by Anna Wright, Bristol School Linking project manager
To mark the end of the school year, Bristol School Linking, took part in the Linking Network’s first School Linking Celebration Week 1000’s of schools across the country marked the week by coming together to build friendship and understanding between their pupils.
In Bristol we marked the week by hosting our first in person class meet ups. Classes met at the Arnolfini, and Let’s Make Art ran some wonderful art workshops helping children to explore and celebrate their identity together. Schools met online over video calls, and we also asked people in the community to answer the question ‘How do we all live well together?’ And had some wonderful and thoughtful answers, including this one from Professor Tim Cole ‘It is important to listen and try to understand where someone else comes from.’ You can explore more responses on school linking’s twitter feed here.
We are now looking ahead to the new academic year and are delighted that we’ve got a number of new schools joining the project this year. Bristol School Linking partners year 5 classes with a school from another part of Bristol to build friendships and explore identity, diversity, community and belonging together. The project is free and fully resourced and works to build a sense of togetherness across our city. We are recruiting new schools at the moment, please get in touch with if you know a school that would like to take part.
Artwork produced by Bristol School Linking participants from 2 schools during a visit to the Arnolfini