91Èȱ¬

The 91Èȱ¬ and British Council today announced the 45 winning schools for the Olympic Dreams School Search 2012, a search that was launched back in September for dozens of primary and secondary schools across the UK to twin with schools all over the world and take part in a special project in the run-up to the London Olympics in 2012.

Winners include: Ballykeel Primary, Ballymena, Northern Ireland, twinned with Indian female boxer MC Mary Kom's old school, Loktak Christian Model High School; Ysgol Bryn Alyn, Wrexham, twinned with American gymnastics star Shawn Johnson's former school, Valley Southwoods Freshman High in West Des Moines, Iowa, USA; Baltasound Junior High, Shetland, twinned with British basketball star, Luol Deng's former school, St Mary's Catholic High in Croydon; and The Orion Primary School, London, twinned with Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt's primary school, Waldensia Primary School, Jamaica. A full list of winners can be found at bbc.co.uk/worldclass.

Over the next two years the project will support teachers in developing school-to-school partnerships and encourage pupils to share creative work inspired by the London Olympics withÌýthe organisations'Ìýglobal audiences. The British Council – which connects classrooms in the UK with schools around the world – has partnered the winners with schools attended by athletes from around the world, who are part of the 91Èȱ¬'s World Olympic Dreams project.

Every winning school has been invited to send a teacher to a special conference, Olympic Dreams Live, held at the British Museum, London on 15 and 16 January 2011, where they will meet teachers from the athletes' schools to start their twinning journey.ÌýSecondary schools have also been invited to send one pupil.
Ìý
The winning schools will also follow the stories of Olympic athletes with their twin schools.

Working with the 91Èȱ¬ World Class team, schools will be able to share and compare ideas and experiences online and, on occasion, in the 91Èȱ¬'s World Olympic Dreams broadcasts. The British Council will support them to work with their twin schools and develop their partnerships throughout the lifetime of the project.
Ìý
All the athletes featured can be found on the .ÌýThe schools they attended can also be found on the .
ÌýÌý
Amanda Farnsworth, 91Èȱ¬ London 2012 Project Executive, said: "This is the beginning of an exciting global conversation between schools right across the UK and our World Olympic Dreams athletes' schools from every continent across the world.Ìý

"We were very much impressed by all the entries to the competition and inspired by the dreams of young people. Their enthusiasm to follow our athletes and their schools is the start of a journey which we hope will involve every school in the UK."

Vicky Gough, from the British Council's Connecting Classrooms team, who helped judge the competition said: "We were really impressed by the standard of entries and choosing the winners was hard work.

"This is just the beginning, though, and we hope that this will be the start of long, fruitful relationships between the schools in the UK and their new international friends.

"School linking is a great way of building trust and understanding between people in different parts of the world and helping children to become global citizens, so everyone can look forward to many benefits. And the values, energy and excitement of the London 2012 Olympics are a wonderful way to bring schools together around the world."

To enter, schools were asked to provide a response to the following requests:
ÌýÌý
World – We want teachers to tell us why their school wants to twin and to send us questions from the pupils that they would like another school to answer.

Olympic – We want teachers to tell us what the Olympic Games mean to their school and to send us questions that their pupils would like to ask Olympic athletes.

Dreams – We want teachers to tell us about the aspirations of their pupils, and to send us creative work from pupils sharing their hopes and dreams.

Everyone's a winner!

All schools which signed up for the Olympic Dreams School Search will receive a special poster featuring pupils at Usain Bolt's secondary school in Jamaica, and will also be given support to set up their own international school partnership by the British Council schools team.Ìý

The British Council team will be contacting everyone to get the process underway before the end of the year.

91Èȱ¬ World Class will be building up to 2012 with twinning schools – keep in touch with the story via our website.

Everyone's welcome and you can visit bbc.co.uk/worldclass to find out how to twin your school and get involved.

SB4