What are the Make the Link Awards 2006?
In 2006, the Times Educational Supplement is offering a series of Make the Link awards to encourage UK schools to create an international dimension to school life by making lasting partnerships with schools in other countries.
Brendan O'Malley, TES international editor, says: "Our awards give national recognition to some outstanding work by schools who are seeing that links can really enrich learning and open up experience of the wider world to their pupils."
The newspaper will present £25,000 of prizes to schools with links that encourage joint curriculum projects, global citizenship work and the sharing of teacher expertise between the partner schools. The awards are supported by HSBC and the British Council.
Who can enter the awards in 2006?
In 2006, there are top prizes of up to £5,000 for primary and secondary schools and sixth-form and FE colleges with the most impressive array of links.
There are additional prizes for the best invidual primary and secondary European links, the best primary and secondary world links and the best link supporting the worldwide drive for Education for All, which aims to end the tragedy of 100 million children in the world not going to school.
There is also an award for links between special schools.
Who won in 2005?
Last year the TES/HSBC international school of the year prize went to Hove Park school and sixth form in East Sussex, which has 45 curriculum links with schools in 11 countries, including South Africa and Ghana.
Sandra Chadwick, head of the Hove Park school and sixth form's unit for children with specific learning needs, spent five weeks in Detyana school in South Africa's Eastern Cape last summer on the Global Teachers Programme.
She said: "It was an amazing experience. I lived with a family in the village - in a mud hut with no electricity or water."
When she arrived teachers said what the school needed most was more brick classrooms to replace their mud and straw rooms which are too dark and cramped.
But Ms Chandwick believed great improvements could also be made simply by encouraging teachers to motivate children to learn in different ways rather than just reading from a textbook.
She said: "I realised I had a lot of skills I could offer that I could use in training."
Now Ms Chandwick is working with Detyana's headteacher to develop joint project work that the pupils in both schools can work on or exchange by post.
The special school prize winner was Dorton House school near Sevenoaks, Kent, whose visually impaired pupils have been tackling conflict resolution and disability rights with partially sighted pupils in Milton Margai school in Freetown, Sierre Leone. Their link was featured on BBC Breakfast News earlier this year.
Get in touch
Schools can enter for the awards online or by downloading and posting an entry form from www.tes.co.uk/Make_the_Link.
On the TES Make the Link website you can also find advice on linking, stories about innovative school links and blogs from teachers visiting other countries in support of their links.
The deadline for entries in 2006 is July 21.
Sandra Chadwick worked in South Africa as part of the Global Teachers Programme.
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