Introduction
In response to requests from Eteach users, there is now a school twinning section in the staffroom forum on the site. This bulletin explores what is involved in twinning schools and just some of what participants can hope to achieve.

What is involved?
Schools can twin with other schools anywhere in the world, from exotic and far-flung locations to the school just down the road in their local community. Any potential difficulties with communication are eased greatly through the use of email, multimedia and, if you're fortunate enough to have access to it, video conferencing. The twinning zone of the Eteach staffroom will enable you to make contact with suitable schools to twin with. Initially each school would need to outline what they hope to achieve from the partnership, their priorities and what they can offer. It is also useful to send relevant information about your school and its community. This information may well be available on your school's website. One of the easiest ways to get your twinning programme up and running is to pair classes up into E Pals. Whole classes or individual students can exchange emails, so providing an instant and developing link between the two schools. Basically, you can make as much or as little as you want to out of twinning. The essential thing is to keep an eye on the opportunities it provides for covering elements of the curriculum, and the more you look into this, the more that opportunities reveal themselves. Over time, your school may even get into holiday exchanges (perhaps even home swaps between teachers as an inexpensive holiday) and much more.

What can you hope to achieve?
The list of benefits of twinning is endless, the most common are included below.

• It allows for an easy route for exchanging ideas, research and teaching techniques.
• Teachers can share best practice and trends in teaching pedagogy in their home countries.
• Pupils and staff can exchange experiences, culture, and heritage. This can give them a more intense understanding of the needs of others as well as a wider perspective on global issues.
• Communication between pupils can enhance the use of communications technology.
• Teachers themselves could take part in teacher exchanges, therefore being able to enrich their work in the classroom by drawing on the learning programmes and curricula in partner schools.
• It may be possible to facilitate language development.
• It may be possible to work simultaneously on the same project so that children can learn together and even discuss what they have learned through video conferencing.
• Jointly recognised festivals and events can be celebrated together. Pupils can teach each other about those which are not mutually celebrated.
• If you are twinning with a school in a developing area, you can use it as a focus for fundraising or other such support.
• Twinning with more than one school can facilitate multilateral interaction between all schools involved.

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Further information
If you would like to get in touch with other schools with a view to twinning, visit: the twinning section of the Eteach staffroom

Originally published on Eteach