If I had known this when I started teaching...

A journey of a thousand miles begins… with the first teaching lesson

The more you practice something, the better you get - it’s the same with teaching!

So, if you had to look back and were given a chance to give your younger self a piece of advice for the first day of teaching, what would you say? What kind of a teaching tip would you give yourself for that very first day?

Tell us about it –the most interesting and inspiring advice can win you one of the British Council online courses for teachers or a year-long IATEFL membership!

In order to take part in this competition, all you need to do is:

The results will be announced to the competition participants by 18 April 2014 by email. 


Competition Rules 

1 The Competition 

This competition is a free prize draw operated by or on behalf of the British Council to inform English teachers about our free resources available for teaching English (the “Competition”). 

2  Territory and eligibility 

The Competition is open to English teachers age 18 and above teaching in the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Irish Republic, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. 

Only one entry per person is allowed.  No participant may win more than one prize. 

British Council teachers may not enter the completion.

Entry to the Competition is free of charge although participants are responsible for their own costs of connecting to the Internet. 

3  Competition dates 

The closing date of the competition is 17:00 on 6 April 2014 (GMT).  Any entry received after the closing date will not be included in the Competition.  The British Council accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any system, server, provider or otherwise that may result in any entry being lost, delayed or not properly registered.

Each Competition winner will be notified by 18 April 2014. This notification will be made to the email address provided by the winning participant when registering for the Competition in accordance with section 4 of these Competition Rules.  In this notification, the British Council will inform each Competition winner of how to claim their prize and of any additional information or steps required to enable the British Council to provide them with the prize.  The British Council reserves the right to award the relevant prize to another Competition participant if the prize is not claimed within 2 weeks after such notification.

4 Prizes and selection of winning entries

5 winners will be selected by a panel among the entries. All decisions of the British Council will be final and binding.

No correspondence will be entered into with the unsuccessful participants.

The prizes consist of 4 self-access courses (Communicative Assessment Course, Steps to Success course or Special Educational Needs course according to the preferences of the winners) and a one-year IATEFL membership. The prizes will be sent to winner and runners-up by email.

Prizes are personal to the winners and cannot be transferred to any third party.  Prizes cannot be exchanged for money or any other goods or services.

The British Council accepts no responsibility for failure to notify winning participants or failure to deliver prizes where such failure results from the provision of inaccurate contact details by the participants or from the acts or omissions of any third party (including, without limitation, any internet or postal service provider) and shall have no liability to any entrant if it is prevented from or delayed in delivering any aspect of the Competition or the prizes by acts, events, omissions or accidents beyond its reasonable control.

The British Council does not offer any insurance in connection with the prize. Each prize winner may arrange their own insurance in respect of the prize, if applicable.

5 Personal data

The British Council will collect and store the names and email addresses of all participants and the additional contact details of winners as anticipated by sections 4 and 5 above.  The British Council will use this personal data for the following purposes:

  • managing the relationship between the participants and the British Council;
  • communicating with participants to answer their queries about the Competition;
  • communicating with winners and arranging delivery of their prizes;
  • marketing and publicity in accordance with section 7 below.

By participating in the Competition, participants consent to their personal data being processed by the British Council in accordance with, and for the purposes set out in, this section 6.

Participants can exercise their rights to access their personal data held by the British Council and withdraw their consent to the processing of their personal data by sending an email, accompanied by a scanned photocopy of their valid passport to the Data Protection Team mailto:dataprotection@britishcouncil.org 

6  Publicity and rights

The British Council intends to publish the names and photographs of the winners on the British Council’s websites, Facebook pages, Twitter pages, press releases and in other promotional and marketing material.  In addition, the British Council may write and publish articles about the winners’ enjoyment of their prize.  By entering the Competition, each participant agrees to the use of their name and image and agrees to co-operate with any such publicity or marketing if they win a prize.

By entering the Competition each participant grants the British Council, free of charge, permission to use the entry material in any way it wants (including, without limitation, modifying and adapting it for operational and editorial reasons) in any media worldwide.  Each participant confirms that the entry material is their original work, is not defamatory and does not infringe any English laws, that they have the right to give the British Council permission to use it for the purposes specified above, and that all necessary consents for the submission of the entry material have been obtained. 

All rights in the British Council’s name and logo, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter pages, press releases and other promotional and marketing material and all course and examination content and materials (together the “Council’s Materials”) shall vest in and remain with the British Council (or its licensors).  By participating in the Competition, participants agree that they will not use, broadcast, publish, export, exploit, reproduce nor copy part or all of the Council’s Materials.

7  General

The British Council may disqualify or refuse to accept the entry of any participant which does not meet the eligibility criteria in section 2 or does not otherwise comply with these Competition Rules.

These Competition Rules shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes or claims (including, without limitation, non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with the Competition.

8  Acceptance of Competition Rules

By participating in this Competition, participants are deemed to have accepted these Competition Rules.