Four European Schools' Visit

Secondary schools in France, Portugal, Turkey and Spain sent parties of students and staff to visit London, Waltham Forest and Connaught School for Girls in the first week of November 2008.

In October 2007 Connaught, a Specialist Language College, formed a European Comenius partnership funded by the British Council and led by Connaught’s Advanced Skills Languages Teacher, Anne Ball. The partnership has involved all schools participating in activities to promote healthy living, bringing together the use of Language skills and a development of the scientific understanding behind maintaining good personal health.

The five schools have been sending information electronically to each other about their schools and ways of encouraging healthy living during the past year. Groups of students in each school have been sharing PowerPoint presentations and video DVDs of their work.

The visit of 20 students and 13 staff to London follows a successful visit to Spain in November 2007 and to Turkey in April 2008. The students joined in lessons with Connaught students for a day. The European guests were most impressed with Food Technology lessons, commenting that “we don’t have anything like that at home”.

The European guests were also treated to a wide range of cultural experiences including; Fireworks Night at the Town Hall, an English tea party, Connaught’s musical production of ‘Olivia’, a day exploring the sights of central London, a Karaoke and disco, a tour of the 2012 olympic site and the Lord Mayor’s Show.

The next phase of the partnership is to develop the theme of healthy living across every area of each school with a visit to the French partner school in Spring 2009. More information about the European Comenius partnership can be found here (opens in a new window).

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