Learn to live at Thornhill School

Thornhill School of Business and Enterprise College: The Head teacher’s name is Mr J.Hallworth, Assistant Head teacher is Mrs Lesley Etherington.

There are about two hundred Bangladeshi students in this School and every Tuesday head teacher meets with the departmental head at 11.15 a.m. to 12.00. They have Bengali, Chinese and Asian pupils and there are links with Young Asian Voices. The sports practiced are swimming, football, cricket, rugby and basketball. They have indoor and outdoor facilities as well as music and dance groups. Thornhill deals carefully with new pupils who come from many other countries, the support unit provides an introduction to teachers and the community, as well as learning about the school and its environment. Pupils get the chance to develop with realistic education and practical knowledge in School, Business and Enterprise College which reflects the education in secondary schools in Sunderland. The school offers an outstanding range of academic and vocational opportunities. At the heart of this exceptional curriculum is a clear focus on matching courses to pupils’ individual needs and expectations. The percentage of pupils from minority ethnic groups is broadly average, although most of these pupils have English as an additional language. Almost a third of pupils have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. I observed a very nice class of Bangla with students learning Bengali as a second language. The Bangla class can help them develop a better understanding of project related activities with the International Partnership. In 2009, the Connecting Classrooms International Partnership between Chittagong Bangladesh was formed. There is a separate rooms and display board for Connecting Classrooms. All classes are decorated by subject wise regular teaching and learning aids and are all equipped with white boards. In the school the children have extensive use of ICT; they can very easily continue with the International Partnership activities using their ICT knowledge. On my scheduled visits I meet with some pupils and teachers. They asked me some questions about our activities and we shared information on each others countries, school system and the International Partnership. Every ones view about the International Partnership was very positive. I presented a PowerPoint slide on Bangladesh, Connecting Classrooms and ISA Awarded Madrasha to show differences in the education systems in Bangladesh and England. The Head Teacher Mr J Hallworth and Assistant Head teacher Mrs Lesley Etherington are very much active in the International Partnership and the Connecting Classrooms activities. There are many benefits seen from the partners visit because other two teachers and two students visited Chittagong using the International Partnership grant. Their project related activities were very simple. There is a clear emphasis for the International Partnership project from the Head teacher and Assistant Head teacher on top of their roles in normal school duties. On reflection if everyone who is involved in the project related activities, the Connecting Classrooms International School Partnership could be much more