Booklet

One of our project's final products was a 5-part booklet. They are downloadable here.
First part is communication.
Second part is logg activities.
Third part is legends
Fourth part is SEN (Special education needs).

Project-meeting Bowes, Barnard Castle-Wonderful days in the heart of England.

Participants:


Poland: 5 teachers

Estonia: 2 teachers, 1 headmaster

Wales: 4 teachers, 1 headmaster

Norway: 5 teachers, 1 headmaster, 1 deputy headmaster.
England: everybody! Children, parents, staff, husbands, government!

Thursday May 20th:

Arriving our destination, Barnard Castle. Our accommodation was spread all over town in cosy guesthouses and pubs. We were all very satisfied.

Dinner at The Old Well. Meeting old and new friends.

Friday May 21st - Schoolvisit

At 9.15 we were picked up in a minibus and brought to Bowes. We were warmly welcomed by all the 49 pupils of Bowes Hutchinsons Primary School. After coffee we were divided into smaller groups and guided in around school by very talented and friendly pupils.

We really enjoyed your school! Both indoor and outdoor environment was very inspiring and gave us many good ideas of how to arrange LOTS of activities in a relatively small area. We were impressed with the quality of both exterior, resources and systems and teaching.

We experienced a good atmosphere where every child could learn and use their abilities. Everyone we met, both pupils and teachers, were very patient and and open minded to our many questions.

We were impressed with  the quality of your displays, your Secret Garden, The Griffalo Trail and your field. Also we were inspired your Buddies, your school lunches and your Family Groups.

 But most of all we could sense the importance of people. We think you are very lucky to have such a good staff and leadership in Bowes, with enthusiasm and initiative in running the school.

We experienced Bowes School as an overall including, warm and very professional school. Thank you for inviting us in!

After lunch at the pub ,The Ancient Unicorn, we went back school,where 9 talented children from DramaClub showed us the English Legend, “The Lambthorn Worm”.

Later we were introduced to the last 2 productions from Poland and England. All good work from all schools.









 Project management stayed behind while the rest of the teachers returnedto their accommodation.
Project meeting- Outcome/Decisions:

• Final report. Wales has started working on the report, and will bring the file to Norway next meeting , where we will fulfill the report together. Wales are piloting a translation-programme, which they will try out on the report in Norwegian, Polish and Estonian. The rest of us will fill in the parts of the report that concerns ourselves only. 
• Legend file. Wales is working on the final multimedia file of the legend. The result will be highlights and pieces from all 5 productions.
  
• Dictionary. Last sound files are now taped. The dictionary will be introduced through the blog only, not on a DVD.
  
• Products. Norway has been working on booklets showing what this project has been about. It is not a demand from our NA’s to send in any products, but it may be something that will be appreciated anyway: 1)The products will document that the planned activities took place, and must be kept at school, in case our NA will check up on us. 2) The product is a good way to disseminate the project towards our Governing bodies, press and not least, towards other schools interested in starting up a Comenius project.3) It is an easily accessible way for the schools to look back on our work together. .A short version of 2 years work.
  
• Norway wil finish our booklets and put them together in a folder which Wales will bring for our last meeting. The legend DVD will also fit into this folder.
• Next visit.10 persons will come to Norway in June. We will work on the report, visit schools and explore the local festival. Sissel will look into the possibility to see the Peagant rehearsal on Friday, since Poland and Estonia will leave Saturday.

Dinner

We were picked up in cars and driven to Cotherstone, where we had a delicious meal at The Fox and Hounds restaurant. We had a great evening and killed a rabbit on the way home.


Saturday May 22nd.

Free time to experience Barnard Castle before we went to Durham.

At County Hall we were welcomed by The Chief executive and his wife, as well of the man in charge of International school cooperation in County Durham. We are flattered they took the time to invite us in on a Saturday. We had a nice lunch together before saying goodbye and exploring Durham on our own.

Durham was a nice town, which we enjoyed in a marvelous weather with 28 degrees Celsius. The Durham Cathedral was impressing, and lucky as we are, we even got to experience a rehearsing symphony orchestra with opera singers and a full choir. Powerful!

After a quiet bus ride home we got ready for our next cultural lesson: The Ceilidh!

A lot of people, parents and staff had worked for days and hours to arrange the party event on Bowes Village Hall. We were met by a full Band an an extremely energetic Folkdance teacher, who kept us busy all night. In between we were served dinner, Pimms and cakes, and enjoyed the company of local people in a very very friendly and jolly atmosphere. What a night!

English legend

The Lambton Worm

a story about John Lambton

When he was young he went fishing at the river one Sunday morning. He caught a strange looking fish. The fish was a slithery and long green worm. John was angry that he had only caught a worm so he threw it in a nearby well. He could not be bothered to take it home.

Lambton went to fight in a war. He joined some brave knights. Very soon he forgot about the ugly worm in the well.

Meanwhile ... in the well the worm grew long and fat with huge yellow teeth and eyes as big as saucers.

It looked like it was going to explode. It grew a big mouth like a deep dark cave.

Soon it crawled from the well and when it was thirsty it drank milk from a field of cows.

The worm often ate calves, lambs and sheep. When he had eaten everything he could, he wrapped his tail seven times around Pensher Hill.

Soon the news crossed the seas to the ears of brave Sir John. So John crossed all the seas to catch and fight the awful beast.

So let’s drink to brave Sir John. He kept babies from harm. He saved cows and calves and sheep and lambs by chopping the worm in two.

That is the story of Sir John Lambton and the Lambton Worm.

Polish legend

The Legend of the Devil's Hand

A long time ago, not far away from Lublin a widow with three children lived. The woman had a very dificult life ploughing with oxen and cultivating the soil is a man's job. The woman loved her children very much and she could sacrifice everything to make them happy. The soil was fertile, the house had yet been built by her husband so they somehow coped with it.
One day, a noble man, the owner of neighbouring areas sent one of his servants to the widow with information that the lord wanted to buy her lands together with the buildings. The offer would be very interesting but the lord offered such a small amount of money that the widow wouldn't afford to buy even a tiny flat to make her life easier. The woman turned down the offer. A few days later the servant came back giving even less money and tried to convince her that she would regret not accepting it. The woman refused again.
Few more days passed when suddenly in the middle of the night some strange noises and bangs woke the widow up. Her house was on fire and her children were inside. She was terrified, woke her children up, took the youngest one in her arms, grabbed the box with documents and money (for it is known that in the past all important documents and money were kept together) and jumped out of the window at the last moment... The house with all belongings burnt completely.

The widow brought a case to the court in Lublin.When the day of the court case came the widow went there with her children. The noble man arrived there too together with some witnesses whom he took from the local pub, so they testified what the man wanted. The case started. The widow presented her version of what had happened but she had the impression that nobody listened to her. She had no witnesses to confirm her story. Afterwards, it was the noble and his people who told their version.
"The widow is lying, she set fire by herself and she wrongfully wants to trick the money out."-they said. "The noble is a good, decent and innocent man!" - the witnesses assured. The verdict was announced: the noble is innocent and the widow is expected to apologise to the man for false accusations and pay for the cost of the process.
"What are we supposed to do," the widow cried hugging her children, "where are we going to live? Even the devil would judge the case fairly!"
No sooner had she spoken those words than it suddenly boomed and rustled in the Tribunal and the devil appeared. "Even I can't stand such justice! We should start the case from the beginning!" said he.
Frightened judges wouldn't dare to oppose the devil and the second case started so different from the first one. The judges listened to the widow attentively and the witnesses told the truth. The devil announced the verdict: "The noble is guilty and he is expected to rebuild and equip the widow's house. What is more, false witnesses should be flogged in public so as they wouldn't lie any more."
The judges signed the verdict and the devil sealed it with his own hand. He did it with a such strengh that the mark of devil's hand on the table to this day is a visible testimony to that process and warns all judges against giving false and unjust verdicts.

The legend was translated from Polish to English bu Klaudia Wawszczak from our Polish partner school in Swidnik.

Here we go again!

Wales, England, Poland and Norway have decided to apply for another project together! We are very happy with our cooperation, and feel we have more work to do together! At the moment we are inviting new schools into the project, and have received positive respond from two Turkish schools. We are waiting for answers from Iceland and Denmark as well. On the 7 th of January Wales, Norway, Poland and England meet in Newcastle to form a new application. Time is a short factor, so we need to get things going fast! We are very happy to have the opportunity to make a new application together! Wait and see what happens!

• Outline for new project:
  We have decided to build a school-development project, focusing on different aspects of our schools and countries pedagogy and methodologies.
• 
  Topics to explore together could be:
  The early years. ( 3-7 years old children)
  Learning through play
  Different learning environments/ Working with Multiple Intelligences
  Different ways of giving feedback and assessment
  The starting age for school in terms of learning and provision.

• Working in this project would include
  Having a very tight focus.
  There would have to be an element of shared pupils work and outcomes as part of the project
  We would have to evaluate the impact on learning etc
  Teachers visiting eachother Language and ICT-training

Project-meeting in Lublin 5th- 9th. November 2009

Our 4th meeting took place in Lublin in Poland. We had much fun and enjoyed fantastic hospitality from our host Magda and her crew. We were happy to see many of our Polish friends again, and to meet new ones. It was a great experience to see your school and meet your pupils in their everyday life. Thank you so much, Magda and all the rest of you friendly Polish teachers! Here is a resyme from our trip:

Thursday After a night in Warsaw, the Welsh and the Norwegian team met onboard the train to Lublin. We were happy to see everyone again. Magda and friends met us at the trainstation and led us to the wonderful Vanilla Hotel in Lublir centre. Also Estonian and English team had arrived safely, and we all enjoyed our welcome-dinner at Vanilla Restaurant.

Friday was schoolvisit-day. We were picked up quite early by Greg, and brought straight to Swidnik by bus. Here we entered the very big school no 5, and were treated with cakes and coffee in the library. We were warmly welcomed by the nice headteacher, before entering class 0 for their morning session.

Later we were guided around school by 3 very polite young men, and also attended various classes.

Finally we were introduced to the Polish legend about the Devils Handprint, very lively presented by students. We were also entertained by very talented childeren, a choire, dance-

groups, cheerleaders and a very special charming young pop-star. We enjoyed the entertainment a lot!!

Lunch was held in the Town Hall, where Mayor Thomas welcomed us and told us about schoolsystem in Swidnik. The result from the Borni-legend was presented, and finally the Polish Treasure-boxes were handed out. Before heading back to Lublin we had a stroll around Swidnik centre, and visited a very special restaurant from the Communist-times. Very authentic, according to Magda. Even the staff was the same as in the 60'ies...Friday night was a lively evening in dinner and dancing at restaurant Czarcia Łapa. A very lively night!

Saturday we went for a guided tour in Old Town and Lublin castle.

Later on our guide took us to see Majdanek Concentration camp Museum. A very heavy experience, but also important. We were all taken by the tragedy of which we were reminded, but also glad that we took the time to face this part of our common Europes history. This visit made a huge impression on all of us, and we thank Magda for giving us the opportunity.

Saturday night was last night in Lublin, and what a night! Our Polish hosts took us to Sielsko Anielsko Traditional Folk Restaurant, and treated us with loads of different delicious dishes and vodka.

There were singing and music to go, and we had a great night together. We have a fantastic friendly atmosphere amongst us, don't you agree?

Sunday was farewell, Wales left early, while Estonia, England and Norway was heading for a night in Warsaw. Monica, Jolla and Magda- propably exhausted- came to say goodbye and make sure we really left! We thank all of the Polish team for having us and making our stay unforgettable. A special thanks is for a very special woman: Magda: You rule!

Borni's legend - Estonian comics

Our students loved Borni's legend. They all felt sorry for her because of the vikings and the troll, but they all were happy when Borni didn't have to marry Weathervane.

Here is what we have done: