Every May,
over 600 000 students
in more than 5 500 schools take part in The Big Challenge, a popular English language contest.
Over 20 000 English teachers across France, Germany and Spain
register their students to take part in this annual event and the enthusiasm generated has created a new kind of motivation among students.
Today,
we believe that this type of fun, educational activity
combined with modern communication tools will motivate young people even more.
We have developed The Big Challenge Club,
a new online pen pal club
, to give students the opportunity to
practise the languages
they are learning outside the classroom.
As parents and teachers, our first concern when creating the Club was the question of safety for members. How can we be sure that the teachers and students who wish to sign up are legitimate and how can we keep “undesirable” elements out?
To ensure maximum safety on the site, we have created a transparent registration system for teachers and students coupled with a teacher approval process for students wishing to register.
1) No teacher registering in the Club can appear on the site until he or she is affiliated with a school. Once registered, the teacher’s name will appear on the school profile page for all to see. That way, anyone visiting the site, member or non-member, including parents who are reading this information, can see the teacher’s profile and report any discrepancy.
2) Once registered, teachers cannot contact other Club members until they have registered at least one class in the school and that class has been validated by the Club team. From that moment on, the names of the teacher and the class appear on the school profile page. That way, anyone visiting the site as a member or non-member, including parents who are reading this information, can see the teacher and class and report any discrepancy.
3) All students appear on the site using a pseudonym or user name. They cannot contact other Club members until they have been accepted by their teacher in their own class and school. From that moment on, the student will appear on the class page. That way, any members who consult the page, in particular the students and teacher of the class, will be able to see the student and report any discrepancy.
No information required to register (email, first name, birth date) will be visible to other members of the Club. However, for security reasons, first names will be visible to the student's teacher and to the other students in his or her class. All message exchanges will take place within the Club’s internal message service and no personal email addresses will be visible.
Teachers
Teachers may register themselves and their classes free of charge.
Each language teacher will register one or several classes.
When registering, the teacher will indicate the name of the class, the number of students, the language they are learning, their language level …
Along with a short text describing the class.
Once the class has been registered, the teacher, using various criteria, can start looking for partner classes around the world to develop exchanges and projects in the language he or she is teaching, taking advantage of all the pedagogical activities that will be developed and made available on the Club site.
Finally, students can join their class and be allowed to participate in student activities that will be developed and proposed by the Club.
Students
Students may also register free of charge.
Each student can register and join his or her school and class.
Once their registration request has been accepted by their teacher, students can participate in all of the class activities and exchanges organised with other classes. They can also take advantage of other activities which will be developed by the Club and made available to teachers.