The successful primary and secondary schools will now take part in a special project in the run-up to the London 2012 Games and will be twinned with schools across the world.

Winners include:

Ballykeel Primary, Ballymena, Northern Ireland, twinned with Indian female boxer MC Mary Kom's old school, Loktak Christian Model High School

Ysgol Bryn Alyn, Wrexham, twinned with American gymnastics star Shawn Johnson's former school, Valley Southwoods Freshman High in West Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Baltasound Junior High, Shetland, twinned with British basketball star Luol Deng's former school, St Mary's Catholic High in Croydon

Orion Primary School, London, twinned with Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt's primary school, Waldensia Primary School, Jamaica (pictured).

Over the next two years the project will support teachers in developing school-to-school partnerships and encourage pupils to share creative work inspired by the London Olympics with the organisations' global audiences.

Every winning school has been invited to send a teacher to a special conference, Olympic Dreams Live, at the British Museum, London, from January 15-16, 2011 where they will meet teachers from the athletes' schools to start their twinning journey.

Secondary schools have also been invited to send one pupil.

Working with the BBC World Class team, schools will be able to share and compare ideas and experiences online and, on occasion, in the BBC's World Olympic Dreams broadcasts.

The British Council will support them to work with their twin schools and develop their partnerships throughout the lifetime of the project.

Amanda Farnsworth, BBC London 2012 project executive, said: "This is the beginning of an exciting global conversation between schools right across the UK and our World Olympic Dreams athletes' schools from every continent across the world.

"We were very much impressed by all the entries to the competition and inspired by the dreams of young people.

"Their enthusiasm to follow our athletes and their schools is the start of a journey which we hope will involve every school in the UK."

Vicky Gough, from the British Council's connecting classrooms team, said: "We were really impressed by the standard of entries, and choosing the winners was hard work.

"This is just the beginning, though, and we hope that this will be the start of long, fruitful relationships between the schools in the UK and their new international friends.

"School linking is a great way of building trust and understanding between people in different parts of the world and helping children to become global citizens, so everyone can look forward to many benefits.

"And the values, energy and excitement of the London 2012 Olympics are a wonderful way to bring schools together around the world."

All schools which signed up for the Olympic Dreams School Search will receive a special poster featuring pupils at Usain Bolt's secondary school in Jamaica, and will also be given support to set up their own international school partnership by the British Council schools team.

For the full list of winners click here


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