Our Comenius Project
!
BRINGING A EUROPEAN DIMENSION TO OUR SCHOOLS FRANCE - ITALY - SCOTLAND - SPAIN Summary of Progress - June - October - term 4 Tuesday, 6th November 2012 Teachers from France, Italy and Scotland visit Spain for our first meeting of the second year. Our next planning meeting will be in Benicarlo, Spain from 12-16 November 2012, where we will review our progress and success of the project so far and discuss the next events of the project.
Comenius Olympic Games Fun! To start the second year of our project, each of our schools was staging a Mini Olympic Games, which would coincide with the International Olympics being held in London this summer. This continues our theme of health and sport, which we started last session. The weather played a part in our Olympic planning as during the Scottish games, it began with light rain and wind, and ended in brilliant sunshine. In France they had to reschedule the event due to rain.
track accompanied by the Olympic theme music. There were events like track, javelin, shot put, hurdles and welly boot throw. The winners Spain received gold medals. In France they made 13 teams of Euro countries and their pupils represented these teams. The Sports Star that they interviewed earlier in the project, Boris Berraud, came again and took part of a couple of activities. Germany won their Olympic Games. Spain have held their Olympic Games and Italy may do theirs soon. We will have more information about how theirs games went in the next update.
The Scottish Olympic Games was based on our four countries, where pupils made flags of their country. Teams marched onto the Page 1
All Change in Italy During the summer break our partners in Italy underwent some changes in personnel. Milva left the school and went to a school in the north of Italy near Milan. Brunella and the head teacher of Guido Pofi also left the school and went to another school in Anagni. On behalf of everyone in the project we would like to wish them well in their new school, and thank
them for their hard work in making our project a success in the first year. Rosanna is the only one left and she has a new colleague Luciana Ceretti, who will visit Spain for the next meeting, and will help with the project. Their school, Guido Pofi, has also merged with another school and has a new name, Istituto Comprensivo 2^ Anagni .
Antonio Changes Schools Antonio has moved from the school in Benicarlo, Spain to another nearer Valencia. We wish him well and thank his for his huge contribution to the project.
Traditional Game
Scotland France
Health Workshops
Each school had to choose a traditional game that is played by their pupils. A movie and instructions was to be produced that could be understood by all partners to enable them to play these games.
Videoconferences
Scotland and Spain have had workshops about health. These workshops were to encourage interest in sport, healthy food and a general healthy lifestyle for young people.
All partner schools managed to play a game and upload video/ written instructions for the others to try. So far Scottish pupils played all the games and uploaded a movie of their pupils enjoying the games. They have continued to play the games during break times. We look forward to seeing how others got on with their partners’ games.
Vandeins and Ednam Primaries have continued their language learning link and we began with pupils telling each other their name, age, things they like and so on. They listened carefully and chose partners to work with that may have similar interests. We will link pupils for future partnered activities between the two schools. We have also started a regular weekly link between the classes, where pupils ask in the others’ language, the date (day month year), today - yesterday tomorrow, the weather and how many pupils are in class that day. This is going very well and is helping to develop confidence in speaking the learned language. Page 2
Interview with a Sports Star from Our Countries Everyone has now managed to interview a Sports Personality from their country. The pupils of Spain interviewed Tito Garcia San Juan, a Futsal player, who played for 15 years and won some championships. Futsal is a variant of football.
Tito Garcia San Juan futsal player
The pupils of Italy interviewed Riccardo Santolamazza, a Basketball player, who has been passionate about basketball since childhood and recommends that young people should try basketball as a sport. !
Riccardo Santolamazza basketball player
The French pupils have interviewed Boris Berraud, football player who started playing football when he was five and has been with Football Club de Bourg PĂŠronnas for 25 years. Boris Berraud football player
The Scottish pupils interviewed Mark Beaumont via Skype, a Cyclist and Adventurer who has cycled round the world, and from north to south America, and created a record time for the Guinness Book of Records. . Mark Beaumont cyclist adventurer
Page 3
Scottish Staff Visit Anagni Ednam teachers Peta Harris, Anne Otley and Susan Elliot the School Administrator visited the merged school at Anagni in Italy during October. They were welcomed by Rosanna and her daughter and Brunella. They visited our partner school and Brunella’s new school to experience the Italian education system and compare it with Scottish education. They enjoyed their visit very much and before returning home they spent time with Rosanna and Brunella in Rome.
Activities 2012/13 Email Contact - any school not having finished this activity can complete it this session. If any schools wish to have another round they should contact the school concerned.
Winter Greetings Last year we had a very successful link up of our countries using Skype to share songs and greetings - hopefully we can meet again on Skype to enjoy and share each other’s wonderful singing once more.
Areas of Sustainability in Our Schools We are going to share our practices on the Board Sustainability in Our Schools area. The idea is to encourage schools to share good practices and adopt new ideas not already in our schools. We should aim to have as many ideas logged before the next meeting in February. eg your school might use solar power or windmills. We will also look at joining the International Eco Schools Award. The Eco-Schools programme can help schools to: Improve the school's environment, Reduce litter and waste, Reduce energy and water use, Devise efficient ways of travelling to and from school, Promote healthy lifestyles, Encourage active citizenship, Build strong partnerships with a variety of community groups, Develop international and global links
Healthy Diet Workshop In our schools we hope to organise a Healthy Diet Workshop or awareness day/week, promoting the advantages of healthier eating for pupils. We should try to invite any health professionals or others that can assist in getting the message over to pupils. From this try to build in an activity to school routine, eg no sweets one day, only fruit (only an idea). It may be that your schools already have a healthy regime and this idea is not as important? We can share ideas on the Board in Healthy Options in Schools section. This work leads to the making of our Comenius Recipe Book in March 2013.
Comenius Recipe Book In the spring term we will collect and share a series of traditional and healthy recipes from each country that can be included in a Comenius Recipe Book. This should reflect both traditions and healthy eating of our countries. Versions of the books can be made up locally and shared with partners. Additional copies could perhaps be sold within local communities if desired. Page 4