School partnerships are a powerful and exciting way of bringing an international dimension into the classroom. Successful school partnerships and collaborative projects have a profound and lasting impact on both pupils and teachers.

There is a lot of support available to help you find a partner school and make the most of your partnership by providing access to a whole range of ideas for joint curriculum projects. Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Online linking via Global Gateway

Global Gateway is a British Council managed website which allows you to search for partners online by registering on a database which contains details of more than 6,000 schools. This way, potential partner schools can also look at your details and approach you. You can refine your search by country, age range, curriculum subjects and other criteria. Visit Global Gateway to find out how to register your school.

Other partner-finding web sites

			Comenius Space is a European website including over 500 schools in Europe seeking partnerships.
			Partbase is a listing of education establishments taking part in the SOCRATES programme and seeking partnerships for European projects.
			eTwinning is an online resource which can help you find schools interested in working on web projects.

Regional partnerships

The promotion of regional partnerships between academies in France and local authorities in England is a key element of the Anglo-French Agreement . These regional partnerships provide a supportive framework in which to establish and develop school links so increasing their chances of success.

In most cases, the first step in establishing a regional partnership is to organise an area link visit between a local authority area in England and their partner ‘area’ in France. This visit is the start of a longer commitment in the form of follow-up activities and support by authority representatives, teachers and head teachers to build and develop long-term sustainable links between schools in the two countries. Find out more about school links between the Académie of Poitiers and Swindon Local Authority

This area link visit is also an opportunity for authority representatives to set up a formal agreement and agree on an action plan for future projects. The Académie of Strasbourg has recently set up a partnership agreement with Leicestershire

In France, we work with the regional DARIC network to set up regional partnerships.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PARNERSHIP WORK

A guide co-published by the British Council, the DfES and the Ministère de l’Education Nationale has been designed to provide you with practical information, case studies and guidance to help you undertake your partnership projects successfully. For more information, download the brochure ‘Anglo-French Partnerships – Key to Success!”. You can also find useful ideas on how to develop your partnership on Global Gateway (under the Schools section) and on eTwinning.