COMENIUS PREPARATORY VISIT AT OSNOVNA ŠOLA PIVKA

The future of European education lies in international projects. They offer a lot to the learner. They enable him to receive knowledge not just by sitting in front of a book and studying, but gives him the opportunity to experience things live and get information from the resource itself. Schools become more open and there is a constant interaction taking place between schools in different countries, making global education possible.

After two very successful Comenius projects, Bridges and Eurofolk, our school decided to start a new school project. Our pupils are very enthusiastic about getting to know their peers from different countries in Europe and the European dimension is very much alive at our school. So, we organized a preparatory meeting from 12th to 16th December, 2006 l. The coordinators who participated came from Denmark, Finland, Wales (GB), Spain, Austria and Turkey. The representative from Greece couldn't attend in person, so he joined us via a video conference.

At the meeting we planned the school as well as the mobility activities for our new project. The project will begin to evolve once it has been accepted by the Socrates National Agencies in each respective country.

After a short reception in the headteacher's office our guests were taken on a tour of our school by pupils from the English Circle. They had the opportunity to chat with our pupils and teachers and get to know our school system through their eyes. They finished their tour in our new gymnasium, where they were entertained by the school dance and cheerleader groups.

Our guests delighted the school staff with pasteries and other sweet specialities that they had brought with them to taste. Each participant introduced his/her school and country. Our pupils then presented them with hand-made gifts and other souvenirs from Slovenia for them to take home.

We then started with the meeting. We spent most of our time in the school library because we could work in groups and it is equipped witha computer. We also spent a few hours in the school computer room, where we contacted our Greek coordinator and had a video conference with him.

During their visit in Slovenia our guests had the opportunity to taste some of our traditional dishes. For some of the guests the dishes were a once-in-a-life-time experience. Well, the food was commended.

We also took our guests on a tour of some of the sights in our area such as the Cave of Postojna and the Predjama Castle. We went souvenir shopping in our capital city, Ljubljana, which was wrapped up in its Christmas array, making our stay even more idyllic.