School links are an important aspect of our grant support and we try to help schools with some of the costs of visiting their link school in Japan. Students from Ballyclare Secondary School, Northern Ireland, visited Japan in order to celebrate the centenary of their partner school Toyama National College of Maritime Technology. They greatly enjoyed their "...very memorable, once in a life time trip…". A group from Toyama subsequently made a return trip to Ballyclare.

Grant support was also given to

• a year 11 school group from County Upper School in Bury St Edmunds
• a group from Lady Margaret School in London
• Grove Academy Dundee to visit their partner school in Kobe
• Jo Richardson Community School, Dagenham to develop a Japanese club and to investigate future links with a school in Japan
• Edinburgh College of Art towards a student exchange between architecture students at Edinburgh College of Art and the School of Engineering at Kinki University
• Park School, Wirral, to visit their partner school in Fukuoka
• others, pictured below, were also among the many schools we have helped over recent years.

A young Japanese student demonstrates the soroban. Photo: Gareth Griffiths.		County Upper School student learning to play the koto.

Kuretake Special Education School visit Heritage House School, Bucks.		Pupils from Lady Margaret School, London on school trip to Japan, Photo: Marie-Helen Cuckow.

With our grant support, the City of Coventry welcomed twenty one people from Hiroshima and entertained them around the theme of Peace and Reconciliation. This was followed by a return visit by ten young people from Coventry’s President Kennedy Youth Club, during which they took part in an International Youth Conference for Peace.

“The trip was an amazing experience for all involved with one student declaring: ‘My time in Japan was the best I’ve had so far in my life’”.

Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima

“..I have made friends for life, it has changed my whole outlook on Japanese people..” Each year we send twelve students from an inner city or rural secondary school to Japan on our Japan Experience Study Tour. The group stays with Japanese families in Osaka, visits a high school, travels on public transport, visits an old people’s home, sees Japanese industrial technology and visits Hiroshima with a talk by an A-bomb survivor. “It made me realise how important it is to learn about other cultures and to use that to form positive bonds” “I think it has changed my perception of the world and opened my eyes to the myriad of cultures that exist in the world.”		Students from Queens Park Community School, London
		A student from Allerton Grange High School, Leeds learning to make paper cranes at Dowaen Elderly Persons Home, Kyoto.

We gave a grant to enable school students from the Shetland Islands to participate in an educational and community exchange project with high schools in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture. The students filmed interviews with the Shetland and Hanamaki local communities on topics such as ‘a time of war 1940 -1945’; ‘rebuilding, the 1950s and 1960s’; and ‘looking ahead, visions for the 21st Century’. The project was both community wide and cross-generational and the recorded material later became valuable archive material in the local museums.

Shetland Islands

Hanamaki

Cultural Exchange with Girl Scouts of Japan

We awarded a grant to Girlguiding UK towards a special cultural exchange programme with the Girl Scouts of Japan on which they learnt how to build sustainable communities through ESD programmes (Education for Sustainable Development). It was a unique chance for the young generation of both countries to learn more about their respective cultures and to develop a greater awareness of international issues.

At the Osaka Girl Scouts' 60th Anniversary camp

Global Rock Challenge

The Wavell School Farnborough received a grant to enable them to take a party of students to participate in the first Global Rock Challenge in Tokyo, a performing arts event involving students in secondary schools and colleges around the world. It gave the students opportunities to develop their performing arts, production and life skills in a supportive learning environment as well as providing them with insights into Japanese life and culture.

Students from The Wavell School, Farnborough jumping for joy at the first ever Global Rock Challenge events in Tokyo.

A Thousand Cranes - The Paper Washi Wish

The Paper Washi Wish, a new interactive theatre piece for children aged 3-5, combined the traditions of kamishibai and washi to create a unique theatrical experience. There is limited professional theatre work celebrating Japanese culture and traditions and this project, which extended to rural locations, engaged young children and their carers to Japanese arts and culture exposing them to interactive stories and developing their creative skills through a hands on paper making workshop. A Thousand Cranes was set up by Vicky Ireland and Kumiko Mendl to celebrate with UK audiences, particularly young audiences, the extraordinary and fascinating stories and traditions of Japan.

A Thousand Cranes Theatre Company. Photo: Andy Bradshaw

As well as school exchanges, this category includes support for students on a 'Gap' year in Japan. Two organisations that arrange for these 'year out' placements in Japan are:

Lattitude Global Volunteering
Address: Tel: Fax: Web Site:	GAP House, 44 Queen's Road, Reading, Berks RG1 4BB 0118 959 4914 0118 957 6634 http://www.lattitude.org.uk *Placement is usually for 6 months and the work includes English language teaching, or work at a Red Cross Hospital or a Cheshire Home.

Project Trust
Address: Tel: Fax: Web Site:	The Hebridean Centre, Isle of Coll, Argyll PA78 6TE 01879 230444 01879 230357 http://www.projecttrust.org.uk *These placements are for 1 year, and are for English language teaching.

The Foundation is prepared to give grants of £300 to a limited number of deserving Lattitude/Project Trust applicants. However the application should be made through one of the organisations listed above.