Our Diverse Places in a Cohesive Europe

Name of member(s) of staff or governor(s) of the school on mobility Svetla Valova, Hristina kalaydzhieva

Mobility destination Vsters, Sweden Dates of mobility 10-13th October 2013

Mobility Report & Evaluation

10-13th October 2013

Our Diverse Places in a Cohesive Europe

(Developing Cultural Awareness and the Promotion of Toleration and Understanding)

Evaluation Report for mobilities

All staff or governors of Partner Schools who go on a Comenius EU-funded mobility must complete this Evaluation Report. It will help us to track the impact of mobilities on the overall aims of the Partnership. We also need to record how we are meeting all of the objectives of the Partnership. All mobilities are reported upon to the national agencies of each Partner School. One report is sufficient even if there is more than one person on mobility. All boxes do not have to be completed if any are irrelevant to a particular mobility. Suggestions for future action are welcomed. The sections of the report relate directly to the Partnership's objectives and strategy as laid out in the EU-funded contract.

a. Has the mobility strengthened your understanding of the rationale behind the Partnership? YES/ NO Please circle a. to develop pupils' awareness of local, national and European traditions and cultures through the medium of the How? / Why not? Arts All the participants got to know each other personally, exchanged their contact addresses and made future plans for further partnership. The collaboration was extremely fruitful. We were able to learn amazing facts about our partner schools,students and local areas. We saw daily school life of pupils at Irsta school.

b. Will this mobility help you to meet the objectives of the Partnership? How? / Why not?

YES/ NO Please circle

The Coordinator explained in thorough detail all the acitivites and we discussed the process of their implementation. In addition, we extended some of them. Individal tasks were allocated to each Partner. During the mobility we spoke about our school with pupils from Irsta school and coompared both school systems. We used English a lot and it was very useful for us and for the Swedish pupils as they could practise the language. We had the opportunity to compare education in Sweden with that in our country and we widely appreciated the school buildings as we realized the the atmospere is much quieter and calmer than in our school. 2|Page As for ethnicity, we noticed that there were few pupils from different ethnic backgrouds, yet there were welcomed and accepted by the majority.

c. Is there any area of training as part of the professional development programme (CPD) which would help you on future mobilities? Please explain.

YES/ NO Please circle

Continuous language development is crucial for further mobilities. Some of us need more practice in IT in order to be able to use eTwinning, videoconferencing and Skype.

d. Which of the European Added Value criteria have been supported by this mobility? (1,3,4,5,8,9,12,15)

Indicate numbers only

e. Which of the Impact criteria have been supported by this mobility? (1,2,3,4,5,6,8) 7

Indicate numbers only

f. How will you develop close and purposeful contacts between Partner Schools which leave a legacy for the schools and enhance the future life choices for pupils? For the semester October-February 2014 we will exchange letters and emails with 10-year-old pupils from the UK and prepare a videoconference with Poland. The puprose of these activities is to enhance language communicative skills and childrens confidence in using English as a foreign language. Other activites that emerged from the P&R Meeting and which are in accordance with the Action Plan are to learn about Partner Schools, exchange and watch the presentations, search for the location of each school on the Internet and make a noticeboard of these.

g. How will you develop and enhance pupils' views of themselves as contributing European citizens? Pupils asked school staff about daily life at school and they realized, that school is a very complex institution, not only a place where teaching is implemented. Another activity is the description of school and towns annual holidays and celebrations and making a video of the towns places of interest. All these outputs will be displayed at school and shared with other Partners.

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h. How will you promote good teaching practice within Partner Schools and its dissemination to a wider audience? We have designed and ordered a noticeboard which is to be put on the schools front facade and is to inform the school and wider community about the partnership, its members and the fact that the partnership is funded by the EU, Programme Lifelong Learning and is implemented under Sector Programme Comenius. We are also going to establish a Comenius corner in the main school lounge, where photos and examples of the activities along the partnership will be displayed. The Partnerships main aims and planned act ivities were presented to the staff at a staff meeting.

i. How will you enable pupils to share their lives, languages, schools and communities via a range of mediums and enhance their future life opportunities? Children are in the process of designing postcards which they are going to send to The UKs partner school via post and eventually they are going to exchange e-mails. Thus they can practise English and share their life experiences and opinions. Children have the opportunity to go through other Partner School presentations and to look for the school on the Google maps.

j. How will you disseminate widely to all interested parties the outcomes of this mobility? The noticeboard which is going to be put on the schools facade will info rm the wider community about the partnership. We have publicised the Partnership in the local newspaper, as well as on all locally important websites. We are currently working on creating a Comenius Portal and our Travel Mascots blog at the schools websi te. Special leaflets are being distributed amongst parents/carers and pupils.

k. How in relation to the current Action Plan will you produce programmes of work which are cognisant of the needs and aspirations of pupils with special needs and those who are gifted and talented in particular areas? Pupils of all abilities are involved in the Partnership, they became members of pupils teams and they implement all the activities in accordance with the Action Plan.

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l. How can we maximise opportunities within mobilities to enhance relationships between staffs and develop a wider European perspective in their operational curriculums? All the teachers involved in the Partnership will keep contact and exchange their teaching ideas and good practice. Within the school we have made school teams for the first semester to implemet activities for this period. We have regular meetings to evaluate progress.

m. Comments - please refer to all aspects of the mobility. Did any aspect work particularly well? What suggestions do you have for improvements or alterations to the functioning of the Partnership?

The mobility was very benefitial for us as we had the opportunity to visit a Scandinavian school and observe different lessons in person. We were very impressed by the atmosphere, both relaxed and cretive, during the lessons and especially during the breaks and in the school canteen. The fact that we found most inspiring is that education in Swedenn is completely free and children there are provided with everything necessary for their schooling by the government. We also liked the staff room very much. The friendly working atmosphere obviously encourages staff to perform best at school. During the lessons we noticed that pupils work independently and they are very motivated. Different tasks for children of different abilities was also a visible feature of each lesson. We also appreciated the fact that the Swedish school provides enough practice during all lessons. We were impressed by the home economics facilities, which enable students to practise cooking, woodwork, sewing . Last but not least, we were amazed at seeing the studio where students can make videos, prepare students shows and express freely their views on topical issues in a creative atmosphere.

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