Sierra Leone has had a troubled recent history, with a terrible civil war, and more recently the ebola outbreak, grabbing headlines around the world.

Whilst ebola remains a serious challenge, the civil war is an increasingly distant memory and Freetown is a wonderful, exciting, peaceful and friendly city that always works its way into the hearts of those who visit.

Ten years ago, members of the Freetown Society began forming partnerships between schools in Hull and Freetown. The links have been financially supported by the British Council through their Connecting Classrooms and Global Schools Partnerships Programmes. At the time of writing 25 schools in Hull have active partnerships with 25 schools in Freetown and the numbers are steadily growing. This is the largest cluster of city-to-city school links in the world.

On the Freetown side, the school links have been developed through a Global School Partnership Association (GSPA) chaired by our good friend and colleague Mr Francis Mason (link) of the Conforti Community Project in Calaba Town in the east of the city.

The GSPA has become a powerful advocate for education development in Sierra Leone and has supported a number of pioneering initiatives including the abolition of corporal punishment and in the introduction of restorative practices in GSPA affiliated schools.

Teachers from every linked school have been involved in exchange visits between our two countries, and schools curricula on both sides have been enriched through sharing work and developing joint projects.

The partnerships provide a fantastic opportunity for children on both sides to not only learn about another culture, but also to examine, explain and value their own cultures.

In Hull and Freetown we learn from each other.

One of the best ways to illustrate the value of the Hull-Freetown
partnership is through our thriving school-to-school linking programme.