Starter activities

Once you have agreed to work with a school in another country, one of your first questions will
be ‘How shall we get started?’ A good first activity will capture learners’ interest and can be
used to find out what they already know and think about each other. You can then use these
starting points to evaluate your work. For example, you could repeat your starter activity later, to
see how learners’ responses have changed.

Self-portraits and class portrait

Learners illustrate a ‘three wishes’ portrait of themselves, by including:
• four words which describe me are…
• a wish for myself, my country/community and for the world.
The learners’ portraits can be compiled as a class portrait and exchanged.

A country web
Learners draw a web of their ideas about their new partner’s country and exchange this. Each
school then comments on the web about their country. Is it accurate? What has been missed
out?

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The 10/10/10 strategy
At the beginning, learners are told only the name of the country that they are going to be
working with. Then, in groups, they come up with:
a) ten questions they would like to ask their counterparts
b) ten points of information about themselves that they would like their counterparts to know
about them, and
c) ten rights which they feel every child or young person should have

Each group is then asked to contribute one question from list a), with the other groups agreeing
or not as to whether the question should go in the first list of ten questions. Any not agreed can
be sent at a later date.

Co-ordinate the exchange of list b) so that ten points of information are sent before you receive
any questions or information from your partner school.

Thanks to Humanities Education Centre, Tower Hamlets, for permission to use this activity.

100 words
Learners identify 100 words that capture the essence of their culture and language and present
these to international partners in a short play or story. Provide a 100-word translation dictionary,
if necessary.

Images of my country or community Images of other people and places

Learners choose ten images of their country
or local community. The images can be
obtained by learners:
• taking photographs locally
• illustrating their own set of images
• selecting images from magazines,
newspapers or the internet.
Exchange the ten images, explaining why
each has been chosen. Invite comments on
the selection, including any that:
• convey similarities between learners’
lives
• convey differences between learners’
lives
• need further explanation
• are surprising.
Compile a selection of photographs of the
country that you are going to be working
with. Present these to learners and ask
them to address questions such as:
• Where do you think this is?
• What is the weather like?
• What do people do for a living?
• What are the people like?
• Where does their food come from?
Encourage deeper thinking by asking
probing questions such as:
• Is this always the case?
• Does everyone agree? If not, why
not?
• Where do our ideas come from?

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Thanks to Cumbria Development Education Centre (www.cdec.org.uk) for permission to use these activities.

Where is this place?

Ask groups of learners to decide which country or countries are being described below. After
sharing responses, tell them that all the cards are describing England. These descriptions are
from young people in Kenya and Greece before they worked with schools in England. The
statements were made by: A. Kenyan girls; B. Greek boys; C. Kenyan boys; and D. Greek girls.

 Cut these cards into a set

A B
They eat frogs and snakes There are big forests
There are no pickpockets They have large roads
There are no black people They have beautiful
Guns come from there coins
They have very tall
mountains
C D
Their policemen wear There are lots of old
red and black uniforms things
They live in flats They have a nice
There are many climate
factories There are many shops
There are lots of It has a large
churches and hospitals population
The people speak a beautiful language

Talk about the inaccuracies of some of these views and where these might have come from.
Now place each of the ideas listed on a chart with three columns, indicating the ideas that
learners:
• think do describe England, e.g. they have large roads
• think do not describe England, e.g. their policemen wear red and black uniforms
• are not sure about.
Talk about any inaccuracies that we might have of others or others might have about us,
including the country that we are about to start working with.

Thanks to Leeds Development Education Centre (www.leedsdec.org.uk) for permission to use this activity from
Speaking for Ourselves, Listening to Others (1996).

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 Share your ideas about good starter activities for new international work.
Discuss ways of:

• avoiding or questioning stereotyped views of other people and places

• ensuring that the emphasis is not on what one school is lacking when
work takes place between rich and poor schools, e.g. they don’t have
books or electricity.

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educational purposes. Contact copyright holders for other usage (schools@britishcouncil.org) © Copyright British
Council 2020.

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