Schools 4 Schools

Schools 4 Schools aims to forge lasting partnerships between schools in the UK and the developing world.  We encourage students to educate themselves and each other about issues of international development, inspiring and equipping them to work together to create sustainable, enduring change.

Schools 4 Schools is a unique development programme.  Its multiple objectives encourage young people to play an active role in the global community and to take action against poverty through:

Education

Interactive modules are designed to make poverty, inequality and other issues facing people in the developing world immediate and relevant to students in the UK. They go beyond the statistics and explore how these affect their peers.

Partnership

Interactive online facilities for students and schools involved in the programme will offer:s

• Information and educational material on development issues;
• A forum for developing relationships between school communities in South Africa and the UK;
• Video diaries from Africa, competitions and other materials.

Regular exchange of letters, emails, video diaries and blogs will occur between the UK schools and their South African partner school facilitated by a graduate from the South African partner school and the team at Oaktree UK.

Exchange

A Partner Schools Exchange for UK and South African students which builds genuine relationships between the students completes the programme.

Fundraising

Schools raise money to support the GOLD Peer Education Programme in their partner school in South Africa.

July 2009 saw three students from Magdalen College School and St Gregory the Great, both in Oxford, set out to kwaZuluNatal, South Africa to visit their partner schools for the first time.  They took with them Oaktree UK’s volunteer film director Alex Palmer, and together created a short-film documenting their experiences.  These three students will be pioneering the Schools 4 Schools Programme in their school from September 2009.

To read about their experiences, visit the Summer in SA blog.