Meeting both schools' objectives
Finding a partner school
It is important to Identify a suitable school - one that will be a good match.

Many school partnerships are set up through friends or personal contacts. Teachers hoping to find a partner school in the UK or any other country should either use the search facility or register on Global Gateway. If you need any help with finding a partner school, then please contact us as we can help you find a suitable link.

Talk to your partner school about your aims
The key to successful school linking is good communication between teachers. Make sure you are clear about what you aim to achieve and that you communicate your aims to the teachers in your partner school.

Develop projects that address the needs of both partners  UK teachers are often keen to work on projects that are directly related to the school curriculum. For example, geography teachers might particularly want to get their students to exchange e-mails with their Australian partners when they are studying about Australia in class. Exchange projects, such as
class questionnaires can help bridge this gap.

Making your link work
Set a schedule
Carefully plan when, and how often contacts will take place. Some classes correspond every week while others do so for a set period of a month each year. Set a deadline for when e-mails should be replied to. If your students are unable to meet the deadline ensure that the other teacher is kept informed.

Don't rely on a single e-mail account
Technical problems with e-mails can lead to misunderstandings and be disruptive for a link. If possible, set up a second e-mail account on a different network to use as backup. Make sure your partner school has the name of at least one other teacher they can contact in case you are unavailable. If you are not sure whether your e-mails are reaching your partner, try sending a fax, letter or postcard. You might even want to phone the school directly.

Repair breakdowns in communication
Not hearing from your partner can be very dispiriting so try to ensure that your students reply promptly. If you are having trouble contacting your partner school it may be due to technical problems such as an out of date e-mail address. Please contact us for up to date contact information or you can search the Internet. On the other hand, it might be time to re-negotiate the nature of the school link on the basis of the current needs of the students and teachers involved. If you have a problem with your link, please let us know straight away.

Sustaining interest
Projects, not just e-mails
Penpal-style e-mail exchanges can be interesting, but often fizzle out very quickly. To keep the students interested, try to widen the scope of your link activities, using projects wherever possible.

Make something
To sustain the interest of all parties, try to develop projects with a clear, lasting outcome; It could be a picture, an essay, a diary, a piece of music or an article in a newspaper. The projects in our project section are designed to achieve outcomes like these, but feel free to experiment and develop your own.