Queen Anne Elementary Partnership

Building a Global Community

Over the past few years, Dwankhozi Community School and Queen Anne Elementary, in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. have begun to forge a Sister School relationship.

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Moses Masala of Dwankhozi Hope-Zambia, and David Elliott, then-Principal of Queen Anne Elementary

It began simple – students sharing drawings and letters with one another (hand-delivered via a trip to Zambia and by Moses Masala, who visited Seattle in October 2012 from Zambia). And conversations began to take place in classrooms on both sides of the globe, excited to foster a new opportunity for students in both schools to broaden world views, explore interconnectedness and build a unique global community.

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Rene Yokoyama, Megan Klope, Donna Verhasselt, Beth MacLean, Dave Elliott and Katie Cryan Leary meeting to begin plans for the first 2013 DH/QAE Trip to Dwankhozi.

The possibilities that exist within this developing relationship are tremendous. It began in 2012, and we still feel as if we’re only beginning to tap into the exciting potential this partnership has!  In June 2013, a group from Queen Anne Elementary and Dwankhozi Hope embarked on an inaugural Sister School trip to Dwankhozi Primary School. Teachers and parents from both schools came together to share their ideas, challenges, questions and experiences in order to develop plans for how they can work together to open the doors even further for their students to learn from and share more with one another. Watch a short video of their time together here.

In the summer of 2014 a second, joint QAE-Dwankhozi trip visited the school and community in Zambia – bringing along new teachers from QAE. Check out of the video recap of their time here. And a third trip is planned for Summer 2016!

On the Seattle-side of the Atlantic, this partnership has taken off at Queen Anne Elementary! Students and staff alike have loved the chance to explore a side of the world different from their own – expanding their minds and imaginations. QAE now hosts an annual ‘Dwankhozi Week’ at their school when all classes and grades take part in different Zambia-related activities throughout the week, learning more and more about their neighbors in Africa. Check out a video of the first Dwankhozi Week here!

A top priority of ours is to allow a group of Dwankhozi teachers to visit Seattle in the near future and meet the students of Queen Anne Elementary and further cement the impact of this sister school partnership. Keep a hopeful eye out during 2016 for any news on this front, we are doing our best to make this idea a reality!

Such a unique partnership, championed by passionate educators, has caught the attention of some Seattle news outlets in the past couple years. In Fall 2013, the Seattle Times wrote an exclusive article about the QAE-Dwankhozi partnership. Check out the article here.

We’ll continue to develop and add to this partnership page with more news and information as this relationship blossoms. Click here  to visit the Queen Anne Elementary School website.