term) - and then, soon, the visit...

See you soon at the residential.

Hi everyone who is coming, from the UK and from Palestine.

On Friday 8th Jan after school (for the UK teachers) and after a long flight from Amman, the UK and Palestinian teachers will make their way to our opening residential in the Shropshire countryside, in the middle of England.... This is a purpose-built residential and conference centre that looks very empty in these pictures but will fill up with people and talking and activities as soon as you are all there.

These pictures show the conference hall, which we will be using, and the dining room, where we will eat  (they will cook halal food or vegetarian food or other - whatever you have said that you want.), an indoor sports hall which will be good if the weather is bad, and one of the bedrooms (three people will share).

In the dining room, they have a lot of flags but not a Palestinian one - I wonder if someone has one they can bring?

The residential has a lot of rules, SEE HERE  Palestinians, please discuss at your next meeting the things that work differently in the UK. (*Palestinian smokers will need to remember that they cannot smoke indoors! There is a special place for smokers.*) 

We expect this to be a very interesting weekend!  We will start with information on the project and a 'British day' (with information from the UK teachers) and a 'Palestinian day' (with information from the Palestinians).  Then Monday will be the first day for the Palestinians to see UK schools! And on Tuesday and Wednesday, they will go to their partner schools. Thursday is a community day - Friday a workshop day - Saturday the conference on School Twinning with Palestine - and on Sunday we will have an evaluation meeting as well as a special lunch together. There will be lots of time to get to know each other, to see different places in Britain, to take part in evening activities... It should be good, we are looking forward.

You should all have a programme for the exchange, and we will give you a handbook with more information when you arrive.

For the UK teachers specially - HAPPY CHRISTMAS
and for everyone HAPPY NEW YEAR! We look forward to seeing you early in 2016!

Press release for the Teachers in Action project, 17/12/15

At this dangerous time in the world, it ­­is more than ever important that young ­p­eople learn to respect people unlike t­he­mselves and build bridges of communic­ati­on that will encourage them to learn­ abo­ut each other's lives, oppose discr­imina­tion and work creatively to defend­ human­ rights. Promoting such links is ­a centr­al project for the human rights ­charity ­CADFA which has been organising­ creative­ projects shared by young peop­le, women ­and men in Britain and Palest­ine for the­ past eleven years.

One of Cadfa's most exciting projects to­­ date, building on school and youth lin­k­s created since 2006, TEACHERS IN ACTI­O­N 2016 (a project funded by the Europe­an­ Union via Erasmus+ youth funding and­ su­pported by the NUT) will support lin­ks b­etween schools in Britain and Pales­tine ­through two teachers' training eve­nts ne­xt January and October. The first­ stage ­will bring fourteen teachers fro­m Palest­ine to the UK where they will s­hare a se­ries of training workshops wit­h UK teach­ers, visit their linked schoo­ls in Engla­nd and Wales and finally on ­16th January­ have a conference on schoo­l twinning wi­th Palestine at the NUT wh­ich will invol­ve many other teachers.

By the end of ten days, the teachers wil­­l have planned joint projects to do wit­h­ their linked schools for the next few­ m­onths. One model being explored is tw­inn­ing clubs like those being run alrea­dy i­n some Camden and Abu Dis schools. ­Here ­school students learn about the yo­ung pe­ople in the other country and are­ encour­aged to communicate with each ot­her thro­ugh shared school blogs.

Then in October 2016, the teachers from ­­the UK will have the opportunity to vis­i­t their linked school in Palestine so ­th­ey can review progress together as we­ll ­as learning about the other country ­and ­preparing more new work together.

As more and more teachers report that th­­eir senior staff worry about dealing wi­t­h controversial issues in the Middle E­as­t, pushed by the government's 'Preven­t" agenda and worries about radicalisati­on,­ Cadfa's work offers teachers and yo­ung­ people the opportunity to explore d­iffi­cult issues in a safe and inclusive­ way.­ It offers young people positive s­teps ­to take in a campaign for human ri­ghts a­nd builds personal links across t­he worl­d that we have seen can last for­ many ye­ars. Friendship focused on huma­n rights ­brings a breath of hope to peo­ple in bot­h countries that is both a co­ntrast and ­a challenge to the current c­ontext of fe­ar, misunderstanding and ra­cism.

The Teachers in Action project blog is a­­t teachersinaction2016.blogspot.co.uk. ­M­ore information on the project and pub­li­c events in Chester, Liverpool, Pendl­e, ­Knighton, Llanidloes, Northampton, C­amd­en, Hackney and Tower Hamlets from c­ont­act@cadfa.org.
--

Visas have all come and the air tickets have come!

Slowly bit by bit we're getting there!

Bilin Girls' School

Here in Liverpool we are looking forward to welcoming two teachers from our twin town of Bilin .This is their school, which I visited earlier this year. The pupils and teachers had just moved back in after moving to the Boys School while theirs was refurbished - this is the new playground

Elspeth, Liverpool

Pictures from Assawiya School

Public events during the teachers' visit

Please tell everyone you know about the public events during the Palestinian teachers' visit that are taking place near you!     Some dates for your diary... see below and ask for details...
(events being timetabled also in Liverpool, Tower Hamlets, Llanidloes, Pendle)

SUNDAY EVENING 10th January
Chester - Knighton - Worcester (being confirmed)

TUESDAY EVENING 12th January
Camden NUT

WEDNESDAY EVENING 13th January
Northampton - see HERE

THURSDAY EVENING 14th January

FRIDAY EVENING 15th January
Hackney - see HERE

SATURDAY DAYTIME 16th January
Conference on School Twinning with Palestine - see poster

SUNDAY LUNCHTIME 17th January
Sunday Lunch with CADFA (London, see HERE)

23 linked schools!

Palestinian school

UK school

Thirteen pairs of schools (23 schools) will be involved in this project - And that is not all! At least another eight schools will host the Palestinian teachers and we hope lots of teachers from different schools will meet them at other events and specially the Conference on School Twinning with Palestine. (Picture, Abu Dis boys on Skype with young people in Camden).

Abu Dis girls	Abu Dis	Camden School for Girls	Camden
Abu Dis girls	Abu Dis	LSU	Camden
Abu Dis Primary School	Abu Dis	Gospel Oak	Camden
Arab Institute	Abu Dis	William Elliis	Camden
Arab Institute	Abu Dis	Haverstock	Camden
Abu Dis Nehru School	Abu Dis	Hampstead	Camden
Abu Dis UNRWA	Abu Dis	Regent High	Camden
Abu Dis UNRWA	Abu Dis	Maria Fidelis	Camden
Bil'in girls	Bil’in	Holly Lodge	Liverpool
Assawiya, Qabalan	Assawiya	Llanidloes High School	Llanidloes
Al Bireh primary	Al Bireh	Simon de Senlis Primary	Northampton
Beit Leed boys	Beit Leed	Marsden Heights	Pendle
Jenin Camp UNRWA	Jenin	Bonner Primary	Tower Hamlets

Some links to school and college blogs...

Some of the blog posts written in Camden in relation to school twinning links. Unfortunately, some of the blog history disappeared about a year ago - including lots of interesting posts between the UNRWA School Abu Dis and its partners.

http://www.cadfa.org/blog/cadfa-blogs/school-college-blogs/

Our of the school clubs has come a youth group and here is their overall blog

youthcadfa.blogspot.co.uk

We'll talk about this all during the project!

Energetic English

Nice to see this clip from Al Bireh Primary, which is twinned with a school in Northampton. We will have teachers from both schools with us as part of the visit. 

https://www.facebook.com/teacherinaction2016/?fref=tshttps://www.facebook.com/teacherinaction2016/?fr

ef=ts

Leaflet for the School Twinning with Palestine conference - please distribute