Commonwealth Connections: 2022 Commonwealth Games Birmingham is a project co-funded by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CGOC) and the British Council. The project provides a unique opportunity to build sports, arts, and citizenship connections throughout the education sector between the host city, the UK and the geographies of the Commonwealth

Summary of the Project

This project provides educational opportunities for young people (and their teachers) in schools across the Commonwealth to learn together and develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Commonwealth and its values, thus allowing young people to feel more ownership and ability to shape their communities. 

The project used school twinning as an approach that enables peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge and experience, through which schools collaborate for shared learning and mutual enrichment.

The Birmingham Education Partnership (BEP) was the lead delivery partner. The Youth Sport Trust (YST) and Birmingham Art School,  lead on design and delivery of the specialist sports and arts input. The British Council supported the participating schools to sustain their partnerships throughout and beyond the life of the project, through the Connecting Classrooms programme or similar initiatives.

Project Objectives

  • To draw upon knowledge and ideas to understand and examine relevant global issues affecting different places and at different scales from a range of different points of view
  • To engage in positive, constructive dialogue with people from different backgrounds and places by understanding and recognising other cultural values and beliefs to help develop their global citizenship skills.
  • To collaborate and communicate effectively with those from a range of different backgrounds and understand the perspective of others
  • To encourage to have a say in how they would like the programme to be shaped, enabling more youth voices in the process of planning and delivery
  • To encourage a strong sense of local culture and identity, and an interest in learning and broadening horizons with a value for fairness and mutuality
  • To focus attention and excitement on the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, by the use of sports, arts and culture to learn about each other’s country

Project Activities

  • Liaison with the UK lead schools
  • Engaging the school community in the project activities
  • Engaging with the UK sports and arts mentors to develop and implement activities
Share this