Our purpose is to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries and to increase appreciation of the UK's creative ideas and achievements. We achieve our purpose by giving people in other countries access to learning opportunities and creative ideas from the UK. We also create opportunities for those in the UK to make contact with, and learn from, people, ideas and expertise in other countries.

We started life as the 'British Committee for Relations with Other Countries' in November 1934. 'Committee' soon became 'Council', and in 1936 it was agreed that we would be known simply as the British Council. Our first overseas operations opened as early as 1938 in Egypt and Portugal. The Second World War helped people appreciate the value of a body like the British Council and in 1940 we were established on a permanent basis.

At the moment the British Council is an international network of around 7,500 people in 233 towns and cities in 109 countries and territories.

THE BRITISH COUNCIL IN POLAND

Poland was one of the first countries in which the British Council started its work – the first operations were opened in 1938. We have worked from the building at Al. Jerozolimskie in Warsaw since 1948. In 1999 our second office was opened in Krakow in Rynek Główny.

The main features of the British Council’s work in Poland include:

• teaching of English to children, young learners and adults as well as companies and institutions at its centres in Warsaw and Krakow;

• offering a wide range of English language and professional examinations in Poland, including the widely recognised Cambridge ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) examinations;

• working with a range of partners to support teaching of English;

• co-operating with Polish and British governmental and non-governmental educational institutions at all levels of the education system to promote quality and share experience;

• stimulating links between Polish and British schools through the Global Gateway;

• organising conferences, seminars and collaborative projects on important social issues in Poland and in the UK;

• running a programme in culture and the arts, working with Polish artists, festivals and cultural institutions to present the UK’s achievements in music, literature, theatre, dance, the visual arts, fashion and design;

• supporting Polish-British cooperation in improving school behaviour and violence reduction;

• promoting UK’s scientific achievements and offering support, in co-operation with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, for Polish-British collaboration in science;

• promoting innovative methods of teaching by using recent achievements in science and technology;

• developing leadership skills among young people through sport;

• providing information about opportunities to study and learn English in the UK;

• supporting eight British Libraries (all of them with multimedia centres), in collaboration with eight Polish universities;

• operating the British Council Library in Warsaw with access to interactive self-study computer courses, Internet, e-resources, a rich selection of DVD and video films, various ELT materials and contemporary British fiction.

In all its work the British Council works closely with a wide range of individuals, institutions and government departments.