The Teachers’ International Professional Development (TIPD) programme was introduced by the UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in May 2000.

The programme provides opportunities for teachers in England to develop their teaching skills by experiencing best practice in a number of key themes through short-term international study visits. Such visits also aim to create valuable international links between schools, facilitate international school partnerships and information sharing on a global level.

Since the programme was launched, TIPD programme participants have visited diverse countries across the world – including Singapore, Australia, Hungary, China, Sweden and the USA – to study themes such as ICT, special educational needs (SEN), Citizenship and Literacy.

TIPD in Odesa region

The programme started in Odesa in February 2002. Since then the schools in the region have hosted 18 groups of teachers from Local Educational Authorities of Richmond, North London, Birmingham, Lancashire, Calderdale, Brent, Wiltshire, Warrington, Cheshire and Salford.

The themes of the visits reflect the issues, which are of interest to teachers of both countries, especially in the present-day world context:

			Gifted and Talented Children
			Social Inclusion/Behaviour in Inner Cities
			Citizenship Education
			Transition from Primary to Secondary Education
			Teaching Foreign Languages in Primary School.

More than 30 Ukrainian schools took part in the project, among them: Odessa schools NN 263, 40, 50, 263, 17, 275, 300, 84, specialised secondary Odessa schools 121 and 10, Odessa grammar schools NN 2, 4, 5, 9, Prof. Stolyarsky Music School, Yuzhny school N 3, Charity Fund ‘Children’s Village ASTR’, College of Law, Chernomorski Lyceum and others.

One of the outcomes of these visits was the possibility to establish direct links between schools in the region and Great Britain.

Recent visits of UK teachers to the region include:

			8–15 April 2007 Behavioural Management (Durham LEA) – Odessa
			20–27 October 2007 Creative Curriculum and Innovative Planning (Wirral LEA) – Odessa Report in DOC (319 Kb)
			1–8 March 2008 Personalised Learning (Yorks and Humberside LEA) – Odessa
			14–21 February 2009 Creativity (Liverpool) – Odessa Report in PDF (49 Kb)
			12–18 April 2009 Working Effectively in Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances (Lancashire) – Odessa Report in PDF (37 Kb)

Contact us

Lyudmila Tatsenko
Partnerships and Projects Manager (South Ukraine)

International Humanitarian University
33 Fontanskaya Doroga
Odessa 65009
Telephone and fax +380 48 718 8119/39
Lyudmila.Tatsenko@britishcouncil.org.ua