New clans: group and individuality: Stereotypes work by pupils aged 14-15 yrs

New clans: group and individuality: Stereotypes work by pupils aged 14-15 yrs

Stereotypes work by pupils aged 14-15 yrs

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Design Project

Here are some keyring designs from Design Technology

Hello from Thomas More Catholic School

Dear all,
Thought I would say hello to you all. Our pupils are really looking forward to visiting Spain in February. It should be a great learning experience.

Best wishes

Mrs Tucay (England)

A Little Bit of Each Country

Here are the works we've been doing here in Merijärvi during this school year. You can find all of these works on our web page http://www.merijarvi.fi/. There you'll find the links education and Comenius.

Our Village – Merijärvi
Merijärvi is situated in northern Ostrobothnia near Oulu. Merijärvi is a little, but lively village. There are about 1,200 inhabitants in Merijärvi. The municipality manager is Mrs. Kaija Eskola.
All the basic services can be found in Merijärvi. There are a school, a library, a sports hall called Kilpukka, a sheltered housing Salmenranta, a health care center and a little grocery store Sale and a gas station.

The main sources of livelihood are agriculture, small- scale industry and services.
Sights of Merijärvi are e.g. the Lutheran Church, the local history museum Tähjä and of course the beautiful nature in Merijärvi.
There are classes 0-9 in Koivupuhto School. There is also a preschool here. We have about 200 students; in primary school there are about 150 students and in secondary school about 60 students. We have 20 teachers. We study English, Swedish, mother tongue; Finnish, maths, biology, geography, physics, chemistry, household, sports, crafts, arts and crafts, civics, religion, word processing and agriculture and forestry. We have 30 hours a week. Free school lunch is served in our school every day. During our school year we have an autumn holiday (one week), a Christmas holiday (two weeks), a winter holiday (one week), Easter holiday ( four days) and a summer holiday (two months).

This is our school called Koivupuhto. This is the sports hall of Merijärvi, Kilpukka. You can do sports and organize parties here.

This is the library of Merijärvi. There you can read newspapers, listen to music and borrow books which is free here. The library is open five days a week.

This is a sheltered housing of Merijärvi, Salmenranta and in the same building there is the health care center, where you can find a doctor’s and a dentist’s appointment and a children’s clinic.

The Lutheran Church of Merijärvi  was built 1781.




Written by Eveliina Saukko and Raisa Saukko.



Pictures from the Merijärvi municipality site.



Made by the support of the EU Comenius School Partnerships

First Comenius Meeting - Portugal - September 2009

It was with great pleasure that the Portuguese Team prepared everything to receive our dearest partners. We must thank our coordinator because she had a lot of work. We were all eager to meet each other again. Our Finnish partners (Leena and Jaana) brought four students who stayed at their portuguese friends homes.

The first day was spent at O’porto. Despite the rain, I think that everyone was able to enjoy this city which was classified as world heritage by Unesco in 1996. Overlooking the Douro River, Porto is one of the most ancient European cities. One of the most significant aspects of Porto and its historical centre is its landscape, combining harmony with the urban structure and presenting a frame of rare beauty. Besides its welcoming and conservative environment, Porto is also contemporany and artistic. This is shown not only in the streets, architecture, monuments and museums but also in the terraces, restaurants and leisure and shopping areas. It was a day that no one will forget.

On the 2nd day there was a reception at school and the first meeting. In the afternoon there was a tour through the town of Santo Tirso.

On the 3rd day the comenius team went to a beautiful monastery and to the house of one of the most known portuguese writers, Camilo Castelo Branco. In the afternoon, there was a 2nd meeting and then they went to Vila do Conde and Póvoa do Varzim.

On the 4th day there was a 3rd meeting at Santo Tirso public library and in the afternoon, they visited an old celtic and roman archaeological station.

On the 5th day it was time to go to “Guimarães” and visit its palace and castle. In the afternoon it was time to say goodbye.

Meanwhile our finnish and portuguese students were getting along so well that when they had to say goodbye there were many tears, kisses and hugs. Finnish girls didn’t want to go home!

We must say that everyone enjoyed portuguese food a lot! Didn’t you???

We must thank our town hall, specially Mrs Ana Maria Ferreira, who offered us a bus for the trips, a tasty lunch and some souvenirs.

How everything started - Domont, Paris

In September 2008 we finally met at Domont, Paris. Six countries; six languages; twelve teachers but all from the same continent: Europe. That was a preparatory visit in order to define the theme of the Project; the coordinator country; the activities and people involved; the meetings; but above all it was our first contact with each other after thousands of mails of questions, thoughts, ideas and desires.

We spent a fantastic week there. We worked a lot but we also amused ourselves in a city which is considered one of the most beautiful ones of the entire world.

Everything was settled: Portugal would be the coordinator country so it would be responsible for the development of the Project (big responsability!) and the theme was chosen “New clans: group and individuality”. So we only had to wait for the answers of our national agencies. We didn’t want anyone to get out of the Project so I think that everyone “prayed” a lot. The answer came in August 2009 – the Project had been approved and everyone was in.

The Project

Teenagers are always part of groups who have an influence on their behaviour, be it a family, a class, a group of friends or a virtual community. If you don’t belong to the group you are apart from real teenage social life and school life. These groups are like clans: they have their own rules and activities. But do all teenagers in Europe behave like this? The core topic of this project action is to learn to value differences and to develop through contact with difference, to reflect about one’s own behaviour and understand the dynamics of groups in a negative way , of eventual dangers and risks of the imitation as for drugs, violence and alcohol, but also to be aware of the positive aspects while staying together with the peers. Through the whole process our students will be tutored by teachers during curriculum subjects and or non-curriculum school activities. It is expected, for pupils and teachers, that familiarization with other cultures will be significantly increased, international cooperation enlarged and strengthened, second language competences improved. The project might have even an impact on pupils’ future career decisions. Teachers will have an opportunity to exchange practices of teaching methods and approaches, as well as upgrading of their professional knowledge and skills.

Introduction

In a Europe we want to be united and now almost in “Constitution”, the contact between people of different member states is of great importance.

The Comenius Multilateral Projects aim at improving the initial or in-service training of teachers and other categories of personnel working in the school education sector to develop strategies or exchange experiences to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. Each project is expected to give rise to an identifiable outcome - e.g. a new curriculum, training course, methodology, teaching strategy, teaching material - which meets the training needs of a defined group of educational staff, taking account of the realities of each participating country.

Among the priorities of the 2009 call for proposal the European Commission underlined the importance of matching the Recommendation 2006/962/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning, enabling all European citizens to acquire the basic life-skills necessary to grow up and to be active citizens.

The acquisition of such key competences, especially those considered as “transversal” (learning to learn; social and civic skills; cultural awareness and expression), in an early age is fundamental for the further cognitive and social development of pupils

This is to say that our schools are part of a partnership for a period of 2 years, under one-Comenius Multilateral Partnership. The theme that we will work with students is also important for us - "New Clans: group and individuality."

We hope that during this partnership we can broaden the horizons of our students; enrich their cultural awareness; develop their communication skills; and make them think about their role, rights and obligations as citizens of an increasingly common space.