Discover Britain: the Power of Partnership
Are you a year 8, 9, 10 or 11 student at a Pearson Partner School? Would you like to study English in the United Kingdom in summer 2018? As a thank you to our partners and to celebrate the links between the UK and Ukraine, Pearson, Dinternal Education and Alekom Education are offering a fully-funded trip for one student to spend two weeks at Queen Anne’s School in Reading. The grand prize, valued at €2,500, includes visas, return flights, full-board accommodation, excursions to places like Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace and English classes, all arranged and sponsored by Alekom Education.
When?
December 20th 2017 – 5pm March 31st 2018.
What can I win?
1st Prize
Two weeks as part of an Alekom Education group at a residential summer school at Queen Anne’s in Caversham, Reading for one student.
2nd Prize
One class set (maximum of 15 student books + MyEnglishLab or workbook) for the winning student’s school plus a 2,000UAH voucher for the student to be spent at Dinternal Education.
3rd Prize
1,500UAH vouchers to be spent at Dinternal Education for both the winning student and his/her class teacher.
4th Prize
1,000UAH vouchers to be spent at Dinternal Education for both the winning student and his/her class teacher.
How do I take part?
It really is simple! Make a video of no more than two minutes long explaining why your hometown here in Ukraine would make an ideal sister city for Reading in the UK. To win the prize, you’ll need to impress our expert judges with your creativity, presentation skills, pronunciation, persuasiveness and your ability to talk in English about all the things Reading has in common with the place you’re from. If you’ve never heard of town twinning, start by thinking about the sister cities your hometown already has. What makes a good sister city? Why would your hometown be the best choice for Reading?
Our judges have been chosen not just for their experience as English teachers but also for their connections to places already twinned with Ukrainian cities, so we have people from Rochdale (twinned with Lviv) and Liverpool (twinned with Odesa) and someone who lives and works in Edinburgh (twinned with Kyiv).
As you’re a student at a Pearson Partner School, you already have lots of great authentic language to use from the Pearson books you work with in class. We’ll also give you more example videos made by Dinternal Education staff and tips on how you can make your entry really stand out. However, the final effort will be completely up to you. The judges will be looking for creative, enthusiastic and passionate students. Everything should be in English, of course.
Once you’ve finished your entry, upload it to YouTube as a private video and send us the link by completing the form. You can read here how to set up privacy to your video. If you do not have a YouTube account, you can use www.dropmefiles.com instead (guideline).
You can always call us on 0504185864 if you have any problems uploading your video.
Remember to complete the application form below otherwise your video will not be judged.
Remember to read the competition rules first and make sure your video isn’t any longer than two minutes. The competition starts on December 20th and finishes on March 31st. On April 1st, our judges will get together to choose the first, second, third and fourth prize winners. We’ll announce the results on our Pearson Ukraine and Dinternal websites plus Facebook by 5pm on Wednesday April 4th 2018.
Everyone who enters will receive a thank you card from the judges as an extra reward for your efforts.
Our colleague Oksana Tomashenko has kindly agreed to shoot a sample video for the competiton. You can watch it here and read Michael's comments and suggestions below.
Who can enter?
The competition is open to any student currently in a year 8, 9, 10 or 11 class at a Pearson Partner School, which means your school needs to have signed a partnership agreement with Pearson before the competition opens on December 20th 2017.
Any questions?
You can contact our Customer Care Department 050 410 4146; 044 569 8850
What is town twinning?
Town twinning is the partnership of towns, cities (sometimes called sister cities) and villages in different countries to create links and friendships between citizens from nations all around the world.
MoreThe process often pairs cities that share common characteristics such as the same names - Newcastle in the UK is twinned with Newcastle in Australia, for instance – similar histories, or cultural connections.
Towns and cities that twin together make connections that encourage cultural exchanges, trade agreements and business partnerships. The world’s first official twin towns were Klagenfurt in Austria and Weisbaden in Germany in 1930, while one of the earliest examples of a partnership between cities on different continents actually involved Ukraine – Odesa twinning with Vancouver in Canada as early as 1944.
Ukraine’s Links to the UK
Did you know that the Ukrainian and British staff at Pearson and Dinternal Education continue a link between the two countries that goes back exactly 1,000 years! In 1017, Edward and Edmund, the two sons of King Edmund II were sent to Kyiv when the Danish King Canute invaded England. Later that same century, Volodymyr Monomakh, a grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, is said to have married King Harold II’s daughter Gytha. Their son, Mstislav the Great, became Grand Prince of Kyiv and the last ruler of the united Kyivan Rus’.
MoreThe first twinning agreements between Ukraine and the UK took place in 1956 when Odesa linked with Liverpool and Donetsk to Sheffield. Two years later, Luhansk twinned with Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Since then, twinning agreements have been signed between Yalta and Margate, Kyiv and Edinburgh, Horlivka and Barnsley, Lviv and Rochdale, Stryi and Mansfield, Uman and Milford Haven, Vinnytsia and Peterborough and Birmingham and Zaphorizhia.
Many of these twinning arrangements are based on links between people, similar characteristics or shared industries. For instance, Donetsk’s twin Sheffield is famous for its steelworks, coalmines and football teams. If you visit Sheffield today, you can travel to Donetsk Way, one of the 48 stations on the city’s tram network. Another English coalmining town, Barnsley, officially partnered with Horlivka after miners from the English town visited Ukraine in 1956, 1972 and 1984. People from Odesa’s British twin town, Liverpool, are famous for their sense of humour.
Town twinning can bring lasting benefits to people from both cities. Luhansk and Cardiff’s connection resulted in teachers from Cardiff Metropolitan University working in Ukraine. In Rochdale, Lviv Bridge celebrates a partnership signed between the two cities in 1992. Likewise, students from Milford Haven and Uman have had the opportunity to travel abroad, get to know a new culture, develop their language skills and contribute to the culture and economy of their hometowns.
Reading in Brief
Reading is 68km west of London and 40km south of Oxford on the banks of the River Thames. Founded in the 8th century, it now has a population of 162,000 people and is most famous for its music festival, football team and university, which opened in 1892 as an affiliate of Oxford University. Microsoft and Ericsson are just two of the technology companies with offices in the town.
Jane Austen went to school in Reading and both Kate Middleton, the current Duchess of Cambridge, and the Oscar winning actress Kate Winslett were born there. Its most famous attraction, Reading Abbey, was built in 1121 on the orders of King Henry II, who was buried there when he died.
Together we do more.
That’s a message all of us at Dinternal Education passionately believe in. That’s why we started our company 20 years ago as a partnership between the United Kingdom and Ukraine. It’s why we strive to always provide the very best service in everything we do. It’s why we organise more training events and conferences for teachers than any other publisher in Ukraine. And it’s why Pearson and Dinternal Education remain the market leaders in English-language teaching resources nationwide.
Through our network of Pearson Partner Schools, we provide a guarantee of quality to teachers, students and parents. Not just the very best resources for learning but the very best opportunities too. We’ve spent years taking native speakers into Ukrainian classrooms to give students real life exposure to the language – now we and our partners Alekom Education are providing a very special opportunity for one Ukrainian student to spend time in the UK itself.
Good luck!
Sean Harty,
Founder and Managing Director of Dinternal Education
True language acquisition is best obtained when students have the chance to really immerse themselves into the culture. This gives them a true sense of how to use their language skills as they interact daily with native speakers in a natural setting. Alekom Education provides these opportunities to our students every year using top-quality schools in the UK and all over the world. We choose only the very best places for students to truly develop their English language abilities.
This year we wanted to provide this unforgettable experience to one lucky student, who will win a two-week, all-travel-and-study expenses paid trip to our premier educational institution, Queen Anne’s School in the UK. Queen Anne’s has a beautiful campus and offers the classic English experience with trips to London, Oxford and Windsor. The trip, including visa costs, the flight, accommodation and tuition is fully sponsored by Alekom Education.
Maria Lunyak,
Director of Alekom Education
The trip is sponsored by Alekom Education Abroad
Alekom Education Abroad is the leader in the organisation of educational study programmes for groups of juniors. We have 15 years’ experience and send more than 40 groups to different countries all over the world every year. With our long history, we know exactly how to make every tour a complete success. We will always help you to choose and enter the right programme, school or university for you. Our main aim is to always provide the very best quality in whatever we do.
As well as partnering with the very best schools and universities in Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the USA, Canada, Malta, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and other destinations, we are also regular participants at international conferences about education abroad. We have attended ALPHE, ICEF, FEDEL and IALC in London, Berlin, Miami, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Auckland, Palermo, Barcelona, Lisbon and various other places.
Good luck and thanks for taking part!
Aaron Fearnley comes from Rochdale, a town in the north-west of England. He studied Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Central Lancashire and then did his CELTA at the Manchester Academy of English.
Since 2012, he has taught English in Britain, Hong Kong and Spain and travelled to four different continents. "I know from my own experience that English is a vital global language nowadays and I'm passionate about passing on my knowledge
to give students the best chance to succeed."
Monika Sherry was born in Wroclaw, Poland but now lives and works in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. She worked for IBM in Bratislava and has taught English and Polish for a total of eight years, completing the
CELTA while teaching in Paris. Her students have included film stars and workers from Chanel, Hermes and BNP Paribas bank. She loves reading, travelling and learning about new cultures.
