International Schools Award

China Project

20.06.2008  Stephanie Walsh at Derbyshire County Council initial contact to get in touch with a school in China

14.07.2008 China meeting DCC/British Coucil/School reps Met Richard French who explained funding opportunities, projects etc. Met other teachers from the County who were arranging China visits

06.10.2008 China meeting at County Allocated Kong Jiang Middle School Put together a school brochure and a few basic details about Bolsover school to make initial email - liaise with BC

Started application process for £1000 for initial visit

16.01.2009 First email from Jie Yang in Shanghai

13.07.2009 Meeting at County Slow progression on application finding it difficult to raise sponsorship and interest in the trip. Application needs to be more detailed and must pin down an actual date of travel which is difficult due to staffing cover at Bolsover.

17.07.2009 Funding fully approved

10.03.2009 letters to Chinese Embassy - no reply

Pizza Hut £10 voucher donation ; Mars None; Wing Yip None; HP Foods None; Knorr None; McDonalds None; Sainsbury None; Morrisons None

The Companies I have approached for funding or supporting a hardship case has been fruitless because these Companies already have allocated charities they support.

11.06.2009  Joined Airmiles - We can use airmiles to dramatically reduce the price of the flight but we need to be co-ordinated in collecting the miles and booking. Will not be easy so will launch this after the initial visit. Mr Inglis has approved in principal

12.02.2009 email from Liting Zhang from BC in Shanghai just to make sure that we are still communicating. We have not been very regular but we are still talking.

27.04.2009 Finally heard back from Jie. Starting to get a better idea of what they require from our link. They wish to improve their pupils english skills and to learn from us some of the teaching and learning activities we use and how this enhances the curriculum.

14.05.2009 Have managed to find 4 pupils to start an email pen pal. The only issue is keeping track of the correspondence. Have introduced some speaking and writing of mandarin to these pupils.

09.10.2009 The pen pals is not really consistent at the moment. Will look into elanguages to enhance this, have finally agreed the visit to be around 5th April 2010

09.11.2009 elanguages course attended

Applied for £700 grant from Yangpu Round 2

Jan 2010 British Council have sent various emails about travelling, completing the action plan template, swine flu information,etc.

12.02.2010 Attended the HSBC/ British Council seminar in London. Very good to discuss projects and to find out about how to develop the links in future years. Good networking to other UK schools.

15.03.2010 Jie has confirmed our hotel is booked and that she will collect us on the Tuesday 6th April Liting Zhang has also confirmed  and sent a copy of documents that will need signing on our trip.