Eco-Schools has teamed up with the British Council to support Eco-Schools linking with schools overseas as part of their Global Gateway and International Schools Award. In return schools taking part in the International Schools Award can now received recognition for their efforts with the Eco-Schools framework as part of a Bronze, Silver or Green Flag Award.
The Global Gateway works with Eco-Schools to help pupils consider the environmental, social and economic impacts of the decisions that they make through the Eco-Schools process, on the local and global community, in the future as well as for the present.
The Global Gateway team helps schools in the Eco-Schools framework identify a partner school for an international project, and offers tips on how to communicate and advice on how to secure funding and organize school visits.
Schools and colleges registered on the Global Gateway database come from all over the world, including Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malawi, Nepal, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia!
Eco-Schools and the Global Gateway now work together to make it simpler for schools to progress in the Eco-Schools framework with an international partner school that wants to do the same!
The Eco-Schools / Global Gateway offer
The Global Gateway team will offer you a link school that will work with and alongside you on a sustainability theme.
They offer you link schools in the South, Europe or Worldwide, advice on funding and much more! Share your perspectives on sustainable development issues, describe the activities in your own school and find out about what’s happening in your partner school. Motivating, exciting and involving for teachers, learners and the wider community!
Six suggested options
1 A suggested match for your school with a link school in Africa – you will receive the school profile and contact details and invite them to work with you on your project(s). The link is free to set up, and you would be able to work with the support of the DFID Global School Partnerships team.
If you choose option 1, we will also send you two referrals to NGOs working in Africa who will offer you link schools supported by development projects in rural (or in some cases township) areas. There will be an annual cost (up to £600) but you may also apply for the funding programme above once the partnership is established. More details about why you might choose a ‘managed’ link supported by an organisation in Africa are at www.globalgateway.org/africanlinks
2 A suggested match for your school with a link school in India / Nepal / Sri Lanka / Indonesia, where schools are very responsive and creative at project work.
3 A suggested match for your school in Latin America (you must include a Spanish speaker in your action team). You may also apply for funding once the partnership is established, but note that DGSP funding is not available for Chile or Argentina.
4 A suggested match for your school in Belize, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Trinidad or Pacific Islands (subject to availability, these links are usually slow and difficult to set up and maintain - we are trying!)
5 A suggested match for your school in Japan, USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, where schools do a lot of work on the theme of environment and sustainability.
6 A suggested match for your school in Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Turkey or Scandinavia. We will sometimes be able to find schools already on the Eco-Schools scheme. Funding is quite readily available through the Comenius programme and communication is relatively easy.
7 A place in a ‘learning circle’ where you carry out a project in your school entitled One World; it includes measuring carbon footprints, going on a forum to share ideas with young people all over the world, and creating presentations.
We’re ready – what do we do next?
Please register on the Global Gateway, then email the team at Global Gateway asking for one of the above options. Entitle your email Eco-Schools.
partnerfinding@globalgateway.org
Note: we will ask you to start counting your school linking work towards the DCSF International School Award, Intermediate or, if Green Flag, towards Full ISA.
The team will help ensure that all your Eco-Schools activity with a global dimension can count towards this.
Through your commitment to the Eco-Schools programme you are deemed to have a stated intent to incorporating a Global Dimension into the school’s ethos and learning and to be including this in School Policy Documents. This means you have ALREADY qualified for the ISA Foundation Level. http://www.globalgateway.org/isa
The ISA Foundation Level Award can count as evidence of one large scale project for your Bronze, Silver or Green Flag Eco-Schools Award.
| Green Flag: | 1,194 |
| Silver: | 3,873 |
| Bronze: | 4,639 |
