On Thursday 20th May a team of 8 Year 9 students from Hillside worked at the North Sefton City Learning Centre in Ainsdale to work on the school’s Comenius Project, "2020 Vision - Knowing Me, Knowing You".
This began in September 2009 and a lot of pupils have now been involved in a variety of activities, including a study of the Sefton shore with visitors from other countries.
They were given two tasks:
- Produce a Project newsletter
- Create a one hour Project radio broadcast.
They chose the title "Empty Skies Over Europe!" as it reminds us of the problems we have faced in being able to travel by air throughout Spring 2010 because of the volcanic ash cloud coming from Iceland. Our Barcelona trip for “Luke’s Day Out” ended up as four days instead of one, and our Malaga visit only just got away from Birmingham early Tuesday instead of Liverpool on the previous Sunday!
The newsletter celebrates the work everyone has done during the first year of our project. Why is our project so important?
First, it gives pupils the chance to meet, to work together, to learn about other people and their cultures, beliefs and lifestyles. It also gives some of them a chance to travel to other schools in other countries. Finally, it gives the students an opportunity to look at issues of modern life that concern them and will impact upon them in the future, particularly the issue of Environmental Sustainability.
The radio broadcast on the internet was a real success. You can hear it - and download it! - at our 2020 Vision website: http://comenius2020vision.com/
The team also created the newsletter on the day and it will be sent put on both the school website and the project website.