Comenius Project
Comenius: Is the grass greener on the other side?
After an exciting preparatory meeting in Turkey (attended by Mrs Trigg and Mrs Tudge) funding was secured for our school to participate in a Comenius project. This project will last for two years, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. The theme is sustainable development and recycling with the title "Is the grass greener on the other side?"
The participating countries are England, Finland, Belgium and Turkey (click the flags to visit their web sites).
The main goals of the project are:
- Increased cooperation between schools and improving the quality of modern foreign language learning
- ICT-based, lifelong learning, the development of innovative content, services, methods and practices
- Improving the quality of teacher education and promoting the European dimension
- Pedagogical approaches, school management and development
In October we held a competition to design a Comenius logo. The task was to incorporate not only the countries involved but also to show the main aim of our project - sustainable development and recycling of waste.
Classes submitted their entries and the overall winner was chosen by the School and Eco Council reps.
Well done to Maddie in Year 4 with her winning design.
However, you were all winners – the designs were truly amazing!
Now each of the 4 countries had their own winning logo. Mrs Tudge and Mrs Long attended the first meeting of the Comenius partnership in Belgium and it was decided that we would take something from each of the winning logos to create the final international Comenius logo; a big thanks to Mr Morris for making this possible!
Belgium Turkey
Some classes made recycled Christmas and New Year Cards which were sent to Finland, Belgium and Turkey and we received cards from our partner countries too.
Year 5 made some delicious Turkish delight, here are some pictures of their finished results.
This is our Comenius board in the main corridor and our Comenius corner in the Library, check out both for more information about our partner countries.
Comenius Project Meeting in Bartin, Turkey 14th-18th October 2012
Early in the hours of Sunday the 14th October Mrs Tudge and Mrs Lynch flew to Istanbul in Turkey. After a 7 hour coach journey across Turkey we reached our host town of Bartin and were met by Zehneb and Mehmet who took us to our Motel. The next morning we met the other partners from Finland and Belgium and enjoyed a Turkish breakfast all together. We arrived at our host school and were welcomed to a display of Turkish dancing by the children. We also planted 4 trees, 1 for each country in the school grounds. After spending an enjoyable morning working with the children and visiting classrooms we were hosted to a fantastic homemade Turkish lunch, tasting some typical traditional dishes. Later that day we enjoyed a trip along Bartin River by boat and an evening meal where we were able to discuss our project and make plans for the Comenius meeting.
We were very interested to see the classes which are the same ages as the children we teach. We were asked to demonstrate a conversation in English so that the pupils could hear our accents! Children from the older classes were very keen to tell us their favourite Turkish footballers proving that we all have many common links. As teachers we were very privileged to see firsthand how our Turkish partner school runs on a day to day basis.
Before we left, some of the musically talented teachers sang us traditional songs accompanied by traditional Turkish instruments to which we learnt some Turkish dancing.
During the partner meeting we updated each other on our Comenius activities. Many thanks to Mrs Hayes and Hannah who produced a short film showing a typical day in the life of a child at our school. Our next activity is to make a game based around recycling or saving the environment. These games will be taken to our next meeting in Finland and swapped with our partners to play in their schools; equally we will be given games to play with our children.
The next Project Meeting is in Tuusula, Finland in February this will be the final visit before our meeting in England in April.
Here are some photos to share from Turkey.
Mrs Tudge and Mrs Lynch
Comenius Project Meeting in Bornem, Belgium. January 2012.
On the 24th January Mrs Tattam and I flew to Belgium to take part in the second Project Meeting of our Comenius Project. In Bornem, we met teachers from Turkey and Finland, as well as our Belgian hosts.
During the meeting we shared Comenius news from our schools and talked about items that we could make by recycling rubbish. The photo shows a candle holder made from a tin and decorated with patterns cut from a paper napkin. We have lots of other ideas too! We plan to get children to make lots of recycled items and sell them at the school fête in the summer….so more to come on this task!
The children in Belgium have raised money to buy a Comenius t-shirt each. They will wear them whenever they carry out an Eco activity at school. Very smart!
Excitingly, we were able to meet the man who wrote the original version of the school song that we have learned. He used to be the Head Teacher of the school. We sang the song in Flemish, English and Finnish (tricky!) – and even had a Turkish version of the tune played on a saz, which is an instrument like a mandolin.
Mrs Tattam and I had the opportunity to look around some of the classes in the school. It was very interesting to see what kind of activities the children were doing. One class were having a science lesson and they were all learning to brush their teeth properly! The children and teachers made us feel very welcome in their school.
The next Project Meeting is in Tuusula, Finland in April. There are two tasks to complete before then:
- Make the Union Jack out of recycled material.
- “A Day in the Life” video-diary.
You will find out more about these tasks in the near future – so be ready in case it’s your turn to help!
Mrs Long.
Comenius Project Meeting in Tuusula, Finland 10th-13th April 2012
On the 10th April, in the second week of the Easter holidays, Mrs Tudge, Mrs Long and Mrs Patchett flew to Helsinki in Finland. We were met at the airport by our Finnish hosts and driven the short distance to Tuusula. Our first impressions of Finland were snow, fir trees and lots of open space! Our partners from Belgium had already arrived and the Turkish teachers arrived the next day.
The school also had lots of space, big classrooms with fewer pupils per class, large middle working areas, a canteen and a gym which doubled as a hall. Everyone was incredibly friendly and we soon got to know some of the students, especially when sharing lunch!
During the partner meeting we updated each other on Comenius activities. Many thanks to Ms Pike who, with the help of members of her class, produced a short DVD showing a typical day at our school. You can view this too by clicking the link. We shared photos of the making of our recycled flags; the completed Union Jack is now fixed to the fence in the playground and provided an excellent addition to our Jubilee celebrations. We also shared the planting of our Comenius forest and activities from the Eco afternoon.
The next Project Meeting is in Bartin, Turkey in October. We would like to take with us some videos of ‘A day in the life of …’ from different pupils throughout the school. The children in our partner countries are very keen to learn about our lives and compare their school day to ours. If you would like to be involved in this, talk with Mrs Tudge, Mrs Long or Mrs Patchett who will be able to give you ideas on what kind of things should be included and the format in which to save it.
Here are some photos to share from Finland. Mrs Tudge.
