The British Council in Singapore has been involved in large scale in-service training for the Ministry of Education for many years, but recently the two parties have developed a new and complementary partnering approach which allows for deeper, more sustained engagement with primary and secondary school teachers. 

Client, stakeholders, partners

• Ministry of Education, Singapore
• Primary and secondary schools in Singapore

Focus
Teacher development through school partnerships

The project
The British Council in Singapore has been involved in large scale in-service training for the Ministry of Education for many years, but recently the two parties have developed a new and complementary partnering approach which allows for deeper, more sustained engagement with primary and secondary school teachers. This helps to turn training into lasting development.

The first programmes (known as Niches of Excellence) were set up in collaboration with the Curriculum Policy and Development Division of the Ministry and involved three phases, usually lasting a full academic year:

• Phase i: research and data gathering
• Phase ii: training interventions
• Phase iii: sustainability planning and evaluation.

This approach has now evolved into Teacher Development Partnerships, which are agreed with individual schools. The main features and benefits of the approach have remained. The British Council spends a lot of time understanding the needs of the school and of teachers in the area of English language teaching and learning. We offer consultancy and deliver tailor-made training courses and we follow this up with partnerships between experienced British Council teachers and their Singaporean counterparts, where we offer lesson observations, feedback and coaching on a one-to-one basis. We also offer selected staff from the schools training in Coaching, Counselling and Mentoring so that the transformation can be sustained and renewed long after the initial project has finished.

As a result, hundreds of teachers in Singapore have been offered customised training and development opportunities with the rare opportunity of individual coaching. The partnership approach builds strong and lasting relationships between the British Council and Singapore schools as we pursue a common goal of excellence in teaching.

What the stakeholders say

• "Very insightful, very systematic, a good balance of methods and approaches. I definitely recommend this [programme] to other teachers." A primary school teacher
• "We got the best ‘O' level exam results in ten years ... the [British Council] programme was instrumental in this." Secondary school head of department
• "Great session - many creative and interesting games and activities. Thank you for putting so much effort in these lessons." Secondary school teacher
• "Our teachers are now fired up. It was a worthwhile investment which has had a lasting impact on the school." Secondary school head of department

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