Students at Anderson High School in Lerwick will host 46 overseas visitors later this month from partner schools involved with the Global Classroom initiative.
Global Classroom is an international partnership that first began over 20 years ago, involving schools in the UK, South Africa, USA, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Spain and Australia. An underlying message at the heart of its annual conference is that students can ‘learn locally but think globally’ and allows participants to experience international cooperation, as well as different cultures and education systems.
The conference has been held online for the last three years due to the pandemic and associated travel restrictions, and cost of living pressures. This year’s conference, being held in Shetland from 16th-23rd June 2024, marks a return to a fully in-person conference again.
The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Community’, exploring coming back together as a community after many years apart, and how to strengthen local and global communities.
Visiting students, all aged 16-18, will be hosted by local families in Shetland, with AHS students taking the lead on organising the conference. The conference will include a range of presentation tasks in the school, alongside discussions on international themes, as well as day trips out of the school.
The Global Classroom Conference was last hosted in Shetland in 2015, and last hosted in person in June 2019 in South Africa.
Sarah Burgess, English Teacher at AHS and part of the organising group said: “There’s endless benefits to being part of the Global Classroom and our own students will not only develop their own organisational skills, but also make lifelong friendships. We’re looking forward to welcoming visitors to our beautiful island and showing them the best that Shetland has to offer.”
Davie Sandison, Chair of Education & Families Committee said: “I’m pleased to see the Global Classroom Conference return to Shetland, and I’d like to thank staff and students at AHS for their time spent on planning the visit, and to local families who will be hosting visitors. We’ve always been an outward looking community who welcomes visitors and the Global Classroom is an excellent opportunity for young Shetlanders to make international connections.”