Molehill Primary Academy in Maidstone has been awarded Intermediate level of the British Council’s prestigious International School Award in recognition of its work to bring the world into the classroom.

The International School Award celebrates the achievements of schools that do exceptional work in international education. Fostering an international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart of the British Council’s work with schools, so that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need for life and work in today’s world.

Molehill's Language Ambassadors. A display in a classroom showing names and faces of the school's Language Ambassadors.

Molehill Primary Academy’s international work has been celebrated by the assessor:

 ‘Your commitment to support young learners who are keen to take action to bring about a better world is admirable. The schools work to celebrate diversity and learn more around differences and commonalities are excellent. Your impactful links with Malawi and Finland and highlighting a range of climate change issues are excellent. Underpinning your work with your young learners is an evident commitment to developing a keen interest in other countries and cultures; many will not have travelled outside of the UK and the school explicitly requires a wider and deeper range of international work. Your curriculum planning has resulted in an enhanced ability of the pupils to be able to both compare and contrast aspects of their lives and customs with ones overseas. The impact on skills such as literacy, languages and STEM subjects are hugely welcomed’.

On hearing the news that Molehill had achieved Intermediate level of the award, Mrs Laura Smith, Principal, said: 

‘We are delighted that our International work has been celebrated and recognised in this way. We look forward to continuing to enhance this important area of our curriculum by enhancing, deepening and embedding our collaboration with schools abroad’. 

John Rolfe MBE, Schools Outreach Manager at the British Council, said: ‘Molehill Primary Academy’s international work has earned the school well-deserved recognition with the British Council International School Award – Intermediate Certificate.

We are proud and delighted to work with this great school. Many thanks to everyone for all their commitment to developing international work and sharing excellent classroom practice and resources. This is enriching education for its pupils; and their excellent collaborative projects with partner schools overseas are bringing the world into their classrooms. International work is key support for the development of skills young people need to be the globally aware citizens of the future. 

Embedding an international ethos across a school can lead to accreditation with our Full International School Award and schools looking to join this supporting and engaging global network should contact us at the British Council”. 

The award is now available worldwide in countries such as India, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Around 6,000 International School Awards have been presented to successful schools in the UK since the scheme began in 1999.

The International School Award encourages and supports schools to develop:

  • An international ethos embedded throughout the school
  • A whole school approach to international work
  • Collaborative curriculum-based work with a number of partner schools
  • Year-round international activity
  • Involvement of the wider community

For more information about the International School Award, please contact our team at isa@britishcouncil.org  

The British Council International School Award started in 1999 to recognise the schools leading the way in instilling and developing a global dimension into the learning experience of all children and young people. It is managed by the British Council.

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. 

We work in more than 100 countries and our 8,000 staff – including 2,000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes.

We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publicly-funded grant provides 20 per cent of our turnover which last year was £864 million. The rest of our revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, such as English classes and taking UK examinations, and also through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally.  

For more information, please visit: British Council. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://twitter.com/britishcouncil and http://blog.britishcouncil.org/.