“Downlands has a growing number of international links through the twinning association, international visits, and partnerships with Ellen Sharma School in India.

Through these links we give students a deeper understanding of other countries and cultures and aim to equip them with the skills they need to become active global citizens.

We have been partnered with the Ellen Sharma School in Chennai, India for over 15 years now. During this time, we have completed teacher immersion programmes, hosting teachers from Chennai in Sussex. Our next visit from Indian teachers will be taking place in October 2026. We have also taken groups of Downlands students to visit Chennai on three occasions, with our fourth visit planned for July 2027. The strength of this partnership lies in our sharing of ideas and cultures. Downlands’ Eco Club has been working with the Gardening Club at Ellen Sharma to develop some artwork for our Library Courtyard. Over the years we have exchanged projects on religion, festivals and the day-to-day of our schools.

Our shared vision with this partnership is to continue using modern technologies to allow both schools’ students to learn from one another, widening both our understanding of the world and celebrating our differences and similarities.

In 2024, we hosted 7 students from SMP Islam Al Azhar school near Jakarta in Indonesia. They stayed within families in our community and spent the week in school taking part in lessons. We are hoping that this may be a partnership we continue to work on moving forward and that we can host students from Indonesia again in the near future.

More locally, The Global Ambassadors are a focus group at Downlands who work to promote Global Issues to the school community. Over the years, they have been successful at raising awareness through the following:

At Downlands, we are proud to have been re-accredited with the British Council International School Award for 2022-2025. It is a celebration of our past and continued work to promote global issues both locally and further afield.”