Ysgol Dinas Bran tells us about their live video conference with their partner schools in Saan’a, Yemen

On St David’s day, a group of pupils aged 13-15 from Ysgol Dinas Bran took part in a video conference with pupils from Baghdad Boys School and Rabeia Al Adawiyah School for Girls in Sana’a, Yemen.

The theme for the discussion was 'The Future, Our Future' and they talked about how they would like to change things for the better and what they can learn from each other.

Ysgol Dinas Bran teacher Peter Williams told us that “technically speaking it was a nightmare” because the video link kept freezing and disappearing.

But what made the video conference a success was the enthusiasm of the pupils in both schools. “The youngsters really grew into it. They got really excited about seeing each other and asking questions,” he said.

Their video conversation was building on the friendships made in 2009 when 12 pupils from Baghdad Boys School visited Ysgol Dinas Bran as their guests for the World Youth Skills Challenge.

According to Mr Williams, when the pupils from both schools met last year, they were surprised to find out how similar they are: “We were like they were, they were like we were.”

The pupils from both countries discovered that they shared a love of chips and sports, but felt very differently about rain.

Mr Williams said, “The Yemeni pupils thought the rainy weather in Wales was absolutely amazing! The Welsh pupils were surprised to learn that in Yemen rain is so rare that when it happens people go out and stand in it.”

Mr Williams told us that his pupils really want to go to Yemen, but it’s not possible at the moment.

After the video conference pupils asked their teachers if they could swap email addresses and are continuing the conversation that way.

Mr Williams says it is the good personal relationships that they have with their partners in Yemen that makes their twinning a success: “The Yemenis give so much. That’s why it works.”

How did they do that?

Ysgol Dinas Bran in Wales is twinned with Baghdad School for Boys and Rabeia Al Adawiyah School for Girls, in Sana'a, Yemen through the British Council's Connecting Classrooms programme. They have been working together since 2007.

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