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Partnership between Penicuik High School, Midlothian, Scotland and Namadzi CDSS, Southern Region, Malawi.

2016 to present day

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Penicuik has had a long standing partnership with schools in Malawi stretching back as far as 2006.  We have seen how partnership can widen young people’s views of the world, challenge perceptions, build lifelong friendships, and help us take our place as global citizens.  When our previous partnership came to a natural conclusion we were keen to continue our link with Malawi.  Happenstance played a part in the development of our current partnership as the Deputy Head Teacher from our previous partner school took over as Headteacher in what was to become our current partner(Namadzi CDSS). Having already built a relationship and also fallen into some of the partnership pitfalls together, we were both keen to look again at how our partnership would operate and work to develop and establish our first partnership agreement.  This was drawn up and signed by the headteachers in both partner schools during the initial visit from Namadzi in 2017.

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2. What sort of Activities have you carried out?

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2. What sort of Activities have you carried out?

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We have undertaken a range of activities since the inception of the partnership, from smaller events in the community, whole school events and celebrations as well as staff and student reciprocal visits.  These have all provided the opportunity to involve the school communities in learning more about each pthers countries, but also making connections. For example, the ‘Malawi Day,’ in Penicuik proved to be a very successful way of promoting and sharing a range of cultural and societal aspects of life in Malawi.  We were fortunate to have some of the Malawi Diaspora living in Scotland join us for the day and run workshops, as well as a range of other organisations who have been working in or connected with Malawi, such as the Scotland Malawi Mental Health Project, and the David Livingstone Centre.  Further details of the day can be viewed on the SMP website.

Our programme of reciprocal visits have been a hugely successful way in linking both school communities together.  These visits provided an opportunity to develop our bonds of friendship and understanding with the staff and students in each others school communities.  It allowed us both to see both the challenges and opportunities in the education system in each country and gave a foundation for professional dialogue and resource sharing.

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Around 600 pupils from S1 to S6 spent the day learning about the educational and cultural links between Scotland and Malawi.

As well as taking part in Malawian drumming workshops with musician Davie Luhanga, cooking traditional Malawian dishes and learning about the country's national language Chichewa, the day also had a focus on the history of the relationship between Scotland and Malawi and the part Dr David Livingstone played in establishing this friendship.

Penicuik High School has had a link with Malawi since 2005 and has worked with a couple of schools, with their latest partnership established with Namadzi Secondary School in Zomba, Malawi in 2016.

Two teachers from Namadzi have already visited the Midlothian school as part of the partnership and there are now plans for ten pupils from Penicuik to visit Malawi in 2019.

One of the main aims of this visit is for the pupils at both schools to share their own culture with one another - a theme teacher Rachel Andrew, principal teacher of modern languages at Penicuik High School says they wanted to mirror with their Malawi Day in the school.

Taking place on October 12, Mrs Andrew says the partnership is "not about charity" and that it was very important to invest all pupils in a partnership, rather than just those going on the trip.

"We are hoping to establish a really sustained long-term friendship between our two schools," she said.

"So it is important for all of the pupils in our school to have an understanding of what our partnership is about, what the aims are and what we are looking to do next because we are going to need everyone's involvement in order to make it a success.

"It is not about charity," she added. "We have been able to do some things to improve communication at Namadzi and to improve resources at Namadzi through textbooks and laptops and things like that, but it is really important that everyone understands that this is not a one-way street.

"We need to do some of that in order to enable an equal partnership, but this is very much a partnership where we will both benefit and where we will both be able to learn from each other.

"One of our main aims is to learn about the culture of our two countries and we are hoping in the future to be able to establish links between pupils.

"I do think it is such a rewarding experience for staff and pupils. The pupils have been going around today with smiles on their faces and everyone I've asked says they have had a good day and I think there's a real buzz in the school about the partnership and some excitement about how we are going to take things forward."

In early 2018, the Penicuik High School Malawi Group - made up of young people from across the school- entered a competition to win funding from the Scotland Malawi Partnership to support the event which celebrated the links between young people in Scotland and Malawi. They were successful with their bid to hold a Malawi Day that would involve the whole school.

S4 pupil Anna Fergusson, one of the pupils involved in the group, says she was delighted to see the entire school learn more about Malawi and their partner school.

"I'm definitely passionate, that's probably one of the smallest words you could use," Anna says.

"It is one of my biggest cravings, for the partnership to grow and expand but it is really important that we all take part because we are the future and we are the people who are going to be taking it on and hopefully will expand it so everybody becomes involved.

"Obviously, we can't take everybody out to Malawi but hopefully, by doing this today, people will have an awareness and want to get involved even more in it."

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School pupils celebrate longstanding partnership dating back to Dr David Livingstone with 'Malawi Day'

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Around 600 pupils from S1 to S6 spent the day learning about the educational and cultural links between Scotland and Malawi. As well as taking part in Malawian drumming workshops with musician Davie Luhanga, cooking traditional Malawian dishes and learning about the country's national language Chichewa, the day also had a focus on the history of the relationship between Scotland and Malawi and the part Dr David Livingstone played in establishing this friendship.

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There have been many highlights over the time through our partnership with Namadzi.  The reciprocal visits have been a key mechanism for linking with the communities in both schools.  Staff and students interacting and building friendships, playing sports, creating music, sharing in learning and culture of both countries has created lasting impressions in both school communities. While a future model of partnership may not rely as heavily on face to face visits, up to this point it has been a very important means of involving staff and pupils from across the schools.

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Like any relationship, a meaningful partnership takes time to grow, nurture and evolve.  There are several challenges to this.  Staff and students, for example, are not static.  Staff in both schools are often subject to change for a variety of reasons.  Partnerships work best when run by committee in order that they do not become reliant on any one individual.   For this to work effectively a strong partnership agreement setting out the terms of the partnership will help to keep everyone moving in the same direction.  This joint agreement should be dynamic and allow for review to ensure both its relevance and useability. We need to be accountable to one another about moving the agreed aims forward and maintain regular communication.

Another challenge to developing an effective partnership is to ensure that the whole school is involved in a meaningful way.  While steered by a committee, it is important that the partnership is viewed as a whole school collaboration and not just the preserve of a few.  Notwithstanding the reciprocal visits, whole school events and learning connections can help to build an understanding of each other’s curriculum and methodologies for teaching and learning.

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5. Has anything been particularly helpful?

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5. Has anything been particularly helpful?

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Developing a partnership can feel overwhelming, in particular when in the early stages.  It has been helpful to draw on the experience of others and having conversations about best practice.  The Youth and Schools forums run by the Scotland Malawi Partnership have been a great way to hear about current partnerships and guidance on taking forward partnerships.  Involving pupils through SMP events such as the Youth Congress and Youth Festival have been highly beneficial in discussing and taking forward youth led issues.  The Connecting Classrooms programme has also been very helpful through both the free online resource and having Learning for Sustainability and British Council colleagues happy to offer advice.  The Connecting Classrooms programme has also provided training for our colleagues in Malawi.

We had also built in our partnership into school improvement planning and it was a central pillar in our Princes Trust programme.

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6. What do you hope the future of school partnerships will look like?

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6. What do you hope the future of school partnerships will look like?

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Alongside our partners, we are currently re-assessing what the future of our partnership will look like. Global challenges such as climate change and an evolving travel situation with the Covid pandemic underscores the need to reduce travel associated with reciprocal visits while at the same time maximising the value of partnership in both school communities. While face to face contact is a very powerful way of building relationships and taking forward joint projects, the past 18 months has shown us that it is possible to work effectively in a range of different ways.

Working towards a digital partnership will mitigate a number of challenges and uncertainties and provide a mechanism for building and maintaining regular connections between staff and students.  For example our joint blog will be developed and regularly updated to share what is happening in each school community.

Looking at key issues both local and global, can challenge perceptions on both sides of the partnership and also provide an insight into the effects this is having on the people living in each country.  The partnership provides an effective mechanism for Inter-Disciplinary learning as key skills can be eveloped through exploring new and challenging contexts together.

While there needs to be recognition of the challenges faced in effectively developing a digital partnership, there is great scope to enhance digital literacy skills across both schools.  It is undeniable that meeting face to face may still contribute to our partnership moving forward, however it will no longer be the primary means for planning and developing the partnership.

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7. How has the partnership benefitted you and other teachers?

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7. How has the partnership benefitted you and other teachers?

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The partnership has been a central part of my life as a teacher for many years now and it has always been enriching both personally and professionally. As a music teacher I have had the pleasure to work on creative projects which have really challenged me and also expanded my expectations about what is possible in education.   Regardless of my own or our partners school, the young people have shared, collaborated, created and performed together, and used music as a vehicle for developing an understanding of one another’s cultures.  Being able to support this process has brought a tremendous sense of pride in the young people and demonstrated what is possible when you put the responsibility for learning in the hands of pupils.

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Penicuik High School staff and pupils with their Namadzi hosts during a visit to Zomba Plateau on this years reciprocal visit.

Our most recent partnership with Namadzi Community Day Secondary School was set in motion in early 2016, leading to a visit by two students and two members of staff in June 2017. From here our partnership has continued to grow in strength and has seen additional teacher and pupil reciprocal visits.

Our partnership is very important to the communities both here at home and in Malawi. It enriches the lives of the young people in both schools, allowing them to connect with people their own age but from a different cultural background and see both the similarities and differences of being a young person growing up in a different country.

Keith Murphy is Principal Teacher of Music at Penicuik High School

There have also been opportunities to meet with the wider communities through the visits and to participate in whole school events. While only part of the story, the reciprocal visits do provide a level of whole school engagement with the partnership which would be difficult to replicate in any other way.

Staff are able to have honest conversations and gain much better insights into the issues affecting the lives and education in each other's country. We are then able to reflect this in our mutually designed and reviewed partnership agreement.

Face-to-face contact supports the building of friendships across continents which develop quickly through our visits and other channels of communication. While it is recognised in both schools that issues around equity exist, a respectful partnership can go some way to addressing these. Mutual respect and understanding, however, is the cornerstone of a dignified partnership.

It has been important to recognise across both schools that the partnership belongs to the pupils. It can support their learning both locally and globally providing an opportunity to view life through the lens of their partner and empowers them to lead on projects to support the partnership.

Pupils have been at the forefront of organising whole school events, sharing culture, and working together though the visits to design shared learning experiences such as sports, classroom-based activities, song writing and recording, and joint assemblies to promote the partnership to the school community.

We were fortunate this year to have received a reciprocal visit grant from the British Council through the 'Connecting Classrooms,' programme, which contributed significantly towards the travel and associated costs for one teacher from each school to undertake the visits. It allowed us to design a whole school project based around the Sustainable Development Goals which we explored when we visited each other's school.

The British Council also provided opportunities to undertake professional learning and supported our partners through the visa application process and we met with representatives from both the British Council here and when we visited Malawi.

We are extremely fortunate to be active beneficiaries from the Co-operation Agreement signed by both the Malawian and Scottish governments in 2005 and updated in 2018. This opened up opportunities for partnerships to be established and developed between our two countries.

The Scotland Malawi Partnership and their sister organisation the Malawi Scotland Partnership have supported us on our journey. They continue to provide invaluable advice and guidance, and the future of our partnership looks set to continue blossoming - we are already in the early stages of planning the next set of reciprocal visits scheduled for 2021.
Keith Murphy is Principal Teacher of Music at Penicuik High School
Through this, both schools continue to demonstrate their commitment to growing our friendship and learning from one another and we are connecting subject staff in each school, building relationships and ensuring that our partnership is something enjoyed by the whole school.

We are sharing different aspects of our school life through a joint blog, but most of all we are enjoying the experience of learning together as friends.

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Keith Murphy: Flourishing school partnership enriches lives from both communities

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Penicuik High School staff and pupils with their Namadzi hosts during a visit to Zomba Plateau on this years reciprocal visit. Our most recent partnership with Namadzi Community Day Secondary School was set in motion in early 2016, leading to a visit by two students and two members of staff in June 2017.

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8. How has the partnership benefitted your students?

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8. How has the partnership benefitted your students?

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We are fortunate to have undertaken whole school activities, reciprocal visits and engagement with partner organisations involving our pupils.  Two of our students have been members of the Scotland Malawi Youth Committee providing valuable insight and experiences in shaping youth forums and youth congress.

Here are a few thoughts from some of the students involved in the partnership:

Wanangwa and Innocent from Namadzi after the 2019 reciprocal visit.
"We would like to assure everyone that we have learnt a lot during our visit in Penicuik and this will go a long way to improve the teaching and learning and encouraging all students to work hard in Namadzi.

We would also like to thank, in a special way, a trillion times, the beautiful families that hosted us with amazing kindness and comfort. We shall forever cherish the good times we had together."

Anna from Penicuik said:

"I also really enjoyed all the opportunities I was given with being involved, it allowed me to meet passionate people striving for a better future in Malawi and allowed me to make fantastic connections and friends to this day. Being a part of a partnership with Malawi has shaped my whole life in the most positive way possible and that is something special."

Kate went on to say:

"I would say my partnership highlights have been mixing and making friends with students in Malawi, learning about their lives and comparing our cultures like what our school days involved, playing rounders with the school, meeting everyone the first time and the school’s welcome."

Kate also recognised the wider benefits of being involved with the Partnership:

"The partnership benefitted me by making me more confident by pushing me outside my comfort zone, visiting a place where the culture and climate was different and talking with people who I’d never met before. It shaped my views of the wider world by bringing me out of my bubble and surrounding me with different lifestyles, cultures and issues which opened my eyes to the wider world."

Emma continued:

"It has taught me to appreciate all of the opportunities I’ve had more and also to appreciate how people in different countries live. I have been particularly inspired by the sense of community both in Malawi and the links between our schools."

Beyond the visits, Grace from Penicuik spoke about:

"Another great moment was attending many of the Scotland Malawi Partnership days and meeting all the amazing people who run this organisation which allows so many connections to be made across the two countries."

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What would you say to teachers/ youth leaders who don't think they have the time?

There are a range of ways to get involved in partnership.  It is not necessarily always about visits or committing hours and hours to partnership activities.  However, small things can enable the partnership to become whole school.  This could be, sharing resources, understanding challenges in each country, learning for and with friends. There is always scope for linking in with an existing partnership, but being involved in a partnership always gives so much more back than you put in.

Is it worth the time/ effort/ capacity?

Any relationship needs the investment of time and effort to afford it the opportunity to be nurtured and developed.  This time and effort can often be deprioritised in a busy school environment when the pressure is on.  However, there also needs to be recognition of the purpose of Education.  In Scotland we aim for young people to gain the knowledge, skills and attributes needed for life in the 21st century.  A partnership positively contributes towards this alongside contribution to both the 4 capacities and also the 4 contexts for learning.  It is important that it is not viewed as an 'add on,' or a 'nice to have,' but something which has a positive influence on the ethos and life of the school.

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10. What do you think the future of ethical and equitable partnerships looks like?

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10. What do you think the future of ethical and equitable partnerships looks like?

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The Malawi vision 2063 as set out by the government of Malawi specifically uses the phrase ‘self reliant nation,’ which I feel sets out the stall of both an ethical and equitable partnership model.  It is moving the spotlight away from a culture of dependency to a culture of independence and growth.  It is important that this is recognised on both sides of the partnership.  In almost every collaboration regardless of its nature, there is always going to be a level of inequity.  One side of a partnership may be stronger in some aspects and the other side of the partnership will be stronger in others.  Where a partnership can move towards a greater level of equity is through recognising these areas in one another, supporting each other and growing together.  Both sides of the partnership would benefit greatly from acting as enablers for one another.

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Malawi Vision 2063: An Inclusively Wealthy and Self-reliant Nation

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The Malawi 2063 (MW2063) is a product of self-less contributions, dedication and commitment of patriotic Malawians across the country, in rural and urban areas, as well as the diaspora, on the Malawi we want to see by the year 2063.

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11. What would you say to someone considering a partnership?

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11. What would you say to someone considering a partnership?

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Do it! The bond of friendship and understanding between a partner brings a whole new level of interaction between school communities.  It enriches the lives of everyone involved and provides a rich context for us in finding our place as global citizens.

You just have to look through the rich vein of experiences we have had to see how positive and rewarding experience this has been for both ourselves and our partners.

I think both countries are incredibly fortunate to have such a strong and historic link with one another dating back 150 years.  Having both the Scotland Malawi Partnership and sister organisation the Malawi Scotland Partnership supporting all the connections in both countries and working towards partnerships which are equitable, ethical and sustainable elevates the partnerships beyond the realms of a mere link.

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The first teacher reciprocial visit took place in June 2017. We welcomed two of our colleagues from Namadzi to Penicuik, Mr Sakala the then Headteacher of Namadzi CDSS and Ms Mwakanema. This visit provided the opportunity to set out the terms of our partnership and develop our partnership agreement. The visit from our Namadzi colleagues coincided with our annaul awards ceremony and we were delighted to welcome Mr Sakala as guest of honour to present the annual awards ceremony speech.

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The initial visit from our partners in June was followed by a visit to Namadzi by two members of staff from Penicuik, Mr Murphy and Mrs Andrew. This visit, although very brief, provided time to meet with the partnership group at Namadzi, as well as members of the school parent Council and village chiefs. The two teacher reciprocal visits also set out the aspirations for the partnership and the foundation for the 2019 teacher and pupil reciprocal visits.

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The initial pupil reciprocal visit was supported through the British Council's "Connecting Classrooms," programme.  We explored aspects of skills and employability in both school communities as one of our main projects.  Pupils also spent time sharing culture through music, poetry, dance and drama, taking part in lessons, playing sports together, undertaking creative activities and most importantly building friendships.

The friendships that have been created through the visits have enriched the work of the partnership.

The staff also held meetings with the school partnership commitee alongside other meetings.  This provided the opportunity to review our partnership agreement and have open conversations about the partnership moving forward.

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The visit from Namadzi to Penicuik followed on fairly directly from our visit to Malawi.  It was wonderful to be able to host two members of staff and two students from Namadzi and again provided and opportunity for whole school involvment in the partnership through welcome assemblies and the staff and students from Namadzi participating in classes.  There were a range of activities undertaken throughout the week and culminated in Namadzi students participating in the summer music concert.

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Our partnership agreement has changed and developed since the initial signing in 2017. Some of the key areas we have been working on together include:

- mutually develop an understanding of both countries through sharing and promoting each others history and culture, use 'Rights Respecting Schools' as a context for learning and build a mutual understanding of the rights of the child in both school communities,

- use newly established Edublog to share news and events and connecting school communities, jointly develop a greater understanding of sporting activities and games regularly played in both countries, establish

- maintain regular communication using WhatsApp to share practice and connect teachers at a departmental level and continue with a programme of biennial reciprocal visits to strengthen the partnership.

We are also exploring aspects of sustainability and skills develoment through our partnership.

The photograph was taken at the signing of the first partnership agreement in 2017, with the former Headteachers of Namadzi and Penicuik.