Students today are living in truly exciting times. With a shrinking world and a global economy, they are destined to spend their adult lives communicating and working alongside colleagues across the world. Schools recognise the significance and benefits of teaming with a school from another country and forming strong international links. From learning about languages and food to getting to meet their international peers in person – the benefits, it seems, are colossal.

Since the advent of technologies such as Skype, schools like Boughton Monchelsea Primary, Kent has utilised its potential for positive communication that really impacts. Teacher Matt Wills said: “Being able to communicate directly means our students have been able to discuss issues and debates that are important to them. We did some research on how children from other nations were feeling about the Olympics, for example. This really sparked discussion and challenged perceptions.”

Wills says the school has been using technologies to communicate with its partner schools in Vienna and Germany for almost a decade now. “We’ve used Skype which is great, but Flash Meeting has enabled us to actually talk to several other schools at once. What’s really fun too is having sports events and competitions across schools; we might see how far children can throw, for instance, and compare our data with others doing the same event on the same day.”