The school links programme was established as part of the Mongolian Artificial Nest Project to teach local children why five thousand artificial nests were erected on the Mongolian Steppe in 2010. In the academic year 2011/12 educational resources on falcons and falconry were written to enable students to understand and answer the question. Twenty Mongolian schools were identified to take part with the aim of linking each of them with an international school by the end of 2015. Bayan School, Mongolia linked with a UK school and started exchanging letters. The resources were translated into Mongolian which enabled both schools to complete each PowerPoint and worksheet at roughly the same time. At the end of the academic year 2011, all students in the link classes understood why the nests had been erected and had received an introduction to falcons and falconry.
Academic year 2012/13
Four more Mongolian schools were linked to schools in USA and UK. Students studied the topics in science lessons and as additional studies. Falconer, Craig Hendee, visited USA schools in the link teaching lessons, giving displays with his peregrine falcon, Alvin. Five students were selected from each school to write to each other. Letters were translated and send to their pen pals. Two way communications was established, with schools asking ten questions and receiving the answers from their link schools with additional questions from them.
Academic year 2013/14
In July 2014, the school links programme contained twenty two schools from Mongolia, United Arab Emirates, USA and UK. Abu Dhabi Education Council created a GIS(Geographical Information System) science initiative, using the data from the Mongolian Artificial Nest Project. Yr6 students in three Abu Dhabi schools learnt why the nests were positioned where they were and why.
Academic year 2014/15
Twenty Mongolian schools will be linked by the end of this academic year. Falconers from South Africa, Netherlands, Slovakia, Malta and El Salvador have helped find schools in their countries to join the link. The falconers will visit schools to give children the opportunity to see a falcon and benefit from their expertise. New resources will be available on
- Peregrine Migration
- Reintroduction of Falcons
- Raptor Electrocution
- Falcon food chains and food webs
Academic year 2015/16
We plan to link schools in Russia and Bulgaria, and to link interested schools to existing school links to create three way links.