West Burton C of E Primary School North Yorkshire

Comenius Visit to South Bohemia in the Czech Republic

During October half term the staff visited our Comenius Partner school, Zelec in the Czech Republic". (October 2008)

Zelec Primary School
Our Commenius Partners in the school hall, Zelec
Our Comenius Partners in the school hall, Zelec

An Art lesson

During the half term holiday six members of staff from West Burton School travelled to Prague and then on to Tabor in South Bohemia for the latest trip of our European Project.

As we had to wait for people from the schools in Germany, Slovakia, Norway and Pudsey to arrive on different flights, we had time to use the very efficient transport system to see something of the city of Prague at both ends of the visit.

Eventually by 4pm on the Wednesday evening 25 teachers were aboard the bus and ready to travel south.

As usual the welcome and hospitality were warm and generous. Sight seeing activities fitted in around visiting the children at Zelec School and kindergarten.

The school has just 63 children aged from 6 to11, they are taught in 5 classes and we were able to see some classroom activities as well as being entertained by music and dance items from the children in the village hall. The populations of the village of Zelec is around 800

Many beautiful buildings surround the town square of Tabor and we were given a tour of the museum to find out the history of the region before we had a tour of the town with a guide. Our very comfortable hotel is a converted brewery and we also had a chance to see the real thing at a brewery in Budvar.

Our visit concluded with a traditional Czech folk group, (one of the members teaches in the kindergarten) entertaining us before the final dinner. We had an early start on the Saturday morning to be back in Prague for the first of the several flights needed to get us all home to our respective parts of Europe.

Throughout the year we will be learning playground games from instructions provided by each of the partner schools.

The project is now in its final year and the final meeting is in West Burton next May.

Sally Stone

An English lesson

Zelec School Nursery

West Burton School – Comenius Project -May 2008

Over the last two years I have written reports on the visits made by people from West Burton School to the schools of our European partners in Germany, Norway and Slovakia.

My trip last week was to our UK partner in this project, St Joseph’s School in Pudsey.

I stayed with Pudsey’s coordinator at her home in Menston and travelled in with her for the duration of the visit.

The 12 visitors from the continental schools were staying at the Novotel near Leeds Station so we all met there on the Wednesday evening before dinner in a local restaurant.

The title of our project is “Hold on to Heritage” and each visit starts with a look at the local area so Thursday morning saw us back at the Novotel to begin our day’s activities in Leeds. This involved a walk through the shopping centre via the Victorian arcades, Marks and Spencer and Harvey Nichols, to the Catholic cathedral and then to the Art Gallery.

The afternoon was spent at Armley Mill where a teacher from Education Leeds gave the visitors a taste of the experiences on offer to Leeds’ schools. This included a Victorian schoolroom. As most things in education go full circle I am wondering when the cane and finger stocks will find their way back to West Burton! I was unable to resist the temptation of having a go on the harmonium.

That evening’s meal was taken on a canal boat cruise on the River Aire where we went through two locks during the course of our three-hour cruise.

Friday was spent in St Joseph’s School where Carol Brotherton from West Burton School joined me for the day.

The day began with an assembly to welcome us. We listened to musical items and heard about what St Joseph’s children had learned about the European countries we had visited.

Next we had a chance to visit classes for a look at literacy and numeracy lessons and then watched maypole and country dancing demonstrations.

That evening three more of my colleagues were able to join us to renew, and make new, acquaintances. Visiting teachers and staff, friends and governors from St Joseph’s School enjoyed a bring and share supper hosted by the St Joseph’s staff.

The next venue for our project is the Czech Republic in October. The Project ends next year in West Burton.

The Comenius Project has been a great success in involving everyone at WB school. Teachers, teaching assistants and governors have benefited from trips. The KS2 children, who joined them in three days’ activities, enjoyed the visit of the Norwegian children to WB. The whole school is going to St Joseph’s, Pudsey for a day in June when our children will join their year group for a day’s activities. I am sure return visits will follow.

Sally Stone (Teacher and International Coordinator at West Burton School).

On the Tuesday of half-term six people, four members of staff and two governors, from West Burton School set off on the latest trip of their European Comenius Project.

The Wednesday was spent exploring the central part of the town, which has some beautiful old buildings in it. That evening, teachers from St Cyril and Method’s School came to collect us from our hotel to take us to a town centre restaurant where around 35 European teachers sat down for a meal together.

The next day we visited caves at Ochtinska Aragonitova and had a guided tour of Beltair House. This coach trip was made memorable due to the drive through the Slovakian countryside where the Autumn colours of the trees were glorious.

Friday was the visit to St Cyril and Method’s School, which is situated in the south west of the town (Kosice has around 250,000 inhabitants). We could travel by bus or tram to the school. We took in our surroundings during the journey. There were many blocks of flats.

The outside of the school looked bare with lots of concrete in evidence. The inside was very different. Two pupils in national dress offering bread and salt, a traditional way to welcome visitors, greeted us. A concert involving music and dance was performed to us in the gym.

Each year the school, which teaches pupils from 6 to 14 years, holds a European Day. Each class had a different theme and my group experienced many types of craftwork, as well as different aspects of life in Slovakia, in the presentations the children gave to us.

Slovakian hospitality involves food and in most classes we were offered cake, biscuits or sweets and even soup! By the time we sat down to school lunch we were already pretty full.

Our visit ended with a presentation in the chapel on the theme of “all we need is love”.

After a guided tour of the town centre we went back to our hotels to change for our evening at the State theatre where the premiere of the ballet ‘Odysseus’ was being performed. From our seats at the front of the balcony we had a great view of the splendours of the theatre building and also the dance performed below us.

Goodbyes were said on the steps of the theatre although three of the schools represented were travelling on the same early morning flight to Prague.

A long wait at the airport was swapped for a quick visit to the centre of Prague where we had lunch and a whistle-stop tour of the Old Town Square and Charles Bridge (where I met someone I know who lives in Harmby!)

Since my last report in October a lot of work has been done at West Burton School for this project which involves a partnership between six European school.

We made Christmas cards, tree decorations and Easter cards which we sent to each school and we have worked hard on the main activity, an art project.

The three teachers from West Burton School left Redmire at 4am on the Tuesday of May half-term to go to Durham-Tees Valley airport. After changing in Amsterdam we arrived in Bergen, Norway.

A three-hour bus journey took us down the Norwegian coast; part of the journey was on a ferry. We were surrounded by beautiful scenery and the sun shone.

We reached the town of Haugesund by mid-afternoon, checked into our hotels and went out to explore.

The next day, after a trip to the information centre, we walked around the area, taking in the atmosphere and getting very wet!

At 7 o’clock two of our hosts arrived to take us to the home of the teacher coordinator from Lillesund School for a meal. By this time the teachers from our partner schools in Tonisvorst, Germany and Pudsey had arrived. The Slovak and Czech teachers came later that evening making 13 visitors in total.

The following morning we were met by a group of pupils from 6th grade (year 7) who escorted us to the school. Here the school band greeted us and inside children filled the staircase to sing to us.

There are three classes in each year group so the visitors divided into 3 groups and one lot visited the A classes, one the B classes and one the C classes. (Just names, they are not graded). In this way we saw classes equivalent to our years 2 to 7.

After lunch, rather early at around 11.30 we were escorted by Karl Jorgen on a sightseeing tour of the area’s Viking past.

Karl Jorgen was principal of Lillesund School until he retired in 2006. Some of us had met him in York in October 2005.

Again the sun shone and we enjoyed finding out about the history of Norway, the Vikings and the first king who is buried in Haugesund. Later we made our way to a small jetty where a boat collected us and after picking up some of the Norwegian teachers at the quayside in the town we sailed to the small island of Feoy where after a short walk we came to a restaurant and a seafood buffet.

The next day we had a planning meeting. We are hoping the project will continue for 2 more years and we needed to plan activities for the children to do that will help them to learn more about the culture of our European partners.

We exchanged the main piece of work from Year 1 which is a calendar made from the artwork created by pupils in each school from the nominated artist from each country. I saw several classes studying the work of Mackenzie Thorpe in Lillesund School.

After lunch in town we visited a kindergarten. Children up to our Year 1 happily play all day. There was no sign of letters or numbers in the newly built kindergarten. They come later!

Then a visit to see the mayor, in the imposing pink town hall, another ex pupil of Karl Jorgen. He had been principal for many years and so had connections all through the town.

The visit ended with a meal in one of the quayside restaurants where we said goodbye to friends old and new.

For the UK teachers there was a bus trip further down the coast to Stavanger the next day. Again beautiful scenery and the sun shone. We had a couple of hours to wander round the town of Stavanger, see the warships in the harbour and visit the cathedral before our flight home.

It was another great experience, following my first trip to Germany last October. We are hoping to meet up again in Slovakia in October 2007.

November 2006

During this October half term I visited Dusseldorf, Germany for the first project meeting. Nine teachers from the partner schools attended and I travelled with two teachers from St Joseph’s School in Pudsey.

The first evening teachers from the German school, GGS Huelstrasse in Tonisvorst (a town west of Dusseldorf) entertained us at the home of the German teacher we had met in York, who lives in Dusseldorf.

Day Two was spent writing the application for year two and planning work for the children for the rest of year one, This involves sending cards, making Christmas decorations to hang on a tree and an art project studying the work of an artist chosen by each school.

The evening saw us walking along the banks of the Rhine and exploring the old town, before sampling the food in a German restaurant.

Fortunately the project is run in English and many of the German teachers spoke some English. The school is for children in years 2 to 5. There are around 90 children in each year group. The most asked question was about school uniform. The UK schools are the only ones to wear uniform. They were also amazed to find West Burton has only 45 children in the whole school.

We were generously entertained to a bring and share lunch by the teachers who would normally go home after finishing school at 1pm. After this we went to see the after school hours activities. Over a 100 children stay for the afternoon and choose from a variety of activities some of which take place in a magnificent Sports Hall, other activities take place in the rooms used by the kindergarten in the morning.

We enjoyed a farewell meal in the evening (in a Spanish restaurant, we like to be truly European!). We continued to celebrate the birthday of the teacher from the Czech Republic who had ‘Happy Birthday to You’ sung in many different languages during the course of the day

We were sad to say goodbye. As a group of teachers aged from 26 to 52 we are very different and come from many different backgrounds but we have become good friends over the last year. We keep in touch through joint emails. We look forward to meeting again in Norway in the May half- term.