Resources

(Site available in German and French)

Comenius Assistants spend 3 to 10 months living and working in another European country.

The Comenius Assistant programme provides the opportunity to:

• improve the participants’ language skills
• work with experienced teaching staff
• gain an insight into another European education

Comenius Assistants work in schools and colleges across Europe for 12 to 16 hours per week. Placements are flexible from 3 to 10 months.

To be eligible the Comenius Assistant must:

• be a native level speaker of English
• be a UK national or a national of one of the other participating countries ordinarily resident in the UK
• not have been previously employed as a teacher

Academic requirements are one of the following:

• a teaching qualification, although not have yet regularly worked as a teacher
• studying towards a teaching qualification
• a minimum of 2 years of study at higher education level providing access to a career as a teacher in any subject

Language Assistants come from two main sources. They may be an undergraduate on a language degree course fulfilling their year abroad requirement, or an undergraduate or recent graduate of any discipline.

The focus of the role of the English Language Assistant is on bringing English alive for students in other European countries. Foreign Language Assistants plan activities and games using a variety of teaching materials such as photos, travel guides, maps, newspapers, DVDs, CDs and the Internet.

To be an English Language Assistant, the following criteria must be fulfilled:

• be a native level speaker of English
• have completed all of secondary education and at least two years of higher education in the UK
• be a final year student or graduate to apply for a post in China have the requisite language skills

Comenius in-service training grants are available for staff involved in school or further education to job shadow a colleague for up to six weeks in any of the 30 participating European countries

As a UK applicant, the applicant needs to identify the colleague abroad who they wish to job shadow and agree a job shadow plan with that colleague and their institution. The plan might take the form of an email from their colleague setting out briefly what is planned for each day of the visit.
As well as strengthening links between partner institutions, individuals can gain a greater understanding of school education across Europe, enhance their cultural awareness, refresh their language skills and exchange good practice.
From up to 2000 Euro for 1 week, 2500 Euro for 2 weeks and up to a maximum of 3000 Euro for 6 weeks. A higher grant may be awarded where special needs or exceptionally high travel costs are involved.

Comenius Regio is a great opportunity for local authority linking within Europe.

• link up with another European region with the aim of improving the educational offer to young people
• motivate local authority staff and teachers by exchanging best practice and promoting cooperation
• include schools and other players linking to education (eg teacher training, youth groups, vocational educators, community organisations and employers)
• funding of up to 45,000 euros for each region for meetings, teacher exchanges, work shadowing and action research visits over a two-year partnership

A teacher in France can apply for a one year teaching placement in a UK school and receive a salary from their Académie in France. The teaching post is kept available for their return to France. In the UK the Jules Verne teacher has a teaching timetable and attends parent evenings and staff meetings. The host school assists in finding accommodation.

Participer à la vie d’un établissement scolaire étranger Parfaire ses compétences pour s’investir au retour dans l’enseignement des langues à l’école primaire ou d’une discipline non linguistique au collège ou au lycée Contribuer au développement de la politique internationale de son académie, en développant, au retour, des échanges et des partenariats avec le pays étranger

For Primary teachers interested in spending two weeks abroad.

Teachers of languages at Key Stage 2 can apply for visits to Germany, France and Spain as part of the Primary Teachers’ Project.
The Primary Teachers’ Project is a partnership between the British Council and CILT, the National Centre for Languages, which offers primary teachers the chance to spend two weeks abroad to improve their language and pedagogical skills and to gain a greater cultural understanding of the country.
After a week of intensive language and methodology support, teachers will have the chance to have a week of work shadowing in a primary school.
Primary teachers are eligible for EU Comenius funding of up to 2,500 Euros to pay for travel and subsistence. A supply cover contribution of up to £525 is also available to support the UK school during the week of term when the teacher will be abroad.

In line with the aims of the 3^rd medium term programme, “Empowering Language Professionals”, the project involves a contribution to intercultural dialogue through mobility experiences of future teachers, and the transmission of these experiences in their own teaching practice. The project is situated in the second thematic area, “Continuity in language learning”. Since the project enables the creation of a network of teacher trainers and teachers responsible for mobility programmes in primary and secondary school, who often work in discrete institutional contexts, it also contributes to the strengthening of professional networks (objective 2).

To pool expertise and create further synergies, the ECML and the project team are seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives working in the domain of mobility, in specific the European Commission.

.

The project is closely related to current work on plurilingual and intercultural education at the Language Policy Division in Strasbourg: the Platform of resources and references 
for plurilingual and intercultural education (//www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/langeduc/le_platformintro_EN.asp?), the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters and the European Language Portfolio.

Since mobility requires complex organization and implies numerous partners, the establishment of links with the respective national coordinators would prove useful for all project members.