Global Classroom Partners – an Update

Global Classroom Partners is a program established three years ago by Edmund Rice England and Edmund Rice Australia. It was set up to create a simple way for students to engage in dialogue with one another on pertinent topics and for schools to establish links across the EREBB network. Now in its third phase, there have been close to 100 partnerships. This year St Joseph’s Prep, Runnymede, St Edward’s College, and St Ambrose College are partnering with Ireland, Uruguay and Sierra Leone. We are in the midst of our programs of Zoom! conversations around care for the Earth, sport, faith, and service. Underpinning the program is a commitment to the SDGs and creating a better future.

Partnerships are encouraged to flourish after their initial Zoom! meetings are finished. Some schools have already moved on to face-to-face exchanges with both staff and pupils.

Of the link with Stella Maris College, in Montevideo Uruguay, Mr Sean McGovern, of St Edward’s College, who led his classroom partnership says, “We loved the opportunity to share with Stella Maris in Uruguay, as this was a bilingual exchange. The GCP gave us a real insight into the Spanish speaking world and what it’s like to study at another Edmund Rice school in a completely different context, yet we still managed to find shared values and experiences. We all loved hearing the Uruguayan accent too.”

At a recent Southern hemisphere ‘virtual certificate presentation’ event for participating staff, we received the following feedback:

“GCP helps our students to see that they belong to an Edmund Rice global family, and it broadens their horizons, during our talks myths are broken down, students are interested in other education systems.” – Br Nigel da Souza, St Patrick’s High School, India.

Greg Christ, of Ignatius Park College in Australia said: “Our students shared genuine care for the world to make it a better place and so much positivity.”

Dermot Connors, of Veritas College in South Africa told us: ‘GCP is a demonstration of how the charism stretches around the globe of our unique Edmund Rice family.’

And Liam Smith National Director of Edmund Rice Education Australia told the staff involved that “Our work fights against global rise of intolerance and hostility, that opportunities like GCP are fundamental changemaking activities.”

There are plans to expand GCP next year, offering further opportunities such as global student awards, global curriculum projects, global first nations partnerships, global student leadership exchanges and global educators’ meetings.