Prosper with Penfriends: Your profile
Dear Penfriend,
We want to help you get the most out of Cambridge English Penfriends. This is the first of a series of emails we're going to send you to help you get the very best out of the free Penfriends activity.
Step 1: Registering on the site
Well done! You've already done that otherwise you would not be receiving these emails!
Each registration is checked by our local team to check everyone on Penfriends is genuine. This is to keep everyone as safe as possible and usually takes just a few days.
Step 2: Completing your profile
This is a simple step to give us more information about you and your school.
> Log in now and complete your profile information
> Forgotten your password? Get help here
This includes information such as your school name, your name and your
contact details (which will only be visible to your partner schools). It
also includes information on the age of your students and their level
of English.
All this information helps other schools find you and make the best
possible matches. The 'level of English' is set against our Cambridge
English exams but you don't have to be taking our exams to take part in Penfriends. If you're not sure what level your students are why not get them to try our free Test Your English quiz which will give you an indication of their level.
Step 3: Keep your profile up-to-date
It's important you keep your profile up to date.
Our latest update means you can exchange Penfriends cards digitally — so you may need to update your profile to say whether you prefer digital or traditional 'post' cards.
> Log in now and update your profile information
> Forgotten your password? Get help here
You can also say how often you want to exchange cards (once a month up
to once a year or something in between) and add holiday information for
your school.
This will help other schools know how often they can expect to hear
from you and helps avoid frustration or confusion when you don't hear
from a partner school.
You can also add your school or class logo or badge (files under 3MB please) and some additional information about you. Schools with a completed profile are much more likely to get matches.
> Log in and complete your profile information
> Forgotten your password? Get help here
We want to help you get the most out of Cambridge English Penfriends. This is the second of a series of emails we're going to send you to help you get the very best out of the free Penfriends activity.
If you missed steps 1–3 you can see them again here
Step 4: Finding a partner school
You've registered, your profile is up to date and now you want to find a school somewhere in the world to exchange cards with. Let's get matching!
> Log in and click "Find Schools" or "Find a partner school" to get started
 You can browse schools by:
> country
> how they exchange cards (digitally or by post)
> how often they want to exchange cards
> their level of English
> the age of their students
> how many students they have taking part (handy if you're trying to match a large or unusual number of students).
You can even search for a school by name if you know a particular
school you want to match with. You can also check the "show only
available/umatched schools" to help narrow your search.
> Find a partner school now
If you prefer you can look on a map too. Why not involve your students, choosing where in the world they'd like to match with next?
Next you "Send request" to match to your chosen partner school(s).
They'll receive an email notifying them of your request. If they accept
we will put you both in touch and you're ready to start exchanging
cards! If they reject your request we'll email you about that too so you
can look for more partners. We give schools ten days to respond to
match requests, so please be patient.
Step 5: Look and be found
Remember, as you're looking for a partner school, so are lots of other
schools, teachers and their students. Keep your profile information up
to date to help other people find you.
Check your email (we'll email the address you signed up with, so check
your spam/bulk email folders too). We'll send you an email every time
someone requests to match with you or if someone accepts/rejects your
requests too.
If you can, add penfriends@cambridgeenglish.org to your 'safe' list so you don't miss any emails from us.
> Log in now and complete your profile information
> Forgotten your password? Get help here
Step 6: Exchanging cards
Your profile is up to date, you've found a partner school and now you want to exchange cards.
First, be sure you know how you are expecting to receive cards and how
your partner school are expecting to receive them – digitally or by
post?
Cards by post
If it's by post it's a simple case of packaging up your cards, checking
the postal address for your partner school and sending your parcel
around the world.
When you have done this be sure to visit your "My account" page and
click the "Cards sent" button against that partner. This will free you
from the match, ready to find a new partner (see steps 4 and 5).
Digital cards
If you are sending cards digitally you can upload them directly into the Penfriends website, ready to send to your partner school.
Ensure you have all the cards ready – preferably as jpg files – to
upload. You can scan them in or take digital photos of them as you wish.
From your "My account" page click the "Send cards" button against the partner school you want to send your cards to.
 Now you can drag-and-drop (if your browser supports it) or simply click "Add files" to choose which items you want to upload.
 Click "Upload files" to send them to the Penfriends website. Bear in mind this can take some time if there is a large number of files.
 Give them a final check before you click "I've finished, send my cards". This will send those cards to your partner school, instantly, digitally.
Step 7: Track your matches
You can keep track of your matches and cards on your "My Account" page.
From here you can see the status of all your matches. You can see from
the icons (faded out or coloured in) if you have sent your cards and
received them.
Where applicable there are also links to "Send cards" or "View cards" too and a big tick when your match is complete — and you are free to find a new partner school to exchange cards with.
We hope you will enjoy the new website and making even more Cambridge English Penfriends!
Kind regards
The Penfriends team | 
