Comenius News 7 My World, Your World, Our World!
May 2012
The final piece of the jig saw! What a pleasure it was to welcome friends from Spain, Hungary, France and Sweden back to England! The children remembered when they came two years ago and were thrilled to present the sixth and final piece of the jig saw.
It was with great anticipation that we went back to Chipping Sodbury; partly to meet all of our partner countries, but also meet all the staff again at the school. The difference we all felt now was that this trip was the last of our project, so we felt a little sad. We were, as usual, well looked after and the children at school welcomed us in a good way. It was fun trying to teach children a typically Swedish song and dance that we have at our summer party, midsummer. They were really good and willing to try to learn. We also got to visit their nursery school and it was interesting to see how they have developed a small area of space.We had the honor of meeting the mayor, Mr. Jobbings. He told the city's history, including how the mayor was elected and that it was mostly men seeking the mayoral role. It was with heavy hearts we said goodbye to each other, but we decided that we should keep in touch through email and letters. We look forward to hearing from you all! Thank you to all the staff and Alison for the nice days in Chipping Sodbury. Thanks also to all partners for all the joy, inspiration for the development and lifelong memories.
Elisabeth, MariAnn, Birgit
The children sang songs of welcome on the theme of making friends around the world and our European partners taught them songs, games and stories in their mother tongue. The school hall was alive with song and then later the children watched in silence as they saw children from partner schools singing their national anthems and dancing at spring festivals. We have gained a wealth of wonderful experiences, memories and resources which we will use to further enhance children’s learning in the coming years. Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to keep the project alive and sustain it to the end. As Birgit and the Swedish team said, “We hope that this is not the end but the beginning!�
Learn, enjoy, achieve, discover, Together!
Hola from Spain! While we were preparing for the final meeting, we had mixed feelings as we knew that we were going to finish a great friendship and a fantastic two-year program in England. It made us feel a little bit sad, but the chance to meet again in a month’s time cheered us up. We were thinking a lot about all the great things we had gained from the project during the two years’ programme. We must say we have successfully achieved our goals, carried out our objectives. The objectives of the project gave us lots of great ideas for mutual collaboration with the partner schools in England, Sweden, Spain, France and Hungary. The whole project was full of activities covering all the areas of our education systems and well-reflected what was the same and what was different in our wasy of education. The activities encouraged both the children, the staff, parents and local people to work together with all their commitment and enthusiasm. They gained lots of knew knowledge and skills. It was a great opportunity to promote our institution, the work we are doing to bring up our children as global citizens. Now people understand how important it is to be involved in international projects. We could learn a lot from the best practices of the partner schools, we exchanged ideas about the new ways in education. We think it is worth thinking of how to build in our curriculum using all the good ideas we have learnt during the past two years. The project was growing from month to month, it became more and more successful. We felt that every partner took the project very seriously, they all prepared for the mobilities to the best of their knowledge and great enthusiasm. Thank you all for your great friendship and commitment. We will always remember every moment of the events.We hope we will be able to work out a good program for going on with the project. Let’s keep contact in the future, too. Thank you for Alison and her staff for being so caring and sharing, and many thanks for the partners, too, for being such wonderful friends. We love you all. Ibolya/Judit
From the Spanish Comenius Team we all thank Alison for being brave enough to coordinate such an ambitious project. Everyone (teachers, pupils, parents) have learned from preparing, sharing, practicing, listening… all songs, games, rhymes, cultural information…etc. All of us have now a wider vision and experience about the cultural diversity and uniqueness in Europe and in our own countries. This last meeting was not the end of the project, now we have lots of materials to go on learning from each other and we’ll always be in touch with teachers and pupils from all partner schools. Meeting for a second time in England gave us the opportunity to learn more and better. The organization of the visit by the English Comenius team was simply PERFECT. We enjoyed everything: work meetings, meals, tourist visit to Bath (such an incredible city), assemblies at school, the visit to the Mayor and, of course, the party at school with all teachers and parents sharing such a wonderful time. We are sure we’ve made lots of friends and FRIENDSHIP JUST ENDS WHEN YOU STOP CARING. We’ll never stop caring about all of you. Now the world is my world, your world, our world: WE’RE ALL EUROPE.
What a pleasure to meet and to share these wonderful moments again! A great thank you to our friends from Raysfield Infants’ for their welcome, still warm as usual,(mieux que as always), for giving their time and generosity. The visit to Bath was an opportunity for us to meet our partners for the project while discovering the beauties of the city. During the first assembly, the pupils' reception with the songs revealed a lot of emotion, announcing the end of the project and the beginning of a long friendship between partners. The moments spent in the classrooms with the pupils and the teachers were very instructive and of a real inspiration for the projects to come. The last assembly with the display of the complete puzzle helped to concretise the rising friendship and the creation of strong links between every participant in the project. The end of this project announces the beginning of a new era ; friendships, exchanges .... Now, we know each other better: My world, Your World, Our World makes sense. We have to continue to enrich our relationship. The separation was heart-rending, it is only a good bye, see you soon…
http://comeniusprojectapresaschool.blogspot.com/ http://mwywow.blogspot.com
What next? All countries are keen to maintain the links forged through this wonderful project. Ideas have ranged from exchanging Christmas cards to sharing topics and creating pen pals. Some countries would like to bring their children to visit each others schools. Whatever happens our children and staff have had the most unique experience. The pride felt as the project progressed was immense - thank you everyone for making our world a smaller place! For our children, countries are no longer just a name on a map! The world is alive for them now!
Alison