Santa Lucia was here!

It was a rainy night in San Bassano.......but she was giving presents to children and her donkey ate a lot of hay ! Here is Santa Lucia.

A trip to the Palace

Within our next task in Comenius we visited the Mieroszewski Brothers` Palace in Będzin. We saw there an exhibition connected with old kitchen utensils used in recent times.
We have taken some pictures that we are going to use in creating our poster.

WAITING FOR SANTA LUCIA

Hello from San Bassano.
Children in our village are waiting for Santa Lucia, a blind saint coming on the 13th December. She gives presents to the good ones and leaves pieces of coal to the bad ones, so everybody must be quiet and obedient to get his presents. She also leaves cakes and candies. To carry all the stuff, she uses a nice donkey: children leave a bunch of hay on the house door to feed the donkey while Lucia brings the presents inside. Children go to bed early  and they can hear a bell jingling under their window.....they shut their eyes or the saint will throw ash in them. This is a very old tradition still followed by parents who want to make their children happy with presents.
A blue ribbon means a boy lives here, a pink one is for a girl.

bye, Cristina

A trip to a coalmine.

On 17th November our students visited a coalmine in Dąbrowa Górnicza.
We have known the work of the coalminers nowadays and in the past.

We were under the ground and we saw miners` tools which they used during their work.
The trip was really interesting and very useful in our work in Comenius.

HELLO EVERYBODY ! from San Bassano, Italy

Sorry we are so late in posting our news but we had some troubles with computers.
We had important celebrations in Italy on the first of November: people  usually remember their beloved ones with civil and religious ceremonies but this year we also commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Italian Republic ( 1861-2011) so this was the occasion to celebrate all those who gave their lives for the freedom of our country. Special military corps representatives brought flags to the tombs of the soldiers who died in the wars.

In every village we have such a celebration.
After it, usually on a cold and windy day, people go home and, where an old granny is still able to cook, they have a traditional dish made with black eyed beans and pork skin ( fagiolini con le cotiche ), served hot with crusty bread. Not everybody likes it, especially the youngs, but it is a part of North Italian culture.

Bye, Cristina from San Bassano

Hello again from Class 3

Hello!  We are today learning about the European countries and their capital cities.  We are especially learning about Poland, Italy and Spain.  We are looking forward to you visiting us in the new year.

Class 3
Stoke Prior School

Hello from Class 3, Stoke Prior School

This weekend many of us are going to go to Firework and Bonfire parties.  We celebrate Bonfire night on 5th November every year.  Many many years ago, a man called Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament but luckily the plot was discovered and Guy and his friends were killed.  Bonfires were lit all over the London area to celebrate the saving of the King.  Still today, we traditionally light bonfires on 5th November and have fireworks.  We dress up warm and have sparklers.  This week we have drawn firework pictures using chalk.  We will post some photos of our pictures for you soon.

We have written this email together as a class.  Sending you all our best wishes.

Mrs Lancaster and all of Class 3.

From England

We recently celebrated our Harvest festival where we give thanks for the crops that have been harvested during the year. Celebrations like ours are held in churches and schools all over England. We will be making posters for you about our Harvest festival. Hope you like them when you recieve them.

Our visit to Poland

Written by Mrs Goode teacher from England:

To have had the opportunity of being involved with this international link has been an extremely enlightening experience!

Travelling to Poland, to an environment of tall tenement buildings, bendy buses and crowded trams within a landscape of pine and birch forest, was metaphorically like stepping through the wardrobe in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.

The hospitality, generosity and warmth of the Polish teachers and staff, was instantly very welcoming, removing straight away any potential barriers. 

The atmosphere in Czeladz’ Special School was happy and friendly and all the children were smiley and communicative.  Standards and expectations are obviously high, and we saw some outstanding performances by the children -and teachers! (aim high whatever the difficulties and disabilities)

We were shown around the kindergarten, nearby, where each class of little ones also performed, in their circle, a repertoire of action songs.

The following day we travelled to Bedzin to a Secondary School – famously attended by the greatest Polish multifaceted artist – Stanislaw Wyspianski (1869 – 1907) – playwright, painter and poet. His legacy lives on, and together with the connection to the local theatre, the pupils are highly creative and motivated.  They showed us their promotional “Lipdub” video. Go to You Tube and punch in LIPDUB II LO “WYSPIANSKI” BEDZIN    It’s a must! (Also punch in Double E ,afterwards.) It just illustrates how the young in Europe, and probably the world round, are on the same wave length!

The next steps for activities in the Comenius project were discussed, and involves the children in Poland, Spain, Italy and England, presenting posters, DVDs and a recipe book on our chosen topics – Local food! Local festivals, old working tools and a video of traditional song and dance so there is a lot to keep teaching and learning- very European!

From Spain - Chestnut Festival

Last Thursday has been held the "Chestnut Festival" in our school. Parents have prepared special desserts made with fruits of autumn to participate in a contest. Children have made works related to the fall.
On Thursday we have roasted chestnuts and we have made apple juice (Cider) at school, and parents, children and teachers togheter have celebrate this festival that we want to share with all of you.

 

Meeting in Czeladź

On 10-14 th of October  2011 the visit of teachers from partner schools of Comenius was organised. They came to Czeladź  from Grado (Spain), Stoke Prior (Italy), San Bassamo and Grumello (Spain). During the visit teachers saw our school (Zespół  Szkół Specjalnych) in Czeladź and other friendly  educational institutions like: Kindergarten No.7 in Czeladź and  the Wyspiański  Secondary School  in Będzin.

                During the visit we showed the  partners of our school, they could observe lessons organised by our teachers e.g.  maths with interactive blackboard, English,  Polish, the therapy of movement  and classes for mentally disabled children. With a great interest teachers looked at  wall newspapers and decorations connected with Europe and Comenius Project. In the meanwhile guests could taste coffee and cakes made by our cooks. And during the supper they could try traditional Polish cuisine. Vocal and other artistic talents were presented 11 th of October (when students wanted to welcome the guests) and 13 th of October when the Teacher`s Day was celebrated. Students showed the play “Forest Clearing”, the dance “Waka Waka”. Andrzej Burzak- our great singer presented his talent and some students prepared some “Welcome words” in English. 

                We prepared a very interesting educational program of the visit. We wanted our guests to know the educational system, culture and traditions of our country. Students from the Wyspiański  Secondary School  in Będzin presented their magnificent vocal talents and knowledge of foreign languages. They spoke English, Spanish and Italian fluently. Children from Kindergarten No.7  in Czeladź sang songs and spoke poems specially for the guests.

During the visit guests visited two towns: Czeladź and Będzin. They could sightsee Roman Terms, saint Stanislaw Church, the

Market Square

, Castle  in Będzin and Mieroszewski Palace. We were hosted by the vice-mayor of the town Teresa Wąsowicz who said about schools in Czeladź, educational system, and problems connected with our towns. Then we meet  the starost of the Będzin county who told them about our district- what are the advantages and disadvantages and what to do to live in better conditions.

The next step was the visit in Zabrze: two museums of coalmines: “The Queen Luise” and “Guido”.  Guests could know traditions connected with coalmine and our regions.  They admired the working of steam engine and they could walk on the mine shaft. In “Guido” coalmine teachers sightsaw two levels: 170 and 320 meters. They saw there: stables, pavements, tools, lamps and geological exhibitions and machines used in the mine extraction.

During the visit we took a lot of photos. We gave our guests  a lot of books and leaflets about Poland- traditions, culture, nature and cuisine. We hope that it would be used for knowing  our country better by our European friends. We took part in the meetings and we were talking about next tasks connected in  the project.

Next meeting is planned  in February 2012 in Great Britain. And we can`t wait for it. We are going to miss them. 

Visit in Będzin and in the coalmine.

Visit in Czeladź

Meeting in Czeladź 10-14th October 2011 r.

Welcome Back and Our School trip.

Welcome back to a new year from Stoke Prior School. Recently Class two went on a Hedgrow Safari. We visited a local farm to find out about the wildlife that we could find their.
One of our pupils Owen, now writes his recount.

The first thing we did was get off the bus and met Finn and Lindy, they told us what we were going to do for the day.
Next we went in to the barn there were two new baby born calves.
Then we started our safari Finn showed us some traps that he had put out befoure he had supper, we caught some Bank Voles, then let them go.
At lunch time I ate my food up then I played hand stands and wheel barrow races.
After lunch we went 'Bug Catching' in a very big field.
At the end of the day I felt fantastically happy because I had a excellent day.
By Owen.


Class two on their Hedgerow Safari.

The children are also thinking about farming as part of the comenius project.

Hope the Poland Trip goes well.

From all at Stoke Prior.

From Spain

Hello,
We are here again. School year has started and we are preparing the meeting in Czeladz.I'm sure that we'll organize a lot of interesting activities for our pupils.

Hi in a New School Year!

First of September was a first day  at school after holidays.  We had a celebration- we sang songs and spoke poems. Our headteacher welcomed  us with a great smile. We are very happy to see one another after such a long break. We` ve started preparations to the visit in October in Czeladź.

Making comenius scarecrows

This week we made scarecrows at school. We made 4 and dressed them up as our 4 countries. We used the colours of the flag or traditional costumes. We hope you like the one from your country.

Love from Stoke Prior School.

Comenius Sports Day in England

Today we had our sports day. This year we themed our teams on the countries of our project. There were 4 teams-England, Italy, Poland and Spain. We had lots of races and traditional games from each country too like Asturian bowling and bocce. The team from Poland won. Each team had a flag from their country and the national anthems were played from each country too. At lunch time we had information about our project available for parents and a comenius tasting table with snacks from each of our 4 countries for parents and children to try like kabanos sausage, salami and bresaola, melon con jamon serrano and english scones with jam as well as much more.

Summer holidays in England

In the summer holidays I go to my friends house. We play water fights and go on her mini quad bike. We  go on our bikes on the fields. Sometimes we go to the beach. It is fun but it is far away. What do you do on your summer holidays?
Harriet age 8 England

School year is finishing in Spain

Students have finished the school year on 21st June, teachers will finish on 30th. We have celebrate a party with children, parents and teachers. You can see the pictures of this party soon ( http://web.educastur.princast.es/cp/vfresno/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=29  )
We'll come back in September. Happy holydays!!

pictures of Mr Barkers garden

Mr Barker's garden

Mr Barkers garden is a very important part of our school.  Mr Barker was a very good friend to our school, he would come in and listen to children read.  Also help on school trips. He also would tell us about his days in the Navy. It was very sad when Mr Barker past away. But  we have the garden to reflect on our happy memories.

Stoke Prior cross country

Hi. In February we did a big cross country run (it was really hard)only class 3 ran.

Year 4  (the younger children) ran around  a very large field.Year 5 ran with year 6 around the field through the woods through a car park then the field again. At the end there was a speech and medals were given out. One of our team had a medal then a biscuit & drink.

Dan-yr-Ogof caves Wales

On the 27th of May Stoke Prior school went to Dan-yr-Ogof caves. It was a long trip we travelled by coach it took about 2 hours. We learnt how caves, stalagmites and stalactites are formed.  We  also saw lots of different animals  I really loved the chipmuks. There was also a dinosaur park which was awesome.

Cake Sale

Hi

 A small group of children from Stoke Prior raised money for the charity Cancer Research. We raised £200pounds. We did this by selling home made cakes, chocolate and Squash. Also there was a raffle and lucky dip. There was a special assembly and we gave a cheque to the ladies from Cancer Research. We had lots of fun doing this charity project.

Nice holidays from Poland!

Our school was on the trip in the Park where we saw many miniatures  of different monuments all over the world.
For example: Big Ben, Coloseum, the Eiffel Tower and  the Statue of Liberty.
We spent nice time there and we where very happy.
We also visited zoo and fantasy park.
We had a lot of fun!!!

We hope you are going to spend nice holidays!
We will miss you!
See you in September!

These are photos from our trips:

Technical work for San Bassano - Grumello

These are photos of the work that students in San Bassano and Grumello have made ​​during the school year.
The Group of San Bassano