COMENIUS PROJECT MEETING IN SLOVENIA
(Primary School Jurij Vega, Moravče, 11th October – 13th October 2011)
In October 2011 our school organized a Comenius project meeting within the international school partnerships project with the topic ‘Now and Then – Insight into our grandparents times’. We hosted 24 teachers and 24 pupils from Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. The teachers stayed in a beehive centre and hotel ‘Pri Čebelici’ at Brdo pri Lukavici. The pupils stayed with the families and their host friends.
On the first day the teachers went for a cultural and an environmental trip around Slovenia. We visited Postojna cave, told the legend about Erazmus and took a photo in front of his Predjama castle. We continued our trip to Lake Bled, rowed to the little island and pulled the wishing bell. Our trip ended in a small medieval town Radovljica, where we visited a traditional ginger bread museum and tasted traditional Slovene food. The pupils from abroad first got to know their classes and our school. After two regular lessons at school they and their host pupils were taken to an adventure park Geoss, where they had fun and got to know each other better.
On the second day we wished to show the guests around our schools and kindergarten. First we visited the branch school Vrhpolje, where the children and their teachers awaited us with a warm welcome. Also in Moravče children were hardly waiting for the arrival of the guests. Older pupils showed them around the school and the kindergarten. In the teachers’ room our teachers offered the guests homemade sweets with our famous ‘strong’ coffee. Foreign teachers were also invited to attend regular lessons in order to get an impression of our everyday school life. In the afternoon all countries presented their schools and countries to our younger pupils – the project classes. At the same time our children presented themselves with singing and dancing. They were greatly honoured and enthusiastic to perform for our foreign guests. After lunch the teachers visited a nearby Castle Tuštanj and were given a short tour around the old part of Ljubljana. The rest of the afternoon and evening was free to explore the town on their own. Foreign pupils had some regular lessons in their hosts’ classes, visited Tuštanj Castle and the branch school Vrhpolje. The afternoon they spent with their host families. Their special event came in the evening – a walk with torches along educational path Rača Trail (a river with old water mills), followed by bonfire and chestnut barbecue and accompanied with accordion.
The third day was devoted to project activities. It was also the day with most activities where teachers and pupils had the opportunity to mingle, talk and exchange ideas, addresses… First our guests presented their countries and project activities on the stalls in the school hall. They were visited by all children and teachers of our school. Pupils from abroad also took part in an art workshop where they first got to know the Legend of Ljubljana Dragon and then created their own pieces of art on this topic. Their products will be part of an international art extempore in May 2012, organized by our art teacher. In the second half of the morning there was a Festival of games and dances in the school gym. Individual schools presented their traditional songs and dances and invited our pupils and teachers to dance along. In the afternoon the main event took place in the town hall: Festival of Legends. All countries presented their legends to our older pupils, parents, teachers and local authorities. The performances were combined with Festival of Old Slovene Songs, sung by our former pupils. Afterwords local women of Moravče handicraft section presented and sold their articles and we could taste some typical local food.
In the evening all members of the project evaluated the meeting and made plans for the Comenius meeting in Italy. Accompanied by beautiful music of the local tambura group we were happy to hear our guests saying how much they enjoyed their staying in Slovenia and would love to visit our country again. For us, it was an honour and pleasure to host these most wonderful and kind people!
The Slovenian Comenius team
(C) Andreja Vavpetič & Zdenka Wicher
