Next year's Olympics

So we can now say the London Olympics are "next year". Last time on this blog I was kicking round thoughts about how we translate that into a sharper sense of anticipation - not necessarily now but by the start of 2012. And this weekend, happily, gives us an example of how we can try to spread the Olympic spirit.

For a while we've been running a project called World Class - a partnership between the BBC and the British Council. One of its big ideas is twinning schools from the UK with counterparts across the world, and last autumn we launched on BBC Breakfast a competition with a prize of links to the schools of our World Olympic Dreams athletes. So Chasetown Sports College in Burntwood, West Midlands, has found itself twinned with Shawn Johnson's school Valley High - which is a bit further west in Des Moines, Iowa; and Calderglen High School in East Kilbride earned a connection to Merlyn Diamond's school Jan Mohr High in Namibia. Overall more than 1500 UK schools registered their interest.

The floodlights at the Olympic Stadium, turned on December 2010. Photo: AFP

All of which is jolly good in terms of developing school partnerships, sharing creative work and turning into reality some of the promises about inspiring the youth of the world through London 2012. But how much better would it be if the electronic and virtual relationships could be translated into actual visits and human encounters? We're about to find out.

Teachers from every one of the global schools - along with one pupil from each secondary school - have been invited to London this weekend. They'll meet initially at the British Museum in an event called Olympic Dreams Live; and then they'll go to their twin schools for a short visit. We can therefore expect visitors from Mongolia to Berkshire; from India to Ballymena; and, possibly less romantically, from Croydon to the Shetland Islands. The hope is that this will inspire conversations that continue and which foster understanding between some radically different cultures.

It's worth saying this is just one part of World Class and it captures only one aspect of World Olympic Dreams - and both of them sit within the wider aims of legacy we have in the BBC and which are shared across the London 2012 family. I don't think anybody would have the illusions that projects like these are going to be the loudest voices in the media frenzy of the months ahead; but I'm delighted they're happening and we'd like to think their contribution will be felt in the lives of individuals and communities well beyond 2012.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rogermosey/2011/01/next_years_olympics.html

Michel Platini Alfredo di Stefano Ferenc Puskas George Best