might start a blog...

[lizhitchcock]

I love this site already btw.

I am thinking of blogging about my current work with Becta, Naace, British Council, DCSF, QCDA and Janet. I am in a job whereby I try to get schools to take funding (we handle around £10M available each year), to build networks, get young people connecting and communicating and finding out what their peers in other countries think of the UK and want to find out about life in the UK.

It is usually a complete revelation when they realise that young people worldwide are interested in the UK and what is going on. We link our projects to history, citizenship, arts, sport, science and geography. We support projects (investigative, live and real) about fair trade, water reserves, Islam, rights, cultural identity, climate change, the Olympics, slavery, music and technology.

I've just returned from an inspiring event organised by Teach First and many of the teachers I spoke to thought that this would be effective for school improvement in the schools where they work.

We have endorsement for what we do from all the above bodies. It is even on the SEF and is recognised by Ofsted (well we did our homework!). We support schools to realise this through learning platforms, mobile technologies, live interactions....

The good practice is out there - teachers are skyping, blogging and web-conferencing.

Do you think people on EG are up for a blog about this?

[garethedmondson]

I love this site already btw.

I am thinking of blogging about my current work with Becta, Naace, British Council, DCSF, QCDA and Janet. I am in a job whereby I try to get schools to take funding (we handle around £10M available each year), to build networks, get young people connecting and communicating and finding out what their peers in other countries think of the UK and want to find out about life in the UK.

It is usually a complete revelation when they realise that young people worldwide are interested in the UK and what is going on. We link our projects to history, citizenship, arts, sport, science and geography. We support projects (investigative, live and real) about fair trade, water reserves, Islam, rights, cultural identity, climate change, the Olympics, slavery, music and technology.

I've just returned from an inspiring event organised by Teach First and many of the teachers I spoke to thought that this would be effective for school improvement in the schools where they work.

We have endorsement for what we do from all the above bodies. It is even on the SEF and is recognised by Ofsted (well we did our homework!). We support schools to realise this through learning platforms, mobile technologies, live interactions....

The good practice is out there - teachers are skyping, blogging and web-conferencing.

Do you think people on EG are up for a blog about this?

Good luck to you. However you write "I try to get schools to take funding.... to build networks etc...."

No need to try - I'll take your funding. What do we have to do?

:-)

Gareth

[Theblacksheep]

10m thats one sweet school network (or 20).

Can we join the queue?

[russdev]

Good luck to you. However you write "I try to get schools to take funding.... to build networks etc...."

No need to try - I'll take your funding. What do we have to do?

:-)

Gareth

I second that give me a pm...

Russ

Edit

Saying that I think we might already have that funding as suspect that is what funds the various international projects we do locally here.

[mb2k01]

I'll jump in and third it too!
Another PM request!

[wesleyw]

And another pm request from me!

[EduTech]

and another PM from me on way!

James.

[KWestos]

And me

[pooley]

Me too

[GrumbleDook]

Hi Liz

Good to see you here.

I have to say that the British Council do some stirling work and anyone who has been involved in any of their projects can see the benefit.

Lodge Park has been given the international school award twice, been involved in video conferencing with a number of international partners (unfortunately a trip to Karachi was called off due to security reasons) and the Comenius Project has forged some good links with other european schools.

If you don't get a chance to do anything else then catch up with them at BETT and see what sort of things they support.

[lizhitchcock]

How do we sign up, access information etc - register your school at Global Gateway

Funding this term:

Firstly we manage Comenius funding. You need a single partner school in Spain France or Germany for language exchange (secondary only) or more commonly a group of European schools including one other UK (optional but highly recommended) - around six is best.

Find partners on http://www.etwinning.net or Global Gateway

Apply for prep visit funding by mid December, visit partner schools, agree grant application, submit by Feb 15, wait till about May, be awarded funding hopefully, receive for two years starting Sept.

In the mean time continue developing partnership using eTwinning.

MORE IMMEDIATE FUNDING OFFER

http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms - recruiting now for India & Sri Lanka and Latin America. Again, suggest you register on the Gateway because this is how you get information about all the various schemes as and when they happen, plus we support Connceting Classrooms by helping you form the requisite cluster. Deadline December 15.

General overview of funding: Find funding

Working with ICT: Teachers' ICT toolkit

I will start the blog; thanx guys!

[russdev]

Yes thought it was we are doing connecting classroom at moment (sure it is that) working with number of schools in area and number of schools in Malaysia and Thialand. We have been doing video and video conferencing.

We about to start with India as well..

Russ

[lizhitchcock]

We have been doing video and video conferencing.

Fun but difficult. The asynchronous methods work best for EA because of the time differences. Malaysia and Thailand both very engaged. We've just upgraded the student forums - try to get your students posting on there as it's really active. You can also ask the team to set up a specific forum for students to vote on a discussion topic or set them a discussion topic. Let Ozan or Andrew know and we will aim to support some good work that is student led. See our suggested projects at Connecting Classrooms Online Community | Developing International School Partnerships click projects.

[lizhitchcock]

I've sent IMs to everyone who asked - in an IM I can go into some detail about whether your local authority is eligible for an invitation to schools to apply for international programmes (which makes funding much more likely); what schools in your area (or even your own school LOL) is doing in terms of international work. We measure the school's commitment through a free accreditation framework Foundation, Intermediate and Full International School Award. Many schools are just reaccrediting for the FOURTH time. We have over 2000 on the Full Award and would like all schools to participate in global dimension, school linking, intercultural understanding and international communication! Keep posting (and let others know if the info I sent was handy!).

[lizhitchcock]

We're running events and setting up area links with 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Let me know if you want to be involved. You can be involved formally (ie get funding, visit partner school, set up official project) or informally (through online collab. spaces).

We are also setting up about 15 new links with China - groups of nine schools get to have partner schools in each link; it doesn't have to be about language learning it can be about ICT or cross-curricular.

And we're running a World Cup project obviously based around African links, but some schools are using European and Latin American links.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll IM you what is going on in your area (you need to include your LEA).

Best
Liz
Happy Christmas too