Comenius Project

Comenius Project 2001-2004

Last year we undertook the first year of a project with schools in Sweden and in Poland, unfortunately we were not granted funding for this year, so we have just planned a reshaped project with these two schools but also included schools in France , Spain and the Czech Republic. Our project which will hopefully start next September is called' Fit For the Future'

The project, ‘Fit for the Future’, is based on the theme of the children being prepared and ready to meet their future, as competent, thoughtful European citizens. In order to do this they must ensure that they are fit , ‘well-tuned’ themselves, consequently our first year focuses on sharing with each other information about exercise regimes, attempts to eat healthily and ways in which they exercise their minds at both school and home.

In the second year the focus for the children will be on finding out about their own locality, it’s traditions, customs and festivals and how they intersperse their lives. They will share their work within the partnership, enabling a fuller understanding of each other’s heritage.

The final year the work will move on to looking at global issues of waste and recycling, energy consumption and water use. The children will investigate ways of encouraging sustainability in their own schools, and by passing on this information to each other they it is hoped that they will make an even greater difference

Through developing a greater understanding of themselves, each other and the wider world it is hoped that they will develop into citizens who are ‘Fit for the Future.’

Comenius Projects 2004-2005 / 2006-

Our other links are with a school in France where the late Dorothy Arkell had a house and with a Romanian Nursery.

We have also had over the last few years 3 Japanese Learning assistants working in school and an Italian Lingua Assistant.

We have now hosted three Swiss teachers who have to complete a three week placement in an English speaking school in order to teach English in Switzerland and more recently a French student teacher as part of hr course.

One of our most significant links is with Butagaya Primary School, near Jinja, in Uganda. This is a very large, 1500 pupils , but very rural school nort of Jinja.Althugh there are earth roads there are few vehicles and children walk barefoot to school from a wide area. There is no electricity or running water and with 100 pupils or more to a class both teaching and learning conditions are fundamentally different from ours.

The head teacher has visited this school and their head teacher Mr Stephen Ikendi has visited Blewbury. It is hoped that many of our staff will soon return to the school to share ideas and work alongside our Ugandan colleagues for a week.