Global Classroom Partners – Second Phase

The end of March saw the launch of our second phase of the Global Classroom Partners
programme that links students from across the global Edmund Rice community by video
conference. GCP was a programme set up up by Edmund Rice England and Edmund Rice
Education Australia last year in order to enable Edmund Rice pupils to collaborate with
their fellow schools; looking out of their windows into a classroom on the other side of the
world so that they can learn about their differences and similarities, to debate important
global issues that affect us all and to work on projects that will both inspire and transform.
GCP is designed to enhance the student’s experience by bringing Edmund Rice Education
Beyond Borders to life in their classroom. Responses to the pilot programme were fantastic.
With over 40 schools registered to participate in this second round of partnerships, we were
delighted to welcome teachers from over 20 of the schools to a zoom where they were
familiarised with the scheme and where they got to know one another and to ask questions.
School will now be matched up and their partnerships will begin. We are pleased that the
University of Melbourne School of Education research team have taken an interest in our
programme and are currently completing a research study into global classroom
engagement that will identify design principles for success in this area.