Section 5 : Preparing for partnership
Activity 5.3: Finding a partner
Finding a school that has something in common with yours provides a good starting point for curricular work. For example, schools in rural areas often partner with other rural schools. DGSP recommends that schools approach others with learners working at similar stages and ideally of similar ages.
There are several ways of finding a partner:
Global gateway (a database for schools looking for partners)
What is Global Gateway?
The Global Gateway site includes a database of schools across the globe that are interested in establishing school partnerships. Once you have registered you can search for and contact schools that meet your requirements. Other schools can view your profile and may contact you.
Who else can help us?
There are a range of initiatives and organisations which can help identify school partners. They offer different levels of support and mediation.
Visit the websites below to find out more about what a selection of different organisations offer:
African Revival (UK and Uganda)
Link Community Development (UK, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and Ethiopia)
AfriTwin (UK and South Africa)
Dolen Cymru (Wales and Lesotho)
Link Ethiopia (UK and Ethiopia)
Pahar Trust (UK and Nepal)
Plan-Ed Schools Link (UK, Malawi, Kenya and Sierra Leone)
Some of these initiatives have charitable or development aims rather than joint global education learning aims. There may also be a joining fee payable by UK schools.
UK schools can go to BBC Worldclass for information and links to other sites for forming partnerships in particular countries.
What local and community contacts are there?
Are there parents who could help you develop a partnership through family or business ties?
Find out about local schools which already have a partnership. Can they help you find a partner? Is there a cluster partnership already in place locally? Could you join as a new school?
Find out if your village, town, city or region is twinned and explore the possibility of finding a partner school in the twin location.
Think about the different Diaspora groups in your community. Write an article for your local newspaper letting people know you are looking for a partner school.
Read about community linking at One World Linking Association.