Olympic Dreams come alive in London
It’s fair to say the World Class team haven’t had much sleep over the last couple of weeks. After spending six months working on the Olympic Dreams project, just one weekend event would prove whether the project would set off faster than Usain Bolt at the starting blocks or belly flop like a badly executed dive.
With 140 people representing 89 schools from 17 different countries in one room, anything could happen.
The schools arrived in London on Friday and were greeted by British Council representatives. When everyone came together in the evening and met their partners for the first time there was a great buzz.
Teachers and students had travelled from all over the world and a range of timezones. At 7pm in London, it was 1am for the Indian Schools, 3am for the Chinese schools and 12pm for the American schools. From the first evening it was clear that it would be a weekend to remember.
The event at the British Museum kicked off with a video message from four-time Olympic gold medallist and face of World Olympic Dreams Matthew Pinsent.
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The weekend was jam-packed full of activities giving teachers and pupils the opportunity to shape and plan their partnership. It was the BBC’s chance to talk to them about becoming journalists and film makers to tell their school's stories. It was the schools' opportunity to get a crash course in international partnerships from the British Council. How did we manage it?
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At the end of the event, UK schools invited the athletes'schools to return with them for a visit.
Over the next 18 months we’ll be working with the network of schools to help develop their partnerships and tell the stories of their journey to 2012. We want your school to twin for 2012 - find out more at World Class
Comment number 1.
At 16:42 21st Jan 2011, Jane Orr wrote:What a great weekend it was ... but exhausting! My partner from Loktak Christian Mission School in India came back to Northern Ireland with me and visited our primary school. He received a great welcome from staff and pupils alike. He visited classes, spoke to the pupils and watched some lessons. He told us how proud he was to be able to return to India having seen the "smiling eyes" of our children.
After a morning in class we visited some local tourist attractions (Giant's Causeway). I think the very cold weather was not what my guest was used to, but the sun shone brightly and he enjoyed the sightseeing.
As we travelled back to the airport on Wednesday morning, he talked about how our friendship would grow over the coming years and how happy he was to be linked with our school. We are excited to be starting out on our Olympic Dreams journey together.
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