Reciprocal Visits

Is your school linked with Lesotho? Do you want to experience Lesotho first hand?

Dolen Cymru works with the British Council to enable linked schools to exchange teaching staff as part of the DFID Global Schools Partnership (GSP) Scheme.

As part of this unique exchange you will be hosted by a colleague and spend time at the school working upon a joint curricular project around a specific global dimension theme.

NB The Department for International Development are currently looking at different ways to fund links and these grants are no longer available.  We hope to hear soon about the new scheme and will update as soon as we do.

Schools can apply for reciprocal visit grants of £2000 per school, as clusters of two or three schools, to pay for a teacher from each school in Wales and Lesotho to spend at least a week in their link school.

How are we involved

Dolen Cymru facilityates these visits by selecting the schools for each cluster, facilitating communication between the schools here in Wales and in Lesotho, and advising with the completion of the British Council GSP application form.

We also provide briefings for the teachers before the visits, offering support to the teachers pre-departure and during the return visit, arranging travel and hotel accommodation in Lesotho if necessary, booking flights to Lesotho and back, helping Basotho teachers get their passports and visas and conduct an evaluation of each visit.

This is an extraordinary opportunity for all teachers. To get involved please contact us on 02920 497390 or email us at swydffa@dolencymru.org.

I went back to school and I haven't stopped talking about Lesotho! I had a great time too, thanks to all for making it one of the most memorable times of my life.

Rhian Jones, Reciprocal Visit Feb 2009.

The people were so friendly and  generous it really blew me away. It is hard to believe I was still there this time last week. It was a truly amazing experience which I am  sure I’ll repeat, thank you for all you help prior to our departure, couldn’t have done it without you!

Elizabeth Scarlett, Reciprocal Visit Feb 2009