Policy Level Engagements and Study Tours

The Connecting Classrooms programme has a dedicated strand for policy level engagements and study tours. The target audience for policy level engagement is policymakers and senior practitioners who we expect to develop an enhanced understanding of international best practice. And the target audience for study tours is policy makers, senior practitioners, heads of schools and educators. The primary purpose of such engagement is to facilitate and engage in strategic level discussions with decision makers and influencers to ensure that our interventions support education policy in the UK and the rest of the world. This will enable us to make the greatest difference possible to the millions of young people with whom we work. A policy-based approach is the most sustainable and cost-effective way of doing this as Ministries and other institutions benchmark their own approaches against others’ in order to adopt, embed and mainstream the outcomes of collaborative work.

Round Table: Learning for a Sustainable Future

On 30 November 2016 a round table with policy makers on the theme 'Learning For A Sustainable Future' was organised in Delhi

This round table was which was attended by 40 policy makers and senior dignitaries from the government as well as private sector working in the education domain. The round table focussed on the needs of foundation skills (numeracy and literacy), knowledge, broad and creative curriculum and core skills in today’s education system and deliberated on an integrated approach for designing the most effective curriculum. The discussion also featured several case studies from Singapore, Australia, Scotland, the United States and England and learnings from each of them. It also touched upon the important area of assessment of core skills and particularly highlighted the work which Imagine Education UK is doing in Chennai under the P3DISC Project. The Pudumai Palli Project: Developing Innovative Schools in Chennai (P3DISC) aims to improve the livelihood prospects of students, particularly girls, in socio-economically marginalised urban communities in Chennai by enhancing their 21st century skills, including English, ICT, Enterprise and Leadership skills. Funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the project is currently been implemented as a pilot in 70 secondary schools run by the Corporation of Chennai and impact 70 head teachers, 140 teachers, 560 student leaders and at least 14,000 students over three years.

See short interactions with a few policy makers who had been part of this round table can be seen here and here.

Conference:Special Education Needs

On 27–28 October 2015 the British Council organised the international conference on core skills for all: access and engagement for children with special education needs.The conference aimed to share the experience and expertise of the UK and other countries in this area as well as bring together policy makers and senior practitioners from around the globe to discuss the challenges and opportunities that present themselves in terms of ensuring access and engagement for all.

There were two themes for the conference:

Access and Engagement: This theme explored the latest thinking and research around effective access and engagement for pupils with special educational needs. It challenged participants’ thinking by asking them to reflect on their vision for systemic inclusion and the changes that are necessary in terms of policy, practice and culture.

Empowerment and Enablement: This theme took a forward-looking approach and debated how systems can support the development of an appropriate infrastructure for inclusion. This included a focus on how leaders and practitioners can be supported to respond and adapt to a changing pupil population.

For a detailed background and reading on this conference please click here.

Conference: Focus on Core Skills Pedagogy

On 9 July 2015 British Council along with partner UNESCO organised a conference focusing on the continuous professional development of teachers with the thematic focus on core skills pedagogy in teaching.

The key issues addressed at the conference were:

How may Continuous Professional Development of teachers be improved particularly in the area of teaching core skills?

Why do core skills need to be a key part of the curriculum and how to build teacher capacity to teach them?

How can they be integrated into the curriculum for improved learning outcome for young people?

How can technology be used to address the huge scale of India’s education system for improving teaching quality?

How can learners’ core skills and its teaching quality be assessed?

For a detailed report and executive summary of the conference proceedings download CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS: Focus on Core Skills Pedagogy below.