St Francis’ and St.Mary’s are coming to an end of the second year in The Linking Network. Last year, we enjoyed working with Deepdale Primary School and only yesterday we enjoyed visiting  English Martyrs Primary School in Preston to explore identity in creative, active and participatory way. Year 5 children from both of our schools, and two minibuses later, were in Preston joining a much larger school than ours for the whole day! The Linking Network has been a great springboard to learn about and spend quality time with others who are in some way different to them. Last term, the children all really enjoyed spending the day at Burnley Youth Theatre together and our recent linking trip was great for our children to visit a contrasting school in a contrasting area to ours.

The purpose of The Linking Network is to get to know children from different social, ethnic, faith or geographical backgrounds enjoy meeting and learning together. The process helps children to explore identity, become comfortable with difference and build connections with their local community.  It provides opportunities for children and young people to meet, build new relationships, work together and contribute to the wider community. Cultural capital is so important and , as a small school, we must be ever outward facing and outward reaching to work with and connect with our diverse and exciting world.

‘Belonging is a constantly evolving feeling, it isn’t static. So we help young people develop skills that inspire them to be continually enquiring and curious about their own and other people’s identity.’ (The Linking Network)