Lane End Primary School

Dreams of Africa

We have a 'Connecting Classrooms' link with two other schools in Stockport and six in Africa (three in Ghana and three in Zambia). The project has been running for the last three years - find out all about it below:

The Stockport schools are: Lane End Primary School in Cheadle Hulme (us!), Outwood Primary School in Heald Green and St Simons Primary School in Hazel Grove.

The Zambian schools are: BuntungwaBasicSchool, SOS Children’s Village of Zambia trust HermannGmeinerBasicSchool and KitweBasicSchool.

The Ghanaian schools are: Catholic Jubilee Boys’ School, Pedu M/A ‘B’ primary and Amanful Catholic Boys’ School.

First of all, teachers from the African schools visited the Stockport schools - they really enjoyed their week and the children got a lot out of meeting them and asking them questions about their countries and the schools they work in. We held a special assembly for the African teachers which included a country dancing show and music from some of our musicians. The African teachers had their first ever experience of snow and enjoyed building a snowman with the children. Click here to find out more about the visit. Following the visit we held an Africa Week to learn more about the continent - click here to see some highlights from the week.

In the following years, Mr Vallance visited the schools in Zambia and Ghana, returning to share his travels with the children! We have learnt from one another, written to each other, shared projects with each other and children from all three Stockport Schools have partcipated in an International Schools Council.

The idea behind the project is to learn more about other cultures and countries but also to have a meaningful link with other local schools which are in different areas of Stockport to our own. We have run events in which children from Lane End have visited Outwood and St Simons Primary Schools and children from those schools have visited us. Children from each school have contributed to three 'Dreams of Africa' recycled pictures which are displayed in each school - each picture containing a section from each school!

(The children brought in used bottle tops which were used to create our 'Dreams of Africa' picture. The children created this during our Earth Week - click here to find out more.)

We are continuing to work on projects together and our current venture is a cookery book. This is being project managed and produced by Young Entrepreneurs from the three Stockport schools with input and recipes from the African schools. The children are also creating a 'Dreams of Africa' area in our garden complete with an African mural and a Stockport mural.

Mr Vallance's Travels

Pictures of Zambia: