Where is our Twin?
Bristol Link with Beira are pleased to present our Learning Pack with Activity Sheets, initially designed for KS2 – some sections may be appropriate for a wider audience. New generations can discover the amazing relationship that exists between Bristol and its Mozambican Twin City. As well as learning about Beira, Mozambique and Sub-Saharan Africa, we hope that students and staff will be inspired to develop school links, get involved with Twinning, and benefit from the partnerships we set up.
Part of BLB’s remit is to raise awareness in Bristol about issues of urban sub-Saharan Africa, and the coastal impact of Climate Change: these learning documents contribute to this.
The pack uses Beira and the Twinning Link as a case study, to widen pupils’ understanding of the world through local and global issues, whilst contributing to their own identity and sense of place. Exploring topics in the context of Beira will enhance students’ understanding of other cultures and environments, with alternative perspectives and ways of living. Intercultural understanding is key to children’s comprehension of tolerance and living in harmony with others. This is the essence of why twinning was established in the first place.
We hope that this learning pack will spark a curiosity in the twinning links of all Bristol´s twin cities and encourage students to strive to be global citizens. We start with a section on City Twinning, followed by a section on Geography, History & Environment and then Culture & Sport.
The final section of this teaching pack is ‘Making a Difference’ which we hope will catalyse ideas for students and schools in Bristol to get involved and connect with those in Beira.
Enormous thanks to Bethan Simpson, Caroline Pitt, Ollie Silvester, Monika Arendarczyk and Ali Camp who all contributed their time to assembling these documents.
Sponsors
Beira (Mozambique) is one of seven cities overseas, twinned with Bristol under the umbrella of the Bristol International Twinning Association. Bordeaux (France), Hannover (Germany), Oporto (Portugal), Puerto Morazan (Nicaragua), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Zuangzhou (China) are the other cities. Twinning partnerships between cities are able to have a very positive impact on the international life of cities around the world. Twinning is a tried and tested way of linking citizens with their counterparts in other countries.
Lighting Up Learning is an initiative of Learning Everywhere. Learning Everywhere works with school, charities, businesses and other learning focussed organisations to improve the educational experiences of young people. Their ultimate outcome is to develop young people’s ability to make a positive contribution creatively, socially, culturally and economically to their community and wider society. As ‘learning architets’ they design, create and manage sustainable change with (not for) their partners.
Bristol Link with Beira is a charity that promotes people-to-people networks between the cities of Bristol and Beira and benefit local communities in the city of Beira making sure no one is left behind. The work is based on the strong twinning relationship between the two cities since 1990. We support the city in a number of different ways, through programme development, projects and research. For example, we have long-standing schools programmes, cultural exchanges and many local council initiatives.
