Schools meet at specially arranged contact seminars during the Autumn term to start application process. They also meet on websites such as eTwinning or on School search on this website, and can arrange a preparatory visit to prepare their application.

Application forms and guidance are available on the British Council Comenius website.

The application is made in February by each school in the partnership (via the lead partner) and applications are approved/disapproved during the summer term and money allocated for the following September.

• increased motivation and morale for both students and staff
• improved staff retention and recruitment
• direct contact with other cultures and languages
• development of project management and leadership skills
• exchange of ideas and good practice
• team building
• enhanced cross-curricular approach
• development of new teaching strategies and materials
• development of skills such as communication and creativity for pupils
• long-term friendships with people from other countries 

Partnerships must include least three schools or colleges (all types are eligible from nursery to FE colleges). Schools usually apply with at least five and up to seven or eight partner schools to allow for unsuccessful applications. 

• Partnerships must involve three countries (from EU) - except Bilateral Partnerships which focus on languages, see below. 
• Partnerships must be planned over two years.

• The schools select a coordinating institution to be responsible for the application and project management.
• Funding applications must be filled in, travel arrangements made -the administrative side of collaboration can be a challenge. Lump sum is grant awarded based on the number of teachers and learners travelling transnationally trhoughout the two year duration.
• eTwinning offers an ideal project space for communication, with a facility for online conferences.
• Timeline, budget and evaluation has to be managed, and the Comenius support teams will help with this. 

www.britishcouncil.org/comenius

Contact the team by e-mail comenius@britishcouncil.org

Contact the team by phone 0161 957 7755

Write to the team: Comenius Enquiries 3rd Floor British Council 10 Spring Gardens London SW1A 2BN If you give your full school name and local authority then your enquiry will be directed to the correct person.

http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc1208_en.htm 

The Connecting Classrooms website holds application forms and guidance, more detailed FAQs and advertises recruitments. (Next deadline Oct 22 Middle East and North Africa)

• www.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms

The collection of all the partnerships formed between clusters with one particular region in one particular recruitment is called a cohort. Schools benefit from training and visits with the other schools in their cohort.

• Support and shared decision making
• Opportunity to raise the profile of the link
• If a teacher cannot deliver a certain activity or communication, another school in the cluster could step in as a substitute to keep momentum going.
• Shared responsibility for administration,
• Shared responsibility for communication 
• Local audience for project outcomes
• Problems in one partnership: other schools can mediate and help to smooth over difficulties.

• www.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms

• Schools might cluster according to themes or affiliations. Check the criteria for school types given in the recruitment
• The cluster coordinator might be from the school most experienced with international work. Other schools might be new to international work (ie at Foundation level).
• Usually schools that cluster are geographically close, or have worked together before, but clusters might also share a particular collaborative tool or learning platform. Or schools may be working together on a particular project and end up in a cluster for that reason (eg Eco Schools, Science Across the World).
• The cluster model is an ideal way to promote Community Cohesion. This means linking with schools (within or outside your local authority) in a contrasting locality in terms of culture, geography, socio-economic descriptors, urban/rural and so on.

Schools successful at the Intermediate category will receive a certificate of achievement for their commitment to internationalism in education, they will also be able use the Intermediate ISA logo.

Schools successful at the Full International School Award will receive a certificate of achievement to recognise their being accredited with the Award as well as the Full ISA logo for their publicity materials. This is a significant achievement and we would encourage schools to widely celebrate their range of international work.

These schools are accredited for three years.

Geography: Rivers, cities, deserts, pollution, sustainable development, alternative energy, appropriate technology, climate, tourism.

History: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, famous people, the Commonwealth and concept of empire, the World Wars.

Citizenship: Healthy eating, human rights, religious holidays, migration.

Languages: Simple exchanges using native language (your own language) or target language (the language you are teaching).

Download chart of UK-France area links

eTwinning is a very friendly and supportive network – ask other teachers, post up messages in the forum and ask the eTwinning team to help. eTwinning has an online secure chatroom facility which means you can have an online meeting or use the IWB to do this with your classes (double-check the time difference)

• Penpals made Easy (KS2)
• Penpals made Easy (KS3)
• Sunderland MFL (avec mille mercis à Isabelle et Emilie) produced a fantastic set of audio files of their French language assistants singing and speaking.

Francophone Africa – schools in England are very well placed to support English teaching (particularly if you have EAL experience). Use the email, but also use the phone and the fax as email is very rarely collected and sometimes forgotten. Countries we usually have on the database are Rwanda, where the lingua france is changing from French to English, and Nigeria, where they can speak about the Francophone aspect of Niger even if the school works in the medium of English. If you want a Francophone country such as Senegal, Cameroon or Cote Ivoire, you should try www.iearn.org where a number of schools are registered.

Through www.epals.com we often find links in Canada, French Guyana... and we even found one in Pondicherry! Again, please contact us if you have particular requirements.