Did you know...

GSP beyond the UK

• 63 countries have participated
• Registered countries begin with every letter of the alphabet except F, O, Q, W, X and Y!

GSP in the UK 

• All nations and regions have participated with well over 100 partnerships in each
• London has the broadest range of partnership countries with an amazing 41

And last but not least…

• Northern Ireland and Nigeria grew from less than 20 partnerships to well over 100 over the course of 2009-12
• Partnerships have persisted and thrived in challenging environments from Pakistan to Nigeria

Read more interesting GSP facts and figures here

Student poems from around the globe

A Partner
A partner’s like a flower, a rose to be exact;
Or like a garden gate that never comes unlatched.
A partner’s like sweet music, a really lovely sound;
Or like a perfect birthday, always coming round.
A partner’s like a childhood pet whose spirit never dies;
Or like a friend whose loyalty you know will never lie.
Where would we be without such bonds that partnerships provide?
A darker place for sure my friend, so stand we side by side.

Student, Whitecross Hereford High School on her visit to The Heritage School. Kolkata

Knowing you and knowing me…
Your charisma broke the shackles that had me bound.
South Africa, my beginning,
I left you in pursuit of making friends.
In England I landed
To find brothers and sisters of another mother.
It began with just thoughts on a page,
But eventually we met in person,
Building strong bonds and shattering the great dividing walls of stereotypes.
Through the link we built,
The seas that divided us seem like a narrow slit.

Anele Mbatha, Earlington Secondary School

Two great nations united
Two great nations united together
So vastly contrasting in so many ways,
The weather, wildlife, culture and dwellings
Are just but a few things in which we are diverse,
But yet our hearts beat as one
And bonds have been formed that
Surely never will break,
And though many miles separate our schools
Our hearts beat together in friendship.

Richard Fawcett, Prince Henry’s Grammar School

South Africa - More than a curriculum project

Challenges in communicating with each other began early on in the partnership, as June Brighouse, former International Coordinator, PHGS, describes, “One of the preconceptions we had at both schools was that, because everyone spoke English, verbal communication would be no problem. Not so!...
Read more
 

Nigeria - Fulfilling, exciting and educational…

The global school partnership between Lindley Infant (CE) School, Huddersfield and Glisten International Academy, Nigeria has proved to be “fulfilling, exciting and educational” since it began in 2007.
Read more
 

Jamaica - Blue Mountain coffee & Grimsby fish

Following a Global Schools partner finding conference in Birmingham we were successful in finding Avocat Primary and Junior High in Portland, Jamaica. We spent a year e-mailing, texting and exchanging letters to get to know each other and begin to create our first joint curriculum project. Read more
 

India - Rights and responsibilities

The partnership has opened a window into a different culture for us. Observing a more informal method of teaching and wide use of modern technology to enhance the teaching-learning process has enriched our own teaching styles...
Read more
 

Nepal - Passion and enthusiasm get partnerships off to a good start

It was only November last year (2011) when Grangetown Primary School, Sunderland and Columbus School, Kathmandu were introduced to each other by GSP...They swiftly agreed the aims and vision for the partnership and moved on to discussing potential curricular project ideas. Read more

Global Teacher Accreditation

A unique opportunity for teacher accreditation and professional development

The Global Teacher Accreditation (GTA) has proved to be an unique opportunity for teachers in many countries. It was initiated by Cambridge Education Foundation (CEF) under the Global School Partnerships (GSP) programme with the aim of offering professional development opportunities and recognition to teachers for action research projects in their schools.

Read more about the main objectives and benefits of accreditation
 

What teachers say...

“I changed my belief - in the classroom I am not the epitome of all knowledge, nor the infallible source of knowledge. Now I share control with students by providing opportunities for them to explore and inquire on their own."
Drupatie Devi Lalchan Luke, Teacher, Trinidad & Tobago

"...it has allowed not just myself but my colleagues and pupils to appreciate the impact of collaboration with both local and international groups.  It has encouraged my development as an individual and also as a member of the school staff."
Kathleen Pierre, Teacher, Trinidad & Tobago

“The course has changed the way I have thought as a class teacher, I am now a leader who can initiate change with the help of others in my school.”
Ackim Banda, GSP Country Manager, Zambia

Read the full teacher stories here

Supporting GSP schools - a Zambian perspective

We have enjoyed delivering and managing GSP in Zambia since its inception. Many schools involved in the programme have changed - their ways of working are quite different from the schools that have not been part of GSP.

“In just two years of our partnership, we have acquired knowledge and styles on how to organise and maintain our school performance levels so that we can reach the high school levels." Mrs Ireen Chunga, head teacher at Chilanga Basic School

Read the full article here

The programme developed Local Authority (LA) links to support partner finding and to enable the future sustainability of school partnerships.  The partnerships are a two way process, whereby schools with partnerships engage with their LAs and LAs include schools in their community links. The objective was to engage and support 100 of the UK’s 468 LAs in areas which had been hard to reach.

Bonds of spontaneous learning and sharing
Ruchira Ghosh, GSP Country Manager, India

India has benefitted from these LA partnerships with three established in 2010 and six in 2011. The Southern countries, and India is no exception, do not have LAs and the main challenge was to find similar bodies that could initiate, co-ordinate, support and sustain partnerships between the groups of ten schools.

Our nine cluster partnerships have not only boosted the number of India’s partnerships, an all time high of 450 (set to reach more than 500 by 31 March), but more importantly they have established new ways of learning, sharing and creating new ‘families’ of schools that will keep the partnership relationships going for the foreseeable future.

Read the full article here

Potent tools for achieving global school partnerships
Dr Akib Lawal, Country Manager, GSP, Nigeria

The impressive growth in Nigerian partnerships is no small part due to the hard work of UK One World Linking Association (UKOWLA), who organised partner finding conferences in the UK in 2010 and 2011

The Local Authority Grant (LAG) has also boosted partnership numbers. The grant aims to:

• identify and partner ten schools to begin the partnership journey
• introduce the benefits of global partnerships for schools
• deliver two professional development workshops to introduce global education concepts to UK and Southern clusters
• create stable international relationships that can support existing and broker new partnerships

Read the full article here

Helpful resources for the future

As the programme draws to a close, it leaves behind a fantastic legacy – rich curriculum development, enhanced learning, commitment to professional development, young people taking up responsibility as global citizens and enduring, inspiring partnership relationships.

We hope that GSP will prove to be only the beginning of an ongoing relationship and journey of learning between schools. For many schools the advice, guidance and funding that have been provided in the past will have provided the initial support they needed to become a sustainable partnership far into the future.

Partners can look forward to developing new ideas and projects together. To help you do this, we have created online courses and ‘A Toolkit - Building sustainable school partnerships’.

1. Professional development courses online
Why not complete a Global School Partnerships online course? We currently have three courses on offer:

• An introduction to global school partnerships
• Equitable, diverse partnerships
• Sustainable partnerships

Register for free for the online courses at
www.global-schools.org

2. New! A Toolkit: Building sustainable partnerships

This new resource contains a wealth of experience from UK and Southern schools about sustaining a partnership and provides solutions to common challenges. There are also plenty of case studies included so that you can hear about the experiences of other GSP schools. Download the toolkit.

We would love to hear your feedback about how useful you find the toolkit. Please email any comments to globalschools@britishcouncil.org. Alternatively, post responses to Andrea Mason, British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London, SW1A 2BN.

3. Apply today for the International School Award

All of your fantastic work for your global school partnership is great evidence for the British Council International School Award! You can apply at any time for either your Foundation or Intermediate level of the Award.

The Award framework is also being rolled out overseas as these are powerful equitable based partnerships.

Your work with a partner school overseas means your school is eligible for the Intermediate level of the Award so apply today for your ISA certificate at www.britishcouncil.org/schoolsonline
 

Beyond GSP...

Global School Partnerships has awarded final grants to schools, but will continue to provide support and advice to schools completing their grant activity until March 2013.

The Department for International Development is committed to continuing support for school linking beyond the closure of GSP and is currently looking at how this can be done to ensure a high quality service to schools that also represents value for money for the UK taxpayer. DFID will be making further announcements about the continuation of school linking shortly and will ensure all schools partnered through GSP are fully informed about how this will impact on their partnership.

Keep up to date with school partnership developments, resources and future opportunities by visiting British Council Schools Online http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/home

The British Council Schools Online monthly eNewsletter will now be your main source of information about news, resources and opportunities for school partnerships. If you do not wish to receive the newsletter, please unsubscribe at the link below.