Our Comenius project

We are the people we have been waiting for.... is  the name of our Comenius project.

Now in the second year, we are working with schools in Ireland, Slovakia, Finland and with our UK partner, Jervoise Primary School in Birmingham. Funding comes from the EU and our project centres on Making A Difference at a local and European level and is linked to addressing environmental issues.
Last week, we had 3 members of staff Mr El Sayed, Mrs Riley and Mrs Whitwam return from a very successful project meeting in Vaasa, Finland. The trio have returned to school with lots of ideas for developing our Comenius work, especially around  Seagullsreuse (see blog: making a difference with paint), great ideas about teaching seen in Finland and many treasured memories. Our Finnish colleagues were the most amazing hosts (Thank you Hanna and the team) and we have already started getting our heads together to plan for November when we host a visit from all our partners! We will be calling on the whole Cookridge community to help.
Also as part of this Comenius project, we have some very excited children in school! It is now only a matter of a few weeks until 11 Year 5 pupils jet off to visit our Comenius partner school in Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland.  This incredible opportunity will take our international work to another level- children working with other children face to face with their international partners! Let's hope this will just be the beginning...Mrs Speak

Time to celebrate our achievements!

Two international awards gained in a week!

We should all be feeling very proud of our international achievements this week! I am delighted to inform you that we have been re accredited with the full International School Award. This has been awarded for the next 3 years and demonstrates our commitment to international work from our amazing international themed events such as international Cookridge week, international themes in our curriculum,  to our recognised international school partnerships. I would like to personally thank each and every one you ; parents, children and staff. This is an award that cannot be achieved without full school support- THANKS! 
Shukran!
Gracias!

Go raibh mile maith agaibh!

 look out for the logo!

eTwinning is a platform for children to work on collaborative projects across Europe- they can be as short or as long as we want them to be and can be around any subject, involve a small group of children, whole class or whole school. They give children a real audience to share their work with as well as motivating, improving key skills and cultural awareness. Of course because it is an e-platform ICT features heavily too!

 

Mr El Sayed and Senorita Castro worked with our Second Language Learners (EAL) last term with a school in Spain to develop writing in English and Spanish (the children in Spain native Catalan speakers were learning Spanish). We were amazed by the results and I know the children loved receiving letters from their friends in Spain.

The second award we received was the eTwinning Quality Label for a project some of the current Year 5s took part in last term with Mrs Smith (now at Rainville Primary School)

 Do you want to hear a story? with partner schools in Poland and Turkey. The children developed their reading skills, filming themselves reading and sharing the wonderful new guided reading books in school. There was a lot of self and group evaluation to ensure there reading was spot on! Well done boys and girls. The project has been entered into the eTwinning national awards in June, so fingers crossed! All the best, Mrs Speak

Can you spot the plaque in the entrance to school?