About NOV20
A second swing at a very simple, very ambitious idea.
In 2015 and 2016, two global classroom Skype-a-thons connected over 100,000 children from classrooms across 63 countries on World Children's Day. NOV20 is the relaunch — same idea, AI-era platform, annual cadence.
Where this came from
In 2015, Jason Elsom created and ran It's a World of Adventures — a Skype-a-thon that connected schools around the world on World Children's Day. The numbers, in the end, were ridiculous: over 115,000 children, 3,000+ schools, 63 countries, 2.5 million miles of communication. Adventure '16 followed the same pattern the next year.
The model worked because the core idea was good: when children from a classroom on one side of the world meet children from a classroom on the other side, something shifts. Curiosity beats stereotypes. Real human beings beat the abstract. And teachers, given a date and a partner, will do the rest.
Skype is gone. The platform that powered those events doesn't exist anymore. But the idea is even more relevant now, and the distribution we have to reach schools — through the WhatSchool global school data project — is an order of magnitude larger than it was in 2015.
What NOV20 is
NOV20 is a free, independent platform that helps schools connect classrooms across countries, cultures, and time zones on World Children's Day, 20 November, every year.
We do the matching, the time-zone maths, the teacher resources, the safeguarding scaffolding, and the country briefings. Schools do the exchange — using whatever video tool they already approve, or asynchronously when time zones get in the way.
What NOV20 isn't
NOV20 is not a charity microsite. It is not a substitute for your school's own safeguarding policy. It is not the official World Children's Day campaign — that is owned by the United Nations and UNICEF, and we take care to make that distinction clear at every turn.
Annual, not one-off
2026 is year one of the relaunch. NOV20 is built to run every year, on the same date, indefinitely. Teachers who join in 2026 will be able to come back for a different partner in 2027, 2028, and beyond.
The long-term ambition
“The platform that helps every school in the world find another school in the world.”
That's the ten-year version of NOV20. The 20 November exchange is the starting point.
Legal positioning
Independent. By design.
NOV20 is an independent initiative created to help schools mark World Children's Day. It does not own World Children's Day, is not an official UN/UNICEF programme, and never claims to be.