The British Council’s Connecting Classrooms programme supports partnerships between UK schools and schools from around the world. It is a great opportunity to collaborate with international colleagues and support learning of global issues.

Applications are currently being accepted for partnerships with schools in China.

What is available?

Grants of £1,500 are given to schools to help cover the costs of reciprocal study visits for teachers between the participating schools.

Who can apply?

The programme is open to UK and China schools, sixth-form colleges and comparable institutions providing full-time general, vocational, technical and special-needs education for pupils aged 3-18 years. Independent and government institutions are eligible to apply.  Schools in China must be officially registered in mainland China. Institutions for international students only are not eligible to apply.

You can apply as an individual school in the UK partnering with an individual school in China or as a cluster of schools in the UK (from 3 to 10 schools) partnering with an equal number of schools in China.

How do I apply?

Before you put pen to paper, we strongly recommend that you read the British Council website pages dedicated to the programme. Here you can find details of current priorities. For example, projects that are driven by learning outcomes (curriculum or school improvement based) will have the best chance of securing funding. Your activities should increase global citizenship, enrich education practice and develop an equitable and sustainable partnership between all schools involved – you should clearly explain how you will achieve this in your application.

To apply, you will need approval from senior leaders of schools involved in the partnership.

You will need to complete an online application form, which can be accessed via a link on the British Council website.

The deadline for this opportunity is 30th January 2015.

Good luck!