Three week exchange to Multicultural Education Academy, China
Our school strapline is ‘Live Adventurously’ which is taken from the Quaker instruction to do just that. Three Sixth Form students putting this into practice are Bryony Bell, Victor Ricol and Sasha Schlatter who are currently on a three week exchange in China. They are attending the Multicultural Education Academy (MEA) in Ningbo, one of China’s oldest cities in the east of the country in Zhejiang province.
MEA and Sidcot have a twinning agreement and we were delighted to host one of their students during the Autumn Term. As its name suggests, MEA is an international school of around four hundred and fifty students and is an IB World School which offers the International Baccalaureate. It is similar, therefore, in many ways to Sidcot. However, it is part of a wider complex of schools that cater for around five thousand native students and I am hoping that our students will be able to sample both school experiences during the exchange as well as learning more about the Chinese education system and culture.
Internationalism lies at the very heart of our offer here at Sidcot and we are proud of the wide mix of nationalities who attend. It gives a rich diversity to our school and also allows us to focus on the things that unite us; challenging political orthodoxy and forging links that will last long after students have left. Our world is international, multi-cultural, many faceted and complex and so schools should be preparing students to be confident, informed global citizens. Sidcot provides a window on this world, here in rural Somerset. I look forward to hearing how Bryony, Victor and Sasha have got on when they return from MEA and know they will be excellent ambassadors for Sidcot. I equally hope that this exchange is one of many that we can establish in the years to come.
Iain Kilpatrick
Headmaster