To mark the visit of the President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto to the UK in 2015, the British Council put together some exciting resources to help you celebrate Mexico and the Spanish language in your school. These include: A colourful PowerPoint presentation about Mexico that can be used in classes or an assembly A story in Spanish and in English by the Latin American Children’s laureate Francisco Hinojosa (who is from Mexico) ‘La Peor Señora del Mundo/The Worst Woman in the World’ Two lesson ideas using the story – a writing activity and a Spanish language activity A creative activity based on the work of Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas, petrol and diesel are continuously burned across the globe to generate electricity, heat buildings, drive industry and power combustion engines in various forms of transport, from cars and trucks, to tractors and ocean liners. As these fossil fuels are burned, they release a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles that are suspended in the air, as well as harmful gases. This course explores the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development – specifically Goal 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Target 11.6 on air pollution. Course materials can be used with or without an overseas partner school, and tips are provided on how best to use the included resources.

These education resources are packed full of exciting ideas and activities from across the curriculum, helping your pupils celebrate Chinese New Year 2021 and the Year of the Ox while home learning. These resources contain information and activities to help teachers and pupils learn more about this important spring festival and explore Chinese culture. Your pupils can read a version of the traditional story of the New Year Race, create shadow puppets of the main characters and make a traditional Chinese lantern. The resources are suitable for primary years and adaptable for early secondary years and older.

Life on Land - Understanding Ecological Interconnectivity Take your class outdoors and find out about minibeasts in your local area as part of this brilliant series of activities exploring ecosystems and the natural world. What can your pupils do to improve biodiversity and safeguard species? This fascinating resource includes a full lesson plan, projects and worksheets suitable for KS1, KS2 and KS3 with differentiated activities and a planning template to assist in delivering the unit, enabling you to easily adapt the unit to suit different age groups and contexts. The resource promotes the importance of life on land and encourages its protection. With a focus on ecology and sustainability, it can be used to teach English, science, geography, maths, citizenship and other subjects. The materials can be used either with or without an overseas partner school. You can share your resource work with us on British Council Schools twitter using hashtag #ConnectingClassrooms This resource has been developed in collaboration with Manchester Museum, a proud part of The University of Manchester. The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme offers fantastic opportunities to work with an international partner school on global topics of climate change, plastic pollution, pandemics, gender equality and many more. Our Local Advisors can help you get your collaboration started with free support, online training and resource packs to make your projects world class. For schools wishing to go the extra mile, there is even partnership funding to make your ideas a reality.

Life Below Water is fourteenth in the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development, focusing on conserving and using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. This template project will help you to support your pupils in tackling plastic pollution while developing their core skills, such as critical thinking and creative collaboration. These materials can be used either with or without a partner school, and instructions are provided on how best to use the resources. NEW! BITE-SIZED ACTIVITIES FOR HOME LEARNING We also offer this resource in bite-sized activity format, perfect for home learning! Investigate how you use plastic in your daily life, make a marine food web and come up with your own ideas by designing an inventive method or machine to tackle the plastic pollution in the ocean. Download now!

This resource is designed to explore the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development. In 1990, one in five people around the world was undernourished. Significant progress has been made, but hunger remains a huge challenge. Although this topic may seem difficult to teach, this resource enables you to focus on progress that has been made and solutions that are proven to work. It supports the development of pupils’ critical thinking by exploring the multiple causes of malnutrition and learning about how to overcome it. It also develops creative collaboration as pupils work in teams to design a mini-project to support better nutrition in their communities. The learning materials can be adapted to the context of each school and the needs of specific pupils. Designed as ten 60 minute lessons for pupils aged 9-13 years, the resource can be used in English, citizenship, geography or other subjects, and can be used with or without an overseas partner school.

Citizenship can be seen as being about a feeling (identity), a status (rights) and a practice (taking action). This unit explores how gender roles and expectations influence identity and rights, and aims to inspire pupils to take action to question norms and dominant masculinities to bring about greater gender equality. Sustainable Development Goal 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The learning materials that have been created may be adapted to the context of each school and the needs of specific students. Some learning activities can be left out in order to enable deeper learning through other activities. Designed as six lessons of sixty minutes each (which include core and optional activities) for pupils aged 9-13 years, the resource can be used in English, citizenship, geography, history or other subjects.

Going to school is no guarantee of learning, as it is estimated that 250 million children worldwide are unable to read, write or count well, even if they have been to school. The education Global Goal for Sustainable Development (SDG) focuses on access to education and inclusive quality education. This resource combines knowledge about this global issue with tasks that focus on pupils’ own schools. By understanding the situation in different parts of the world, pupils gain understanding about their own situation. Use the resource to help pupils make proposals and take action within and beyond their schools. The resource can be adapted for each school, the age of the class, and the needs of specific pupils. The ten lessons of 60 minutes are designed for 7-11 year olds and can be adapted for 11-14 year olds.

This resource will support you in developing students’ core skills through the study of solar electricity. It will also help you explore the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 7 which is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. As the world population rises and many millions continue to move to urban areas, there is a huge increase in the demand for cost effective and reliable modern energy. What are the problems with conventional sources of energy? How could solar energy help to address some of these problems? Using this resource, you will be able to support students to develop their knowledge of renewable energy through cross-curricular activities that span maths, geography, ICT and other subjects. Among the skills that can be acquired through this unit are core skills such as citizenship, critical thinking and problem solving. The resource’s learning materials can be used with or without an international partner school.

It is recognised that there is a need for countries to commit to fundamental changes in the way societies produce and consume goods and services. Pupils can explore the multiple issues relating to unsustainable and irresponsible consumption and production and learn about the solutions that exist to overcome it. They can design and implement a mini-project to support more responsible consumption and production in their communities. The learning materials can be adapted to the context of each school and the needs of specific students. Some learning activities can be left out in order to enable deeper learning through other activities. Ten lessons of 60 minutes each designed for pupils nine to 13 years.

The dramatic increase in population has led greater production of physical waste and carbon emissions to the point where the average person produces 4.2 tonnes of carbon per year. The scale of the problem may appear too large or unsolvable, but it is possible to focus on the progress that has already been made in countries around the world with regard to waste reduction and processing. Pupils can explore the multiple causes of climate change and learn about the approaches that are being taken to mitigate it. Waste management is the principle discussion point in this resource, as it is something that all communities all over the world can change. Pupils can design and implement mini-projects to help reduce personal carbon footprints by considering waste management solutions in local communities. The learning materials can be adapted to each school and the needs of specific students and are designed as ten lessons of 60 minutes each for pupils of nine to 16 years.

Empower pupils to use their voice, express their views, feelings and wishes and to have their opinions taken seriously through a creative process. This resource helps pupils understand what they can contribute to their community.

Our Zero Hunger template project will help you to support the development of your pupils’ core skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and collaboration. Zero Hunger is the second United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, focusing on the causes and potential solutions to hunger across the world.

This template project illustrates how you can support the development of your pupils’ core skills through the study of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities for all.’ You can use the project with a range of subjects across the curriculum including English, social studies, geography and languages. NEW! BITE-SIZED ACTIVITIES FOR HOME LEARNING We also offer this resource in bite-sized activity format, perfect for home learning! Learn Malala’s life story, why some children in the world don’t go to school and plan a campaign to change this with three bite-sized creative activities and challenges. Download now!

Social enterprises trade in order to tackle social problems and improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment. These learning resources have been designed as six lessons for pupils aged 7-14. Guided by their teachers, pupils explore examples of social enterprises started by children and adults around the world. By the end of this learning unit, pupils will have created their own social enterprise project. At the same time, they will develop a range of important core skills: citizenship, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity, imagination and innovation. An engaging way to learn about social enterprises is to get involved in running one and can improve attendance, behaviour, and enthusiasm among pupils.

Our reliance on fossil fuels is making drastic changes to our climate. Nevertheless, renewable energy is becoming increasingly cost effective, particularly in remote areas. One of the creative capacities of the Connecting Classrooms core skills course, creativity and imagination, is ‘envisaging what might be’. The topic of off-grid solar energy offers great potential for students to visualize and design alternative solutions to a range of challenges. These learning materials can be adapted to the context of each school and the needs of specific students. There are five lessons of 60 minutes each designed for pupils aged nine to 13 years.

Support a green classroom and Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG) with 20 climate change challenges: Global warming, pollution, sustainability, environmental issues. This free interactive resource is designed for teachers of / and pupils aged between 7 to 19. Challenges are designed to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 13 (SDG 13), to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. By clicking on each of the challenge icons, pupils will access further instructions and free online supporting materials, such as PowerPoint templates and websites with pre-prepared content including video and interactive online tools to support learning. Teachers and/or students can decide to undertake as many challenges as they feel able to and we encourage sharing these activities across the world via #TheClimateConnection . The climate connection challenges can be undertaken without an international partner school, however the pedagogical benefits of collaborating on school projects across different countries are immense, and we highly recommend that using the resource has an international element, as is the global challenge that we are all facing. If you’d like to find an international partner school to work with on these activities, [here’s some information on how the British Council can help you find your match]https://connecting-classrooms.britishcouncil.org/partner-with-schools/before-find-partner Share your classroom actions with schools from across the world via: #TheClimateConnection

According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, we enter the Year of the Tiger in February 2022. Our Year of the Tiger education pack celebrates Chinese New Year. Featuring activities to help teachers and pupils learn more about this important spring festival and explore Chinese culture, you can learn about the South China tiger, make a kite, and take part in a Chinese language lesson. We’re always thrilled to see photos and videos of you using resources in your school. Share and tag us on our British Council Schools Facebook and Twitter channels using #YearOfTheTiger.