Who are these pages for?

This web-guide has been designed for those in Local Authorities in England and Académies in France who have responsibility for developing international links. If you are thinking of initiating a link with an education authority across the Channel, the following pages will guide you through the process of finding a partner, setting up initial contact and applying for funding from the relevant organisation. Most importantly it provides signposts to support and advice from specialist teams at the British Council and the MEN

Why area linking?

Co-operation and partnership between French and English schools has existed for a long time. The benefits of enabling students to broaden their horizons and to develop inter-cultural awareness have long been recognised. Very often though, the durability of school-based partnerships has depended on the goodwill and motivation of individual teachers who can find it difficult to maintain the energy to drive the partnership forwards.

In the experience of the British Council and French Ministry of Education, links at education authority level can improve sustainability and productivity of educational partnerships. Strategic linking of a group of schools in a local region with a similar group of schools overseas facilitates the initiation and development of long-term links at both macro and micro level. Local Authority and Académie colleagues and teachers also benefit from a ready made support network in the local area to share experiences and ideas. Area linking has the potential to draw on existing civic links and scalability is another impetus for this initiative.

For the complete background to area linking and the national language policies that the Anglo French agreement supports, please download the the pdf guide here (pdf file 52.7KB)