International Partnerships

Over the years we have enjoyed long standing partnerships with schools in Malawi.  Our most recent partnership with Namadzi was set in motion in early 2016 leading to the signing of our partnership agreement when we were visited by two members of staff, Mr Sakala and Ms Mwakanema in June 2017.  From here our partnership with Namadzi has continued to grow in strength and has seen additional teacher and pupil reciprocal visits. We were delighted to welcome two students, Wanangwa and Innocent, along with two teachers, Mr Zikagwa and M Niyrenda from Namadzi to Penicuik in June 2019.  Plans are in place to extend our programme of visits into the future.  The pupils blogged about their visits in the partnership website which you can read here.

Our partnership is very important to the communities both here at home and in Malawi.  It enriches the lives of the young people in both schools.  It allows them to connect with people of their own age from a different cultural background and see both the similarities and differences of being a young person growing up in a different country.  There have been opportunities to meet with the wider communities through the visits and participate in whole school events.

Our partnership agreement is based on building our friendship across the schools, sharing cultures and tackling inequities.  We were recently presented with an award at the Scotland Malawi Partnership’s first youth and schools awards.  It was fantastic that our partnership was recognised and four of our young people got to meet William Kamkwamba, whose life story is told in the film ‘The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.’  More about the awards can be read here.

Both schools continue to talk together and plan the next stages of our partnership.  We look forward to more exciting joint activities well into the future.

Penicuik High School Malawi