Elephants are the earth’s largest land animals, but these amazing creatures are an endangered species. There are currently at least ten African elephants for every one Asian elephant in the wild. The main reason that Asian elephant numbers to drop by 50 per cent in the last 100 years is a massive loss of habitat, and they are disappearing from areas where they once thrived. In Vietnam the number of wild elephants declined from approximately 1,000 in 1990, to fewer than 100 in 2002. The focus of this resource is on Asian elephants. It includes background information, discussion points and activities to inspire learning across the curriculum and a call to action to help protect this endangered species. The activities can be used as starting points in individual lessons or as part of a joint cross-curricular project to develop knowledge, transferable skills and reflections in your classrooms or with a partner school in your country or overseas.

This resource from the British Council and the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) will help you explore the Arab world with students aged 11 -16, providing accurate information and challenging misconceptions, raising critical questions and informing debate. The resource will help students find out about the history, geography, culture and language of the Arab world in the past and present. About the Learning About the Arab World Education Packs The Arab world is a fascinating, diverse region stretching from south-west Asia to north-west Africa. It has an immensely rich culture and history but it is often misperceived, giving rise to inaccuracies and stereotypes. Tackling prejudice and combatting confusion is central to the work of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu). It contains two sections: Learning About the Arab World and Stereotypes and Islamophobia. Each part has background information for teachers, a slideshow with detailed notes, questions for students to think and talk about and activities.

India is a fascinating country with an immensely rich and vibrant culture. It has a growing economy, and a history stretching back thousands of years,a diverse mix of languages and religions. This education pack is designed to help mainstream primary teachers introduce aspects of Indian language and culture to their pupils aged 7-11. It contains lesson and assembly plans, factual information and resources to help pupils improve their core skills and develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the language and culture of India. The materials are designed to be flexible and adaptable for use in a variety of settings. They can be used as starting points for individual lessons and assemblies or form part of larger cross-curricular joint projects involving collaboration with a partner school over a number of subjects. Your pupils can learn how to greet a friend in Hindi, get creative making rangoli patterns and shadow puppets, watch an animated film by an Indian film maker and find out about many other aspects of Indian culture using our wide range of classroom resources and activities.

Help children and teens process news sources and become informed media users and creators with our free Media Literacy pack created with editorial support from BBC Young Reporter.

Russia is a fascinating, diverse country stretching over two continents with a rich culture and history. This education pack helps primary teachers to introduce some aspects of Russian language and culture to their pupils. It contains lessons and assembly plans, factual information and resources to help pupils develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the rich language and culture of Russia and the lives of young Russians. Your pupils can learn how to greet a friend in Russian and start to decode its unfamiliar alphabet, find out about Russia’s exciting contribution to our understanding of space and make a balloon rocket. You can also sample its rich literary heritage and get to know about daily life in Russia from some of its young people. The materials are designed to be flexible and adaptable for use in a variety of settings. They can be used as starting points for individual lessons and assemblies or form part of larger cross-curricular joint projects involving collaboration over a number of subjects. Instructions to use the PDF and activate the sound files: download and save the PDF to your computer. Open the PDF and select ‘Preferences’ from the ‘Edit’ menu. Select ‘3D and MultiMedia Options’ and tick the box ‘Enable playing of 3D content’ followed by ‘OK’. In some browsers a yellow bar at the top of the PDF page will also display providing two options: select option ‘Trust this document always’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

The focus of this unit is on how social entrepreneurs have built enterprises which make a profit, but which contribute to improving the lives of vulnerable communities around the world. It contains case studies of social enterprises, photographs of the people they work with and inspiring stories of how their lives have been changed. Your pupils will learn how social enterprises address the Sustainable Goals. How do you establish a social enterprise and what does it take to turn your idea into a reality? These materials can be used with a partner school or without one, and instructions are provided on how to best use the resources.

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.