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Developing or reviving your link

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Are you struggling to get young people interested in your link with Germany? Would you like to break away from your usual activities and plan something different? If you are looking to revive or develop an existing partnership with a school or youth group, we have put together some useful advice to help you.

Get new staff members involved

Involve new members of staff or teachers from a variety of departments or leaders with different fields of expertise. Set up a cross-curricular project that brings together different subject areas.

Discuss online

Take advantage of ICT facilities (video conferencing, Skype, podcasts, blogging, vlogging and other social platforms) to facilitate collaboration between pupils and teachers from both schools.

Meet with your German peers

Apply for a grant through our Partnership Visit Fund, to get together with your partner coordinator to put together a plan of activities, including clear objectives and timeframes.

Involve new pupils and a range of year groups

Keep up the interest by getting older students to share their experiences with new pupils in assemblies, open days and key events. Remember that pupils don't need to be learning German to benefit from your partnership with Germany!

Our Youth Ambassadors have come up with some innovative ways to involve new pupils and a range of year groups.

Apply for funding for a project/activity

Apply for funding to develop your link further and make your partnership sustainable. Find out more about how funding can help your partnership.

Involve other schools and the local community

Involve the community means a wealth of new ideas and connections for future activities and spreads the word and gain momentum. For schools, an easy way of doing this is to involve feeder schools.

Introduce new activities

Do you have a link with a partner school that is losing momentum and interest? Why not think about a new type of project? This could be cross-curricular and opened up to students across the whole school - a language-learning element is not always necessary.

Here are some types of activities our Youth Ambassadors would like to be part of:

  • Taking part in volunteering schemes as part of an exchange visit.
  • A work experience project involving visits to primary school
  • A sports trip, e.g. involving sports clubs from both schools.
  • Musical activities, e.g. involving orchestras or bands from both schools.

"Open up activities with partner schools in Germany to more than just German students." (Peter, Youth Ambassador)

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Read the British Council’s toolkit on creating a sustainable partnership (PDF): www.britishcouncil.org.

"Trips abroad have an even bigger impact on us as students if they are cross-curricular – for example German and History – as understanding is improved over both subjects." (UK participant)

"Meeting face-to-face has made the experience more 'real' and [...] enabled us to identify a clear vision for our future work together." (UK teacher, Partnership Visit pilot scheme)

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