Brize Norton Primary School
Global School - Europe - Comenius Project

COMENIUS PARTNERSHIP 2009 - 2011

Our project is:

Sharing outdoor experiences in our way to become a European citizen.

See some of our partnership work below or look at our display in school.

FRENCH VISIT - 9TH JUNE 2011

On Thursday 9th June the staff and children visited us from our partner school in Bordeaux. The children joined Class 3 for a treasure hunt and team building activities in the morning and in the afternoon we all visited Blenheim Palace. It was a great day, enjoyed by all!

More pictures here

COMENIUS FESTIVAL - MAY 2011

On Monday 23rd May Mr Smith, Miss Grant and Mrs Dickson went to Bordeaux with four children from Class 4 to take part in the Comenius festival. We left Brize Norton at 3.45am full of excitement. During the week we visited a sand dune, sang and dance, enjoyed a meal in Bordeaux, took part in a water festival and much more. We made many friends, found a great deal about growing up in France and our French even improved! Read our full report here. See more photos here.

SPANISH TRIP - 2-6TH MAY 2011

In early May, Miss Kerr and Mrs Byng made a second visit to Sanlucar in Spain to explore in more detail what they had discovered on their first visit in 2010 and to take what they had learnt and teach some classes of children. Here is an extract from their report:

We decided to teach an art lesson, as text books are used for everything in Spanish schools and the children rarely get to paint or make anything. Between us we devised an activity that would involve colour mixing, cutting and gluing, we decided to make fish kites! We took powder paint onto the plane, paintbrushes and collage materials. The teaching was novel as neither of us spoke any Spanish, having to rely on somebody else's classroom management was a little tricky, we would give an instruction, which was then translated. It was frustrating if we could tell children needed to move on but we had no language to step in and instruct or help them. Other than that the experience was amazing, the children were so excited about painting and so interested in the colour mixing, every piece was different and the range of colours was fantastic. Read our full report here

POLAND TRIP ­ APRIL 2011

Mrs Drake, Mrs Byng and Mrs Bostock visited our partner school in Klodzko, Poland from 11th to 15th April. Here is an extract from their report, ‘As we entered the classrooms, the children got up and said ‘Good Morning’ to us in English.  They all seemed to be much taller for their age than our British, French and German counterparts.  There was no school uniform and the classes were small with only 15 or 16 children.’ Read the full report here. See photos here

GERMAN TRIP - OCTOBER 2010

On the 4th October Miss Kerr and Miss Grant left a rather wet Oxford to visit one of our partner schools in Esslington, Germany. Esslingen is a beautiful town, and full of character. It was never bombed in the war, so a lot of original buildings still exist and have been superbly kept. The visit to the school was perhaps the most interesting aspect of the trip. It is fascinating to be a part of the everyday lives of people in other countries, there are a great many similarities as well as differences. The school has a strong Montessori ethos. Each day they have an hour of free work in which they select the tasks they want to do from their own individual programme. The teacher will interact with the children 1:1 and can address issues or facilitate their learning. The Montessori system means that learning can be fully personalised for each child so that a range of ages can work at different levels in the same class. This part of the day is done in virtual silence, only whispering is allowed. It's incredibly calm.  As teachers, we both felt that watching the children's learning and interaction with the Montessori resources was very inspiring and we have brought back some ideas to use at Brize Norton. Read more here. See photos here.

POLAND TRIP - JUNE 2010

In June 2010, Miss Perkins and Miss Grant went to visit our partner school in Klodzko, Poland. During the trip Miss Perkins and Miss Grant met with the coordinators from all of the partner schools to review the first year of our project. Sharing outdoor experiences in our way to become a European citizen, and to plan all the exciting activities to take place next year. They also got to observe teaching and learning in the school, talk to children, watch concerts and even appeared on Polish television! See more pictures here.

COMENIUS PROJECT PUPIL VISIT

Our Comenius project ''Sharing outdoor experiences on our way to becoming a European citizen' is well underway. The children are currently busy preparing to welcome children from each of the schools in May. Four children from each country will be staying with host families. During the week all of our children will be involved in a partnership games festival, Comenius theme day and some children will spend a day at the Cotswold Wildlife Park with our visitors. The children have been busy deciding on a playground game to teach the children in our partner schools. We decided on 40/40 in. The children in all classes have prepared instructions that Miss Perkins took to Spain with her. We have received instructions from each of our partner schools and look forward to interpreting and learning their games before our games festival.  See more pictures  here

COMENIUS PUPIL VISIT - 17TH - 21ST MAY 2010

Our Comenius week was a great success and enjoyed by all. On Monday 17th May partners from Spain, Poland and France arrived in Brize Norton to enjoy a week of activities planned around our partnership theme, ''Sharing outdoor experiences on our way to becoming a European citizen'. On the Tuesday morning we welcomed our visitors with greetings and songs in each of the languages. We then enjoyed a fantastic games festival involving games from each of the partner countries. The children and staff loved this and especially liked the English cream tea! On Wednesday our oldest children and host children enjoyed a day out at the Cotswold Wildlife Park with our visitors followed by tea and a Party in the Park. Our week ended with an activity day on Thursday with all children involved in a range of activities inside and out including Spanish dance, French cooking, orienteering and Polish art. It was very sad to say farewell to our new friends on Friday. We will all remember this trip for a long time especially those children who had visitors stay with them. Here are a few comments about the week:

• This was the best week ever' (Reception child)

• Everything we did will be my favourite memories' (Year 4 child)

• I wish the week was longer' (Year 3 child)

• A thoroughly engaging week for all of the children' (Parent)

• An exposure to different cultures and languages like this is invaluable' (Parent)

See more photos here.

 

 

COMENIUS TRIP TO SPAIN - FEBRUARY 2010

Mrs Byng and I had the most fantastic time in Spain last week! Visiting the Princess Sofia School was so interesting. There are around 600 pupils, and 39 teachers. The children are 3 when they start school; all children do a full day from 9 until 2, stopping for half an hour at 11.30 for a snack and a play outside. The children carry all of their books in rucksacks, like our children do when they go to secondary school, but the rucksacks have wheels and they trolley them home! Apart from the very young children, all are taught quite formally, even 6 year olds were sat in rows working from text books for most of the day.  Read the full report here. See more photos here.

COMENIUS PROJECT 2009-2001 TRIP TO BORDEAUX

Before half term Mr Smith and Miss Perkins went to visit one of two of our partner schools in Gradignan, a suburb of Bordeaux. Ecole Elementaire Malartic is a primary school with 137 pupils and Ecole Maternelle Malartic is a pre-school with 79 pupils ranging from 3 to 5 years of age. During the week Mr Smith and Miss Perkins met with the teachers from the Polish, Spanish, French and German schools to plan our project,  'Sharing outdoor experiences on our way to becoming a European citizen'. Before they went we made shoe boxes filled with work and gifts that we felt represented our school. In return we have received a box back from each school, to help us learn more about school life in each country. See more photos here.