Lynne Franklin, who is Head of Pastoral at our school, was singled out to receive an award for Outstanding Staff Contribution, following her work in organising and supporting cultural trips abroad for our sixth formers.

The honour came at the Challenges Abroad Conference, where schools from all over the country gathered to discuss their experience of the Global Citizenship initiative, a programme which works to make overseas travel accessible to all students.

The two-week Global Citizenship trips are designed to provide an immersive experience of different cultures and people, and have been undertaken by over 5,000 sixth form and college students from across the UK and Australia in the past decade.

“We’ve been working with Challenge Abroad and the Future Sense Foundation for the last two years, this is our third year,” said Jamie Warner-Lynn, Deputy Headteacher and Director of Sixth Form Studies at Springwood, which is a member of the West Norfolk Academies Trust.

“In that time, we have worked with these organisations to run fully funded trips to Cambodia, Thailand, Peru and Vietnam for sixth formers.

“Lynne Franklin has organised all of these trips – taking care of organisation and admin, and promoting the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Not only that, but she has taken part in three of these trips, providing pastoral care for the participants.”

“All students are pushed beyond their comfort zone,” he continued. “They contribute something to the global community, working with deprived students in the host country, and developing new skills. Not to mention the opening up of a new perspective.

“Merissa Lawrence used her experience in Vietnam in her application essay for Harvard and won a full scholarship.”

Around 50 Springwood students joined Mr Warner-Lynn at the ceremony in Royal Holloway, London, to see Ms Franklin receive the award, which was presented by Challenges Abroad CEO Arvind Malhotra and Lizzie George, the Challenges Abroad member who works directly with the school.

“Lynne has been fundamental to the success of the Challenges Abroad programme at Springwood, providing constant support to participants and ensuring there are no barriers to enable participants to access these opportunities,” said the Challenges Abroad statement.

“Lynne has travelled to Thailand, Cambodia and Peru, in which she provided outstanding pastoral care to students and assisted them with delivering workshops, and has made a huge contribution to the work our partner charity, the FutureSense Foundation, is doing overseas.”

“It is important that Lynne’s work is recognised,” added Mr Warner-Lynn. “She is an exceptional member of staff. I think of her as the ‘beating heart’ of the Sixth Form – she makes everything happen.”