Last week, we were delighted to welcome students from Shukutoku Sugamo Senior High School, Tokyo, to The Cotswold School, as part of their trip to the UK.

During their visit, Shukutoku Sugamo students had the opportunity to take part in various lessons. Forty-two Cotswold School students volunteered to be ‘buddies’, showing our visitors around the school – they did a brilliant job.

Over the course of the two days, students worked in groups, looking at the similarities and differences between the UK and Japan, as well as taking part in workshops including: origami, Karuta cards, and traditional Japanese games of Hanaichimonme and Fukuwarai.

Grace (Year 9) who volunteered to be a ‘buddy’, commented,

“Buddying for the Japanese students was a useful experience and definitely helped me to step outside my comfort zone, considering it’s not something that I would usually do. We gave them a little tour around school, then had a lesson with them on their first day. Spending lunch with them was actually a lot of fun and they even gave us some Japanese snacks to try! One of my friends brought in some jammy dodgers the next day for them because we felt bad for not having anything to give them in return. The Japanese workshop was great fun and we played a lot of traditional Japanese games, and even learnt some origami skills! All of the students were super nice and it was an overall extremely positive experience that I would definitely do again.”

It was a delight to host our visitors and we are extremely proud of how The Cotswold School students welcomed and embraced the experience.