School links are an important aspect of our grant support and we try to help schools with some of the costs of visiting their link school in Japan. Students from Ballyclare Secondary School, Northern Ireland, visited Japan in order to celebrate the centenary of their partner school Toyama National College of Maritime Technology and also participated in a Robotic Car Competition with their Japanese counterparts.They greatly enjoyed their “..very memorable, once in a life time trip…” . A group from Toyama subsequently made a return trip to Ballyclare. A year 11 school group from County Upper School in Bury St Edmunds, a group from Lady Margaret School in London and other pictured below were also among the many schools we have helped over recent years.

A young Japanese student demonstrates the soroban. Photo: Gareth Griffiths.		County Upper School student learning to play the koto.

Kuretake Special Education School visit Heritage House School, Bucks.		Pupils from Lady Margaret School, London on school trip to Japan, Photo: Marie-Helen Cuckow.

 

Year 13 students from Alsop High School, Liverpool at Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima

With our grant support, the City of Coventry welcomed twenty one people from Hiroshima and entertained them around the theme of Peace and Reconciliation. This was followed by a return visit by ten young people from Coventry’s President Kennedy Youth Club, during which they took part in an International Youth Conference for Peace.

“The trip was an amazing experience for all involved with one student declaring: ‘My time in Japan was the best I’ve had so far in my life’”.

Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima

Twelve students and four teachers from Charles Burrell High School, Thetford participated recently in the seventh year of our annual Japan Experience Study Tour. They stayed with Japanese families in Osaka, visited a high school, travelled on public transport, visited an old peoples’ home, saw Japanese industrial technology, and visited Hiroshima with a talk by an A-bomb survivor. The trip had a huge impact on the group, with many of them planning to continue their relationship with Japan in their further education.

Students from Thetford exploring Itsukushima shrine on Miyajima in 2008.		A student from Allerton Grange High School, Leeds learning to make paper cranes at Dowaen Elderly Persons Home, Kyoto in 2007.

In 2008 we gave a grant to enable 15 school students from the Shetland Islands to participate in an educational and community exchange project with high schools in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture. The students filmed interviews with the Shetland and Hanamaki local communities on topics such as a time of war 1940 -1945; rebuilding, the 1950s and 1960s; and looking ahead, visions for the 21st Century. The project was both community wide and cross-generational and the recorded material later became valuable archive material in the local museums.

Shetland Islands

Hanamaki

Global Rock Challenge

The Wavell School Farnborough received a grant to enable them to take a party of students to participate in the first Global Rock Challenge in Tokyo, a performing arts event involving students in secondary schools and colleges around the world. It gave the students opportunities to develop their performing arts, production and life skills in a supportive learning environment as well as providing them with insights into Japanese life and culture.

Students from The Wavell School, Farnborough jumping for joy at the first ever Global Rock Challenge events in Tokyo.

As well as school exchanges, this category includes support for students on a 'Gap' year in Japan. Two organisations that arrange for these 'year out' placements in Japan are:

Lattitude Global Volunteering
Address: Tel: Fax: Web Site:	GAP House, 44 Queen's Road, Reading, Berks RG1 4BB 0118 959 4914 0118 957 6634 http://www.lattitude.org.uk *Placement is usually for 6 months and the work includes English language teaching, or work at a Red Cross Hospital or a Cheshire Home.

Project Trust
Address: Tel: Fax: Web Site:	The Hebridean Centre, Isle of Coll, Argyll PA78 6TE 01879 230444 01879 230357 http://www.projecttrust.org.uk *These placements are for 1 year, and are for English language teaching.

The Foundation is prepared to give grants of £300 to a limited number of deserving Lattitude/Project Trust applicants. However the application should be made through one of the organisations listed above.