We are delighted to have gained the  INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL AWARD for the second time (2012 – 2013).    

Our letter of confirmation read: 'Please send our special congratulations to the International Co-ordinator who has worked so hard to co-ordinate such an impressive range of work. They are a credit to the school and the wider community. Please convey our very best wishes and many congratulations to all staff and students both in the UK and overseas who have taken part in the scheme - this is a great achievement and one that deserves celebrating and sharing widely.

We began foreign language learning at Kingsway in September 2003, and now teach Spanish from Foundation Stage to Year 6. We have hosted a Languages Fair, where were joined by children and staff from all the primary schools in our family. We had a great day and learnt Arabic, French and Spanish.

We have links with schools in Mexico and France, and two in Spain. These links help us to find out more about other countries and the people who live there. We also get to practise our language skills, and make friends with people around the world.

Each year students from Salamanca University spend their teaching practice with us, and we hold 'Spanish Days' while they are here. These visits provide opportunities for the children to talk to native speakers and find out more about a different culture.

We celebrate the European Day of Languages each year with a special assembly and activities. One of our favourites was when we all ‘went to the airport and flew off to different countries.’ (Just pretend!)  We all had a great time and learnt a lot of interesting things.

Our link with Mexico began in 2004, when we won a bid to be one of just ten schools in Nottinghamshire to be part of the Háblame Project  for three years. Mrs. Pearson visited Mexico and the Mexican teachers came back to visit Kingsway. We exchanged resources, children´s letters and work, and teaching experience during the project. At the end of the three years we won funding to continue for another year. This meant that the Mexican teachers came back to visit us again, and Mr. Ford and Mrs. Turner went to visit our partner school. The project aim was to break down stereotypes and forge friendships with children from very different backgrounds. The funding has ended, but our link is still strong!

We aim to develop our international links further in the very near future so that each class joins with children in another school, starting closer to home with the youngest children (the Foundation Stage links with a school in Derbyshire and Y1 links with a school in Wales) and extending to the wider world as they get older. We believe this to be a very successful way to learn about tolerance and understanding. It´s also lots of fun!