The UK National Commission for UNESCO

UNESCO exists to promote friendship, understanding and collaboration between nations. Where better should this start than in schools and among the young? School partnerships create opportunities to communicate with peers in other countries and cultures and to get closer to some of the global issues facing the World.

UNESCO has also been given the lead role in the achievement of Education for All by 2015 by the United Nations. The potential that partnerships between schools have to promote good basic education for all provides a second reason for the UK National Commission to support such links.

This report is a contribution to the UK Government’s international education strategy (Putting the World into World-Class Education DFES 2004). The UK National Commissions function is to provide expertise from civil society to support the UK Government’s UNESCO-related activities and to provide encouragement and support for UNESCO’s work in the UK.

The UK Government’s aim is to encourage international links for every school and college by 2010 to promote a global dimension in education and support for Education for All. In support of this, Bob Doe (member of the UK National Commission's Education Committee) attended the Commonwealth Consortium for Education conference on school linking* in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 2006 as the UK National Commission’s delegate. This report arises from attendance at that conference and from some of the issues it highlighted.

Download
Whole Report: Promoting School Partnerships (22 pages, pdf 132 KB)
By Section:

1. Summary (2 pages, pdf 11 KB)

2. The Policy Context (3 pages, pdf 18 KB)

3. UK international school links at present (6 pages, pdf 48 KB)

4. Increasing the numbers of school partnerships (7 pages, pdf 48 KB)

Appendix
(table) Number of links reported between UK schools and schools
in non-OECD countries and GSP-supported partnerships (2 pages, pdf 25 KB)

If you do not have Adobe Reader, download it from here.

Useful Links:

The Global Gateway

Funded by the DfES, the Global Gateway website provides access to comprehensive information on how to develop an international dimension to education. There is guidance on how to find an international partner school, ideas for lesson plans, free downloadable resources, a young people's zone, information on gap years for school-leavers and much more.

DFID Global School Partnership
DFID Global School Partnerships is a consortium initiative of British Council, Cambridge Education Foundation, UK One World Linking Association (UKOWLA) and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), funded by the Department for International Development (DFID).

The Partnerships promotes partnerships between schools in the UK and schools in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

BBC World Class Provides news, information, advice and a forum for school linking and also contains a database of self-reported school international links.

Link Community Development Supports around 400 UK links with schools in development projects in rural Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Malawi (with funding from the Scottish Education Department).

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Runs the iNet (International Networking for Educational Transformation) network of schools around the world. Among other things, this supports school linking. iNet links schools in a number of countries, including China, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, the Netherlands and the UK.

Local Government Association European & International Unit Considerable numbers of school links are arranged and supported by local authorities, Church or Diocesan bodies. The Local Government Association European & International Unit has taken over the work of the Local Government International Bureau. A small number of local authorities are known to have created partnerships, which include school links, with overseas districts.

* This conference preceded the 16th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Cape Town in December 2006.