A group of students and teachers from York will prove next weekend that state and independent schools can and do work together successfully.
The UCL Institute of Education and Equity have been selected to run the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). This programme is for two students and one member of staff from each British state school to visit the Western Front across the four years of the centenary of World War One.
York Independent State School Partnership (ISSP) decided that all eleven partner schools would join with Barlby High (near Selby) and Eskdale School (near Whitby) for single, collaborative group to tour the European Battlefields together.
The group will look at the lives of Yorkshire people who fought and died on the Western Front. After their return, York Minster will host on 17 March a thirty-minute commemoration to mark the end of the student’s joint Tour.
Helen Snelson, head of History at The Mount School, said “In the Summer Term, the group will continue to meet to put together a display for the Community Room part of the Castle Museum’s 1914-18 Exhibition.”
The group leaves York at 7.30am on Friday 6 March, returning at 10.45pm on Monday 9 March.
Annette Aylett, coordinator for the York ISSP, said “ISSP has a very specific social cohesion agenda, existing to provide able and interested students across the city with exciting opportunities and to bring together young people in York, regardless of their background.”
York’s ISSP is one of the most successful in the country, holding Conferences, Summer Schools and a regular schedule of Masterclasses across the city, a field trip to Berlin, and a significant ongoing project between students in York and Ekaterinberg, Russia.
Reporters and photographers are invited for a photo opportunity at 7.30am 6 March on Driffield Terrace as the tour departs. For details about this photo opportunity, please contact Helen Snelson 07876 785263.