Comenius European Partnership

We have been awarded Comenius funding from the British Council to embark on an exciting and ambitious project with 4 other seconary schools in France, Portugal Spain and Turkey after months of preparation for the bid by our Advanced Skills Languages Teacher, Anne Ball. The project is entitled:

Food, Lifestyle and Sport for Health

The partnership will involve all schools participating in activities to promote healthy living.

The project will bring together the use of Language skills and a development of the scientific understanding behind maintaining good personal health.

Healthy Schools Website (opens in new window)

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The 5 Partner Schools

1. Connaught School for Girls, Leytonstone, London, UK - Website (opens in new window)

2. Acipayam Ataturk Ilkogretim Okulu, Denizli, Turkey - Website (opens in new window)

3. College Saint Joseph, Remiremont, France

4. Escola Secundaria de Camilo Castelo Branco, Carnaxide, Lisbon, Portugal - Website (opens in new window)

5. IES Perez Comendador, Plasencia, Cacares, Spain - Website (opens in new window)

Photographs from Partner School Locations

Gallery of Images from the Partner Schools

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Visit to Plascencia, Spain - November 2007

The first visit of the project was to Plasencia, in the Extramadura region of Spain where two members of staff from each of the partner schools arrived on Thursday 22nd November for a full working day on Friday 23rd November then departure on Saturday 24th November.

The Spanish hosts did an excellent job of assisting staff after delayed flights, arranging delicious meals and good accommodation, setting up an impressive tour of their school with its bilingual section and allowing the team to hold its planning meeting in their Headteacher’s office.

The five schools exchanged DVDs of their pupils, regional specialities to eat and brochures of their areas before getting down to the business of discussing the results of surveys carried out in each schools. Some fascinating cultural differences emerged: French children in the Vosges eat no takeaway meals at allandPortuguese children think they are very healthy for drinking milk for breakfast but then it turns outthat the milk has added sugar!

The working group came up with some excellent ideas for activities :

• a blog to start in France

• slogans printed by competingform groups on canteen placemats in Portugal

• healthy living slogans on the project’s webpages

• an exchange of artwork on the Healthy Living topic

• a calendar compiled in all five countries highlighting the different festivals we celebrate and the food that goes with them

The schools have also begun to arrange ways that students can interact with each other:

• exchanging letters

• e-mail pen pals

• exchanging DVDs of activities in their countries (eg making Christmas meals)

Next steps for the project include:

• each school producing a PowerPoint presentation on 'Food for Festivals' to be shared by e-mail December 2007

• each school producing art work and slogans on 'Healthy Living'

The next chance to experience life in one of our participating countries first hand will be a staff visit to Turkey in April 2008. As the Turkish school is for younger pupils Connaught will take a DVD that includes pupils from its local primary schools learning languages. The visit will coincide with a Turkish national childrens' festival in the host town of Denizli.

In October 2008 staff from partner schools will visit London and Connaught, probably accompanied by some pupils from classes learning English.

March/April 2009 will see a staff visit to France, accompanied by some pupils learning French.

Photographs from the visit

Gallery of Images from the Comenius Visit to Spain

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Update - February 2008

There is a thriving weekly Comenius club taking place at ConnaughtSchool for Girls as part of the project linking the partner schools in France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and the UK. At the beginning of January the students attending the club investigated the French tradition of “la fête des rois “and carefully ate a cake that had a hidden coin or “fève “ inside. The girl who found one was duly crowned in accordance with the French tradition!

Girls also took part in a quiz about the other countries in the Comenius Partnership before sampling edible gifts sent by Turkey. Year 8 classes made bi-lingual posters about their New Year’s Resolutions and the Comenius Club made up envelopes sending a collection of display work & gifts to each of the partner schools. We learnt about international Pancake Day, Mardi Gras, Faschingsdienstag, Martes de Carnaval, Terça Feira Gorda & Mrs Patterson kindly made pancakes or “crêpes”. Yr 9 girls in their Food lessons also worked on international dishes, and their module culminated in the production of a meal from their chosen country.

In April there will be a Comenius visit to Turkey enabling staff to have an inside view of a Turkish primary school and further enhance European links.

ConnaughtSchool for Girls has been working with other Languages departments in the UK to improve teaching and learning in Year 9. In January we were lucky enough to book the national speaker Martine Pillette who gave us lots of brilliant ideas for Listening activities.Connaught staff continue to teach Year 4 and 5 at Newport, Barclay and George Tomlinson while staff in those schools are now having a go at teaching Year 3 French themselves.We are working towards links between those schools and French primary schools in Paris, Reims and Guadeloupe.