The next deadline will be 1 May 2010.

What is a Reciprocal Visit grant?

Reciprocal Visit grants are for partnerships that are laying the foundations for long term collaborative work that will embed a global dimension in the schools’ curricula.

Reciprocal Visit grants enable staff from each partner school to visit their partner school for a minimum of 5 working days. The visits allow time for staff to meet face to face to plan joint curricular activities with a global dimension theme.

The grant must be split between the partner schools to enable one visit to each school during the funding period. The visits are for teachers to plan joint activities which will help embed a global dimension in the mainstream curriculum of all schools in the partnership.

Who can apply?

Successful applicants have usually been involved in a partnership for about six months and will have already done some joint preparation. Please check our list of eligible countries.

Partnerships between pre-schools, primary schools, middle schools, secondary schools, special schools and sixth form colleges can all apply.

International schools in Southern countries are not eligible. Further and Higher Education institutions are not eligible.

When should we apply?

The next application deadline is 1 May 2010. This is for travel between 30 June 2010 and 30 May 2011. Unfortunately applications for retrospective funding cannot be accepted.

Can we apply as a group of schools?

Schools can apply on a school-to-school basis or as part of a larger cluster of schools. Cluster-to-cluster partnerships should have equal numbers of schools in each country. There is no limit on the size of a cluster, but there is a limit to the amount of money a cluster partnership can apply for.

How much money can we apply for?

School-to-school partnerships can apply for up to £2,000.

If two schools in each country are working together (four schools in total) the maximum you can apply for is £4,000.

If three schools in each country working together (six schools in total) the maximum you can apply for is £6,000.

If more than six schools are working together the maximum you can apply for is still £6,000.

How do we apply?

Please read our guidance notes carefully. Partner schools should work together to complete the application form. Both documents are located on the left of this page.

You will need to submit an e-mail, letter or fax from the head teacher(s) of the Southern partner schools supporting your application as well as signature(s) from the head teacher(s) of the UK school(s). It can take some time to complete the application form and to gather all the relevant documents, so please make sure you allow plenty of time.

Your application should be emailed to dgspgrants@britishcouncil.org and a hard copy with the original signature(s) of the head teacher(s) of the UK partner school(s) sent to our team in Manchester (DFID Global School Partnerships; British Council, Bridgewater House, 58 Whitworth St, Manchester M1 6BB).

Before planning the visits we strongly advise all teachers to visit the UK government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Travel Advice website for up to date travel information and to read the Travel Safe guide published jointly by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Lonely Planet.

We’ve submitted our application, what happens next?

If your application is complete, then you will receive an acknowledgement letter from the team and your application will be put forward for assessment. We will always send letters to the UK co-ordinating school so if you are working in a cluster, make sure you know who this is.

How and when will the grant be paid?

Once we have received the signed contract we can process the payment. All payments will be paid into the bank account of the UK co-ordinating school. It is their responsibility to ensure that the money is distributed according to the grant guidelines and to keep financial records. It can take up to three months after the application deadline for the money to reach by the UK co-ordinating school’s bank account so please keep this in mind when planning visits.

Please contact the team on dgspgrants@britishcouncil.org if you have any queries.