Comenius Multilateral Project

Meeting at St. Richard’s Catholic Primary School, Chichester, United Kingdom

“The Source of our Health” 24th – 27th September 2013

REPORT

The fourth meeting of the Comenius Project “The Source of our Health” took place at St. Richard’s Catholic Primary from Tuesday, 24th to Friday, 27th September 2013. The meeting was attended by 24 teachers from the following schools:

1. CEIP Ntra. Sra De Fatima, Molina de Segura, Murcia, Spain 2. Osnovna Skola Bol, Split, Croatia 3. Primary School No 8, Jelenia Gora, Poland 4. Nazilli Kizildere IIkogretim Okulu, Nazilli, Turkey 5. 8th Primary School of Zografou, Athens, Greece

and by the teachers and staff from St. Richard’s Catholic Primary, Chichester, United Kingdom. The official language of the meeting was English. During the meetings we aimed to achieve the objectives of our Comenius project:

i. To improve our knowledge about healthy eating, good habits and physical activity in each country.

ii. To encourage all pupils to learn languages and use ICT. iii. To understand and develop respect for our cultural differences. iv. To teach lifelong learning skills. It had been agreed that it would be difficult to plan an organised visit to London during the week in Chichester. For this reason, the Polish and Spanish team decided to visit London prior to arriving in Chichester. All visiting teachers stayed at the Travelodge in Chichester centre which allowed them to walk easily both to school and other places of interest.

DAY 1 – Tuesday, 24th September All visiting teachers were collected from the Travelodge after breakfast. They arrived at St. Richard’s Catholic Primary where they were welcomed and greeted by our House Captains. All the visiting visitors were taken on a tour of our school by our Year 6 House Captains. During the tour they had an opportunity to visit all the classrooms and meet the children who were very excited about their visit. At 10:15, they were taken to the hall where the children led a special assembly to celebrate our British culture. During the assembly, our Year 6 dance group performed a dance, several children played piano and recorder and our choir performed a medley of songs, including a memorable performance of “If just one person believes in you” – it brought a tear to our eyes!

At the end of the assembly, each delegate was presented with a special bag, decorated by our Year 5 children and filled with a number of tasty

treats (thanks to Lynfa Snow!) – a mini Christmas cake, some shortbread biscuits and some Welsh “Bara Brith” – and a leaflet created by our Gifted and Talented group. After a coffee break, all visiting teachers (except for the co-ordinators) went back to class to teach the children something from their country – songs, dancing, language greetings etc. – our children loved it!! In the afternoon, James Field and Pamela Phillips took the group on a walking tour of Chichester and showed them the main sights, including the Market Cross, the Bishop’s Gardens, the Cathedral (and of course a traditional English pub!!)

In the evening, all the visiting teachers were accompanied by the staff of St. Richard’s at the Nag’s Head pub. Here they had the opportunity to try a

traditional English Roast Dinner – all the staff at St. Richard’s were very helpful in explaining what the “Carvery” included!! DAY 2 – Wednesday, 25th September All visiting teachers met together at the start of the day to learn about the English Education System (please see powerpoint for details). Following a coffee break, the co-ordinators met for the second time, whilst the other teachers returned to a different classroom to teach the children something about their culture.

Catherine Hunn, Karen Courquin and Aaron Morrissey accompanied the group to Arundel after lunch. This was a fantastic opportunity for them all to visit the historical town of Arundel, the impressive castle and to sample a traditional cream tea in one of the many cafés in Arundel.

The evening provided another opportunity to sample traditional British food. Our visitors had the option of Steak pie, Fisherman’s pie or Sausage and Mash, followed by Apple Crumble, in a traditional English Pub – ‘The Park Tavern’ – a further opportunity for all teachers to socialise and share stories. DAY 3 – Thursday, 26th September

Today gave all the visiting teachers an opportunity to find out more about our history with a visit to the Historical Dockyard at Portsmouth. They were accompanied throughout by Geraldine Hogan, Karen Denton and Lynfa Snow and travelled by train to Portsmouth.

During the day, they had chance to visit the Mary Rose Exhibition, HMS Victory and to take part in a boat trip to tour Portsmouth Harbour. They were all very interested in our history but then enjoyed a much needed shopping expedition to Gunwharf Quay. The day ended with “Fish, Chips and Mushy Peas” at the Customs House at Gunwharf Quay. DAY 4 – Friday, 27th September During our final meeting for the co-ordinators of the project, the other teachers had an opportunity to see how English teachers teach gymnastics and rugby.

The Closing Ceremony was a very moving occasion. Each class presented something they had learned about one of the countries of the project (CEIP Ntra. Sra De Fatima, Spain, Osnovna Skola Bol, Croatia, Primary School No 8, Poland, Nazilli Kizildere IIkogretim Okulu, Turkey and 8th Primary School of Zografou, Greece). Reception/Year 1 sang a Polish song about the Importance

of Vitamins. Years 2 and 4 sang a Spanish version of “Head, Shoulders,

Knees and Toes” accompanied by Mr. Field on his guitar! Year 3 recited a Turkish poem about Autumn. Year 5 presented a Croatian song and dance about Creation. Year 6 presented a short play about Theseus and the Minotaur.

At the end of the assembly, each co-ordinator was presented with a piece of art work from one of our children depicting our wonderful city of Chichester – thank you to Olivia Pac, Frances Key, J.M. Lopez and James Yuen for their hard work. Before departing for their home countries we all shared tea and cakes in the Staff Room (many thanks to the English teachers for such delicious cakes and to Secil for her wonderful Turkish coffee!).

CONCLUSIONS from the Co-ordinators’ meetings During the meetings, we agreed the following:

The dates of the visits to Turkey and Croatia

Work to be done on Sport and famous Sports men and women

A video to be made in each country on Sport

A questionnaire to be issued in each country on Sport

A set of rules to be agreed to help us all to become healthier! FINAL CONCLUSIONS It was agreed by all that the visit to Chichester was an “Amazing Success!” We all learnt so much about each other; they learnt about our school system, about our food, about our culture and history. Our friendships became even stronger. We look forward to our next visit in Turkey in April.