We are dedicated to providing all participants in the Link Schools Programme with a high quality service. We are focused on improving the programme so that it continues to meet your needs and to support you to meet your own priorities.
There is an annual fee of £550 to be part of the programme. This fee does not fully cover the cost of your school’s involvement, but is a contribution towards the cost of running the programme and allows us to support your partner’s involvement in our school improvement work.
What do you get if you join the Link Schools Programme?
The remaining 50% of the fee is sent to the country of your partner school to fund the same service for your partner. The cost of providing this service is not as high in your partner school’s country so the remainder of the fee is used to support our school improvement work in the country and district where your partner school is located.
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- Expert staff to guide you in the process of setting up and developing a successful partnership: visits to your school can be arranged, and staff are available daily on email and by phone to offer help and advice wherever it is needed.
- Partnership Curriculum Project guides to support you and your partner school with some exciting ideas to work and learn with each other. The projects are based on the Millennium Development Goals as follows: Environment, Health, Global Poverty, Education, Gender and Global Partnerships. Our starting point has been the curriculum in each of our partner countries so that schools can ensure that their partnership work is embedded. We have a set for Primary and a set for Secondary in each case.
- Link Schools Programme Pack: We have produced a pack to support schools with the set up and early stages of your partnership. The pack covers: our wider work in Africa; how to build a successful partnership; international development; school partnerships and teaching and learning; and how to work as partners supporting development. We have included activities for you to use wit h colleagues and the wider community, in order t o gain wider support for your partnership work.
- Creative resources: Training resources developed in partnership with Lifeworlds Learning - experts in global learning training - are available on our website along with a range of other resources, photos, videos, and ideas to help you in the classroom.
- School trips: We have teamed up with an organisation called Inspire Worldwide, a specialist overseas school trip company who provides professional support and advice to schools organising trips to their partner schools. We know how valuable trips are in building relationships between schools and Inspire Worldwide is working with us to support these visits and make sure they bring benefits to the African schools involved.
- Solar Connect: We have developed a project to help African schools with one of their biggest challenges – keeping teachers in schools teaching. We are providing solar panels, netbook computers and internet connection to rural schools so that they can communicate with their district support team as well as carry out administrative tasks online rather than taking head teachers and teachers out of school to complete these jobs. It also means partner schools involved can start to communicate by email. We have seen a level of success with this project so far so we plan to roll it out with the support of schools and others because it meets a need in the African schools. We are also working on a number of other School Development Projects that meet identified needs in African schools such as providing books to schools, and the building of school latrines; and we can provide advice and guidance on providing support for African school development: including information about your partner school’s needs, advice on fundraising, and support with the management of school development projects.
- School improvement: We can also provide advice and guidance on how you can provide support for African school development, including information about your partner school’s needs, advice on fundraising, and how to get involved with school development projects.
- Access to www.linkschools.org for information and ideas about global learning and awareness: photos, video clips, news about our work and about African and global issues, a ‘sign-in’ section where you can access information about your partner school, and where you can communicate with them and with your local schools involved in partnerships