Make a world of difference for your pupils…

…hold a cultural carousel in your school!

Our cultural ambassadors are attending year 12 at schools around Brighton and Hove. They come here to study A Level courses alongside British students, perfect their English and learn about our culture. Whilst living in our area, they are excited to give back to the community in a way only they can. Our team of ambassadors goes to local prmary schools to hold a cultural carousel for an afternoon. This activity, which doesn’t cost the primary school anything, is particularly suited for children aged 8 to 11.

Approximately 15 of our ambassadors prepare the event for one class at a time. The class is divided into small teams, each led by an ambassador. The team leader takes each group on a journey around the world, stopping at stands which present Italy, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Poland and Brazil. At the stand, the children learn about each culture through games, dance, stories and pictures. The pupils collect badges and complete a workbook as they travel.

Again and again, we have seen how well primary school children embrace the opportunity to get to know someone a few years older from another country.

Our events are the result of a cooperation between South England Exchange and the Adur Language Hub. To book a carousel, please contact James at jasandford@hovepark.org.uk or Juliet at juliet@southenglandexchange.org

“We believe that languages and intercultural agility can help to foster universal understanding and contribute to building a peaceful and harmonious world future”.

We bring approximately 250 students from all over the world to British schools every year. These near peer role models are great examples of how learning languages opens up opportunities in life. We have found that they are keen to share their culture and we are happy to arrange for them to go to schools and help motivate younger pupils to keep learning languages.

Our Language Ambassadors are aged 16 to 18 and tend to be aspiring young people who have chosen to come and live in the UK for a minimum of 4 months. They have taken a step which requires courage, openness and resilience. They can lead younger students by example and motivate in a way we can’t.

SEE is the organisation which arranges the host families and school spaces for the students from abroad. As we also own South England International School, we have teachers and mentors who can work with our participants to prepare for an event at your school. When we plan an activity, we make sure the content is suitable for the age group you ask us to work with and we make travel arrangements and accompany our group.

Language Ambassadors meet once a week to plan for events. Of course, the group also offers a valuable experience for the Ambassadors: They take on different roles such as leading the meetings, designing a booklet, sharing ideas on how to present their culture and language and leading teams of pupils in the activities. The current group initially discussed why they think language is important and how younger pupils can be motivated to learn. They came to the conclusion that culture is as important as language and that learning is more motivating when it is linked to a ‘real person’. They felt that it is inhibiting for students to work in one large group.