The Teachers International Professional Development Programme (TIPD) was launched by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) formerly the (DfES) in May 2000. The essence of a TIPD study visit is to enable teachers from England to experience good educational practice in different countries around the world through short term visits  and to offer a focused and challenging learning experience in which teachers are immersed in the education system of another country, investigating a particular curriculum theme. It also generates new networks of teachers, nationally and internationally, united in their commitment to provide high quality education

2009: A group of 12 UK teachers are visiting 3 schools at Pokhara and 1 school at Kathmandu from 14-21 February 2009, on the theme of creativity with limited resources. A recci visit to Pokhara will be done from 8-10 Nov 2008.The recci visit is mainly to plan and arrange the TIPD visit 2009.

2008: A group of ten primary teachers from the UK visited three different Nepalese schools from 12 to 19 April 2008. The theme of this year’s TIPD visit was “to explore the development of creative curriculum in schools in Nepal”. The major outcome of this visit was team building and widening of experiences of this group which helped in developing global awareness, promoting and furthering the teachers knowledge and understanding of a developing country. After the visit the group planned to develop their own contrasting locality information pack for use in their schools, using artefacts, photos and recordings taken whilst on this visit.The visit reaffirmed that the learning experience is based on whole school excellent relationships and communications and it is not necessarily aligned to funding. The group developed a strong belief that where education really had an impact on children’s learning there was a strong spiritual underpinning of the whole curriculum.

2006: A group of five UK teachers visited Kathmandu under the DFID funded TIPD scheme from 13 to 22 February 2006 . They were primary and secondary music specialists and visited nine schools in Kathmandu. They had a very successful visit and we have high hopes of school partnerships arising from the good contacts they made. It was obvious from feedback given by principals and local teachers that the UK visitors had made a real impact. They had come to explore ideas and learn as well as pass on and share experiences – mutual benefit in action!