Article: School communities celebrate ahead of a reciprocal visit to the
Date: May 2010
Location: Khonjwayo,
Reciprocal visits between schools in Africa and those in the UK and Ireland bring many benefits to the schools, their pupils and the teachers. However, it is not always recognised just how much enthusiasm and subsequent activity they can generate among the local community too.
Link Community Development, Libode Education District Office and the entire community of Khonjwayo, in Nyandeni local municipality recently organised a social event to celebrate the forthcoming visit of two local teachers to the UK. Teachers Bukelwa Masiba and Albert Jizane from Sandi Senior Secondary and Ntsundwane Junior Secondary schools will spend one week visiting their linked school, Berkhamsted College in the United Kingdom. The Sandi-Berkhamstead-Ntsundwane links are two of the most vibrant school partnerships in South Africa. 
Attendance at the event was overwhelming with parents, community members, local municipality and council of churches representatives, teachers and learners all arriving in large numbers to take part in the celebration. The event brought a real sense of revival to the school-community relationship. It strengthened community partnership awareness and promoted shared learning through the maintenance of two such vibrant school links.
The local Councillor for Nyandeni Municipality commented “we expect (this visit to bring) not only feedback, but also a change of behaviour and attitudes in the way we respond to issues and challenges.” He observed that while the benefits of these schools communicating with their overseas counterparts are clear, “we also need to intensify the networking among our own community members” in order to achieve the full benefit of the school links.
Learners from both Sandi and Ntsundwane Schools also spoke about their links saying: “We are privileged to communicate with learners on the other side of the world. We share ideas, history, culture and different backgrounds. This year we hosted teachers and students from Berkhamsted. We spent a brilliant time with them at school. We got a glimpse into another world which was represented by the friendliest people. We hope this visit is going to contribute to good learner performance in both schools.”
Members of the School Governing Bodies of both schools gave their full support to the visit, giving recognition to the support they had received from Berkhamsted College. They noted how the school links had given the chance for a small community in South Africa to be known in the UK, and for teachers to both visit and be visited in turn. The SGB members wished the best to the travelling teachers and encouraged them to “go and build a stronger mutual relationship."
