Winners take it all: Participants of the Dreams and Teams project

Sunil Singh’s experience at the Dreams and Teams project for leadership in youth was a special one. As head of the department of physical education at Heritage School in Calcutta, he was extremely impressed that a new concept in inspiring youth was being promoted. “It was a new way of learning several skills,” he says. Organised in January 2007 by the British Council in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust as part of a global initiative to develop young leaders and responsible citizens around the world, the Dreams and Teams project is currently running successfully in more than 40 countries across the globe.

“The philosophy behind Dreams and Teams is about constantly challenging assumptions, beliefs and behaviours, building international awareness and cultural tolerance,” explains Marina Gandhi, head of Education-UK of the British Council, East India. Gandhi stresses that the Dreams and Teams project fosters a spirit of teamwork and cultural awareness in youngsters. “Students really appreciated an opportunity to meet their classmates from other regions and our programme in Calcutta was so successful that teachers wanted an extended session,” she reveals. The Youth Sport Trust is a British trust for helping young people to become involved in sport. It is a national charity that was established in 1994 by John Beckwith, who wanted all young people to receive a quality introduction to sport. The key individual who drove the organisation in its formative years was Sue Campbell, now chair of UK Sport.

“The Trust develops and implements, in close partnership with other organisations, quality physical education and sport programmes for all young people, aged 18 months to 18 years, in schools and communities. Key features of the programmes are illustrated resource cards, child-friendly equipment and quality training for teachers and deliverers. All the programmes can be accessed by young disabled people.

“Personally, I feel that this a very enriching project to build the skills of leadership, team work and interpersonal relationships among students globally,” says Pradipta Chatterjee, principal, ADLS Sunshine School, Jamshedpur. “As far as taking it ahead is concerned, plans have been made to initiate training for students and teachers of other schools of Jamshedpur,” she adds.

“The Youth Sport Trust has developed an international strategy for school-linking work, and young leaders and teachers will be chosen to participate in and coordinate the programmes initiated,” says a press release of the Youth Sport Trust.

“This aspect of Youth Sport Trust is special because of its international links and cross-cultural dimension,” says Mrigank Mouli Mukherjee, manager, Schools at British Council, East India. “Sport provides a platform for young people in different countries to explore issues relating to fair play, equity, inclusion, religion, ethics, global communication and other aspects,” he explains.

Gregory Bowen, an English teacher at Future Hope School in Calcutta, who participated in the workshop, says that the aims of the Dreams and Teams project are laudable and could make the world a better place for children. “The workshop has given me lots of ideas on how to make children smile and that is indeed what they should be doing all the time,” he asserts.

Bowen mentions that students who are trained under the project would be in a position to train others and thus impart the skills imbibed. “We are considering a scheme whereby students from our schools would teach rugby to students of other schools and the modalities are being worked out,” he says. The programme can also be extended to include arts and drama to forward networking aims.

Dreams and Teams leaders are encouraged to think globally and act locally. “From the British perspective, the project offers the opportunity to enhance the international dimension of the school curriculum and this can deliver benefits to schools through sharing of knowledge. We hope that more school partnerships will develop over time,” adds Gandhi. “The programme in India involved two students each from 10 schools and we are glad that we’re able to organise this workshop since it had been on the anvil for the past two years,” she states.

“The Dreams and Teams project is extremely effective for honing good management skills, and students would be able to exercise these in useful and appropriate community service projects,” says Sunil Singh. “The Dreams and Teams project will be evaluated by the British Council after three months and the schools could contact us in case they need help,” says Mukherjee. There are also tentative plans to facilitate the training of selected Indian teachers in UK under the aegis of the Dreams and Teams project. “The idea is to mould global citizens and the students who participate in this project could be tomorrow’s leaders,” notes Mukherjee.