International Week

A year ago, I had a crazy idea of having an International Week. Originally, it was planned for the start of March. However, with lockdown we decided to postpone until the week of 21st June which meant that everyone was in school and the weather was good, should we want to do something outside.

I don't know what I originally imagined...assemblies, lots of flags, a quiz or two and a wine and cheese evening for parents. In reality some of them happened, so didn't and some couldn't happen. This was the first time we'd done this so it was probably lower key that I imagined it being but it's definitely something we can build on and, fingers crossed, next year we will be able to invite parents into school for some activity as well.

The most important thing to remember when planning whole school events is that "Teamwork makes the dream work" and most certainly we could not have run the week without all members of the MFL department pitching in a working together. Each of us took and activity and organised that and this meant that the jobs didn't seem as huge.

So, what did we do?

Staff

Each room was allocated a country and our Year 12 prefects created signs for each one (some are below). Staff were encouraged to greet students in the language of that country and even do a starter about something that linked their subject to that country. It was wonderful hearing a range of different languages ringing out across the school as the week went on. 

    

   

Assembly and Form Time

Naturally, any event needs a whole school assembly (hooray!). I didn't want to focus solely on languages, as this was "international" rather than languages but inevitably there was a strong language focus. I thought it would be a nice idea to make a video (less for me to do) of pupils saying "hello, how are you?" in various languages. I had intended to use different groups of my classes to say the words however, when I was telling one of my classes about it, a student said "I speak Persian, I can say that" and this started me on a voyage of discovery into the wide variety of languages that our students speak. In the end, we had 14 different languages from Lower Prep singing "Hallo Felix, Hallo Franzi" from the Goethe Institute primary scheme of work, through Hindi, Urdu, Thai, Russian, BSL, Spanish and Japanese (with lots in between) to even SLT saying "goodbye" in French and German. I even managed to persuade one of my Y7 form group to assist with editing the video! I talked a little about how communication and language is essential for international relations, and finished with Ton Christ est juif. 

          

Students then went off to form time for an international quiz, which included rounds on "hello" in different languages, fun with flags, foreign songs in the UK charts (which went down very well, especially the Macarena), foreign art and architecture and where in the world. We give prizes to the winning team in each form group. 

   

Quizzes

We had 2 treasure hunt quizzes. One based on French and German-speaking football players and the other based on French and German-speaking musicians and actors. Students seemed to really enjoy themselves quizzing around the school, finding out about a range of celebrities for other countries.

                                                     

Display

We have also had form groups contribute to a display. All students have drawn round their hands, written a greeting in a foreign language and decorated. Now, my task is to turn all 200+ hands into something creative!

All in all, I think the week has been a success. We have started small(ish) and something on which to base things in the future. Next year, I would like to be able to invite parents into school to view the art project that our Y7s did earlier in the year and also the see the Superheroes project that Y8s did, combined with something other creative ideas we have in store for next year. 

Watcht this space...

UK eTwinning Conference 2013

As an eTwinning Ambassador, I was delighted to be able to attend this year's eTwinning Conference at the NCTL in Nottingham at the weekend, after having missed last year due to work commitments. As ever, the whole event filled me with enthusiasm and inspired me to get going with more eTwinning projects in the coming academic year.

I think, it's fair to say that, in a time when the teaching profession is criticised daily in the media for being "enemies of promise" and failing pupils no matter what it does, it's not easy to remain positive about a job that I love.  This is why an event such as the UK eTwinning Conference is so fantastic, as you never meet a negative eTwinner. They are always so full of energy and new ideas that you cannot fail to be uplifted.  This was certainly true of this weekend.  Not only were the workshops (which I'll come to later) inspirational but also the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones to share ideas and experience is invaluable.

The British Council and eTwinning always manage to put together a programme for these events that gives opportunity for collective reflection and also for personal (professional) growth and this weekend was no different.  The conference was started with a Key Note speech from Aileen Monaghan, and HMI for Education Scotland. She spoke about "Transformative change in learning and links with international education". It was truly awesome to hear an HMI praise teachers and talk about how our work is crucial in moving pupils forward. She also highlighted a project from a workshop that I attended, showcasing how eTwinning had worked together with HMIs to move a school from a very difficult place where staff were unhappy and children weren't getting the most out of their education to transforming the learning and the school.  I have to say that I ended up wishing that I worked in Scotland, where people seem very sensible indeed!
 
My first workshop was run by David Mitchell and was on the theme of Quadblogging. This is something that I have been interested in for a while and have often thought about getting involved. David spoke about how blogging had increased pupil achievement with his Year 6 class over the course of a year and also about how he came up with the idea of Quadblogging.  The idea is fantastic. 4 classes with 4 different blogs who visit and comment on those blogs in a cycle each month.  That is way too simplistic a description of it and would suggest that if you don't yet know about Quadblogging, you can read about it at Quadblogging.net. I have signed up and hope to get my new Tutor Group Quadblogging in September.

Saturday afternoon saw me going to Bob Harrison's workshop on Education's Digital Future.  It was mind blowing to think about where technology can take our pupils and how little (some) schools have prepared for this.  I was particularly interested in a quiz that Bob did with us about new technologies and to find out where pupils often sit with this in comparison to their teachers.  We need to make sure that we keep up with them otherwise schools will be left behind.

The eTwinning Awards, as ever were full of inspirational teachers being rewarded for their outstanding projects, giving me lots of food for thought in terms of projects for next year.

Sunday saw us in more workshops. In the one I went to run by John Warwick and Lesley Atkins I found more about the school and project that I mentioned earlier.  It was really fascinating to see how international education can transform a school and the learning within that school.  What a shame more people can't see the possibilities. It is essential that for international education within schools to be successful, it needs to be embedded in the curriculum otherwise when staff change, it dies.  eTwinning is so easy to do and to embed into the curriculum!

As the conference drew to a close, we were reminded of how important it is to make sure that our pupils are digitally educated by Connor Galvin of University College, Dublin and discussed the topic of who is responsible for our children's digital safety. There is no easy answer to this but we did decided (on our table) that digital safety was essential and should be a partnership between school and parents - however all too often parents don't know what "digital safety" means.

The conference closed and we all bid our sad farewells to one another, happy in the knowledge that we had not given up our weekends for nothing and fully enthused for the end of term!

Watch out for new eTwinning projects from me coming your way in 2013-14...including something involving Scratch (I hope)

You can find out more about eTwinning at http://etwinning.net and at eTwinning UK's blog.

Motivation and Engagement through International Links #ililc3

My other presentation was on my favourite topic of International Links.  There was a strong focus on the benefits of eTwinning as I'm such a fan and an eTwinning Ambassador (also that is where I have most of my experience in working with schools across Europe). virtually.

Here is the presentation, also if you search for the eTwinning tag on this blog, you will find out lots more about eTwinning and how it can benefit your pupils and you as a teacher.  Enjoy...

International collaboration from Helena Butterfield

What will 2013 bring for Langwitch?

I was going to do a reflective post on 2012 but figured with family deaths, pet deaths and an Ofsted that is best left forgotten, it would be better to look forward rather than back.

Professionally, 2013 is looking quite exciting already. Most importantly I am going to be speaking a ililc3 in February. This is a fantastic opportunity that I am really looking forward to.  If you are a linguist and have never been but are looking for excellent CPD which doesn't cost a fortune, I can't recommend it enough.  You can book by following the link here.  Looking at the people who are speaking and themes for the weekend it should be fantastic. I'm talking about using Google Apps for Education and International Links. So I better get on and use them / do some before February!

Secondly, we have our first ever French exchange taking place in March.  I am really looking forward to that happening, as it can only help move our pupils forward in their language learning.

I will also be very sad to see my tutor group leave this year, as they are in Y11...but at least it means we have the Prom to look forward to :)

On a personal level, cycling is going to be my thing this year, something which I'm really looking forward to, I am also aiming to give the 365 photos a go again. Let's hope it lasts for longer than last year's!

Happy New Year, I hope that 2013 is a successful year for you all.

European eTwinning Conference Berlin 2012

Berlin 2012, a set on Flickr.

I had a wonderful time at the European eTwinning Conference in Berlin this weekend.

When I received the invitation to Berlin 2012 I was overjoyed, as Berlin is my most favourite place ever, so I awaited the conference with great excitement. As ever, eTwinning did not disappoint.The theme of the conference was "eTwinning Teams" focusing on the importance of working with others both near and far to have successful collaborations.

Inspirational speeches and workshops, combined with great company of old friends and new  meant that conference will stay in my memory for a long time.  I particularly enjoyed being able to exercise my linguistic skills, listening to speeches in French, German and Spanish and also going to a workshop in German on the role of SLT in international projects which I truly enjoyed.

I really enjoyed Anne Looney's Keynote Speech which was fun and interactive with a serious message at the same time. The eTwinning Prizes provided much needed inspiration for me, leaving me with many ideas for future projects.  Saturday was filled with workshops giving me ideas on how to involve more people in my school in eTwinning and how to overcome obstacles that could be in the way of getting more people involved, getting SLT on board with international projects in terms of support and involvement and finally a nice workshop where various eTwinning shared their experiences and projects.  This was really nice to see the what other people across Europe were doing in terms of eTwinning.

Other highlights of the weekend included a coach tour of Berlin with the most brilliant tour guide, who was as hilariously funny as he was knowledgeable, as visit to the Irish Pub in the Europa Center, a visit to the Havana Salsa club and of course to top it all off arriving at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport just after Jedward!

All in all a great time was had by everyone.  Thank you, eTwinning.

ps I'm even starting to learn how to use Flickr after all this time!

For a more detailed look at the speeches and workshops, along with links to resources you can read the UK eTwinning NSS blog about the conference here

If ever there was a reason to do an eTwinning Project...

...then this is it!

Whenever I talk about eTwinning, one of the biggest things I mention is the fact that it gives pupils an audience for their work, aside from the excellent opportunity to collaborate with other pupils across Europe and find out about our European neighbours.Over the past few months this has really shown itself to be true.

One of my classes have had a bear called Michel that has travelled around Europe this year. A bit childish for Secondary School pupils, some may think (though not me and certainly not them) ...however they have loved it.

At moments when I have been in the depths of despair (not really) one of the boys has asked how he's doing and we've learned such a lot about Europe and schools around Europe. We've learned that older pupils like have bears visit them just as much as younger ones (in fact more, judging by the photos of Michel playing in a band!).

Anway, last week Michel returned to Billingham for the Summer and we used the opportunity to do some creative writing (yes, creative, writing). I believe the resulting work is fantastic (specially considering these pupils could scarcely build a sentence in French in September).

The activity also gave opportunity for pupils to address those other skills that are so important in everyday life; working as part of a team, being creative, reflecting on previous work, being a good self manager etc..., as each group had to assigne group leaders, collators and time keepers to make sure the task got completed to a high standard.

Why has the work been so successful? Well, because they've been so well taught all year...no but really it's because they are interested in what they're doing, it's something real (we've had lots of boys cuddling teddies in the classroom recently) and also they know that someone other than me will read it!

Here's Michel's Wiki...have a look for yourselves:

Les aventured de Michel le Voyageur en Europe

I haven't directed you to the exact page, I'll let you have a look round. The technical college in Rominia with the older pupils is a must, as is his trip to Balamory Tobermory!

MFL Show and Tell

On Saturday I was lucky to be able to attend the third MFL Show and Tell which was held at The Radclyffe School in Oldham and hosted by Isabelle Jones.

About 40 people had signed up on the Wiki to attend and it was really great to see so many MFLers there, keen to share ideas and learn from one another.

I decided to have a go a presenting and spoke about my eTwinning experiences. You can see the presenation here below.

Show and Tell eTwinning

View more presentations from Helena Butterfield.

There were so many fantastic ideas to take away and use straight away my head is still buzzing. Just some of the things I'm planning to have a go at in the near future are:

• Getting my very own Mug of Misery, as demonstrated by Dominic McGladdery, to randomly choose names in a low-tech fashion.


• Making games for my school blog using Zondle and Studystack - ideas that were share with us by Kath Holton


• Getting pupils to create their own Minibooks, as demonstrated by Clare Seccombe.


• Using Kagan co-operative learning techniques for getting pupils talking, as shown by Marie O'Sullivan...I'm planning to use the Rally Robin idea tomorrow!

There was loads of other fabulous ideas that I listening to and I'm sure I've missed loads of inspriring stuff...I'll blog more about things as I try them!

Thank you to Isabelle Jones for organising and hosting such a wonderful day and to Dominic McGladdery for driving!

For some more detailed blogposts about the whole day you can read more on Dominic's blog and Isabelle's blog.

Think German

As a German specialist I often feel dismayed when I see and hear my first foreign language being sidelined in favour of other languages.

I have therefore been very pleased recently to find out about the Think German website. It's all about raising the profile of German and promoting the learning of German to both adults and children. Even better I am loving the adverts on Real Radio promoting the website stating "Think German, you already speak it!"

In an era where times are hard for us Modern Linguists - particularly we Germanists - it's nice to know that people are promoting languages!

If you haven't aready visited the Think German website, you really should! It's packed full of information about learning German, online German links, quizzes, competitions and ideas for teachers. I've just ordered a the free magazine from UK-German Connection that I'd never come across beforeand hope to be able use it for authentic texts, helping my pupils gain an insight into German youth culture and much, much more! They also have a Facebook page so that you can keep up with what's going on, why not "like" their page and join in.

Go on..."Think German...you already speak it!"

Busy Weekend

It's been a while since I've been so busy over one weekend. However this weekend I shall be speaking in 3 different venues between Friday and Monday evening plus I am even going out with my husband!!

Tomorrow I am at the Northeast Regional ATLAS Conference at the Radisson Hotel in Durham. Myself and 7 of my best Year 10 eTwinners are talking about our school's eTwinning activities

Tomorrow evening the Links into Languages Northeast Secondary Residential begins at Redworth Hall and I am to give a presentation on International Online Collaboration.

On Monday I am in Birmingham at my old stomping ground of Aston University for a Links into Languages West Midlands ICT event where I am speaking about eTwinning.

I will share all presentations next week...although 2 have the possibilitiy of being very, very similar...!

Happy 5th Birthday eTwinning

This week marks the 5th Anniversary of eTwinning.

For those of you who haven't heard of eTwinning, it is the European Commission’s partner-finding and online collaboration tool. Schools and colleges (working with pupils and students between the ages of 3 and 20) can register their details, create a profile, search for partners and engage in online partnerships - all free of charge. Teachers and their students can form short or long term partnerships and collaborate on a whole range of curriculum based projects in any subject area using a variety of exciting and innovative ICT tools.

[caption id="attachment_439" align="alignleft" width="205" caption="Photograph courtesy of Tony Barraclough Photography"][/caption]

I became involved with eTwinning 3 years ago when looking for a French partner school. I was inundated with schools wanting to set up projects with my school and we set up many successful projects. Since then I haven't really looked back and run 1 or 2 projects every year, not just in MFL but also through PSHE with my lovely tutor group. In additions, it was our eTwinning work that really created the backbone of our International School Award last year.

Today is when schools are celebrating the 5th Year of eTwinning and to mark the occasion, thousands of schools around Europe had some kind of European

[caption id="attachment_440" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Photograph courtesy of Tony Barracough Photography"][/caption]

Celebration. Many school planted blue and yellow flowers but, always wanting to be different, we decided to have a "balloon release" with a birthday cake! After all of the environmental safety checks had taken place to make sure our balloons were eco-friendly we were good to go on Friday at midday. We released our balloons (blue and yellow of course), with a tag on them asking people who found them to email us to let us know where they found them. It was very effective and the balloons looked very happy bobbing away in the wind. I'm sure the hail storm 10 mins later helped them on their way no end!

Oh and the cake...it was delicious.

You can find our what other school have been doing to celebrate here.

Happy 5th Birthday, eTwinning!

Online International Collaboration

The second CPD session that I ran for Links into Languages was about Online International Collaboration. Here is the presentation I gave for that session...

International Collaboration

View more presentations from Helena Butterfield.

The French Exchange Finally Happened

[caption id="attachment_395" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Took this at the NRM and thought it was funny!"][/caption]

Many moons ago (so it seems)...well, 3 years, just when I was starting on this adventure into new technologies and discovering the possibilities for MFL teachers, such as myself, in terms of getting pupils using language for real, I was asked by my then Head of Area to find a French school in order to establish a link for exchanges. We already had an extremely successful link with Meppen in Germany and an equally successful link with Cheste in Spain but French was most certainly the poor relation in terms of links and opportunities for exchanges.

I had just discovered eTwinning via Joe Dale's marvellous blog and decided to find out what all of the fuss was about. Having registered with eTwinning, I quickly found a partner and established a project with a view to setting up an exchange the following year. The project "Je blogue, tu blogues...let's blog!" was very successful with pupils from both schools develping frienships and helping one another with their language learning. However unfortunately for many reasons the link didn't develop into an exchange and the hunt was on again.

One of my colleagues in the MFL Department had a link with a teacher in Caussade near Toulouse. I contacted her and things looked positive. We worked together on an eTwinning project (in English only, this time, as there were several schools involved) and my class exchanged letters every half-term or so with a class from her school and set things in motion for an exchange.

There were hurdles to overcome, as with any new link. The biggest hurdle being that our partner school wanted to bring 27 pupils!!! This was unheard of in Ian Ramsey history of exchanges...we are normally over joyed if we get to 20 (as I think most schools would be). Nevertheless, we persevered and, with a plan to house some pupils in a local hotel got plans underway. I was over-joyed when I managed to persuade the final 2 pupils to host French people, meaning that no-one was to stay in a hotel!

The week itself arrived and we had an action-packed programme, hightlights included a visit to Durham, the Angel of the North and the Metro Centre, a whole group trip to York and the National Railway Museum, project work at Teesside CLC and a visit to meet the Mayor of Stockton. The funny thing was, I got stick all week for organising the visit to Mayor and in fact our French friends loved it - telling me to definintely keep in on the programme for the future! As part of their CLC project, pupils started to work on a wiki as a diary of their week, to which I will add their presentations and leaflets about the history of the railways and York tourist leaflets as soon as I can. You can see what has been done so far here (still needs a bit of work!).

What of the future? Well things look very rosy. In 3 weeks time our pupils will return to France. Again, a record of 21 pupils (some of whom were so enthused by the whole event that they asked if they could come eventhough they didn't take part in the home-leg!). In addition we will carry this through to another eTwinning Project specifically aimed at improving Speaking and Writing Skills for GCSEs.

Sadly I'm unable to go on the return leg - I've been off gallavanting around Europe too often already this year, so am indebted to my colleagues, Fiona and Julie for taking the return trip and for their invaluable support during the exchange week itself.

Leo the Lion visits Ian Ramsey

Over the last few weeks, Ian Ramsey had a guest who came to visit from Germany. Leo, the Bavarian Lion, came to stay with us on his tour round the world.

Whilst he was staying at Ian Ramsey, Leo took part in many exciting activities. He took part in a science experiment. Next, he went off to the LRC to check some books out and pose for a photo with William Shakespeare. He then ran over to North Site (in the rain) had his photograph taken with the amazing sculpures that some Y9s created last year.

Back in South Site, Leo went to work on Reception in the Office, taking some phone calls. In addition to all of these activities at school, Leo came home with me at half term and went Halloweening. Naturally, Leo also observed the minute's silence on Remembrance Day at 11.00am and even managed to get himself a poppy.

I think Leo had a great time at Ian Ramsey-he particularly enjoyed playing "Past Tense Pass the Parcel" with 8vD3 on Monday last week!

He now heads of to Brazil to experience life there. You can follow his further adventures on his blog by following this link: Leo's Blog

You can see a selection of his photographs below.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Leo the Lion. Make your own badge here.

International School Award

Back in January, it was suggested to me that I went to the ISA briefing meeting in London "as I was involved in a lot of the projects in it so would be good for me to know what to put in". A month later, no longer an innocentl by-stander in our bid to gain the Full International School Award, I was launched into compiling the whole portfolio.

For those who don't know, in order to gain the Full ISA you need to complete an Action Plan in September/October of all of your international, curricular-based projects that are taking place within that school year. This is then (hopefull) approved by the "ISA people" and then you spend the academic year gathering evidence of your 7 (minimum) "Key Activities", which  includes things like evaluations from pupils, staff and parents of events, photographs, samples of pupil work. All of this gets put together in a (very large) file and is then dispatched to the British Council in time for the deadline date, some time around the end of the school year. Simples...?

Or maybe not! It took over my life, the file went everywhere with me, I had evaluation forms coming out of my ears and chasing those evaluation forms, well...

However, in Ocotber I learnt that the hard work had paid off and we had been successful in our bid to be awarded the Full ISA - hurrah!!!

[caption id="attachment_323" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Alistair Armstrong receiving our ISA from George Alagia"][/caption]

The Award Ceremony took place in London on Friday 16th October and was presented by George Alagia and you can see our award being presented on the left. Those of you who know me will know that I have dramatically changed over the last few months...unfortunately I was ill in bed and couldn't attend the ceremony, so one of our Assistant Heads went in my place.

What I didn't realise was that, alongside the certificate we received, we are also the proud owners of an ISA flag which is now flying on one of the school flagpoles and a beautiful crysal. I could take a picture of the crystal today but not the flag as it was dull and raining all day.

[caption id="attachment_324" align="aligncenter" width="210" caption="Our ISA Crystal"][/caption]

Holidays and High Hopes

The Zen Fountain in Les Rosiers-sur-Loire

Where did the holidays go? It seems like no time at all since the summer holidays were approaching too slowly and now they're over.

What wonderful times I had with my family. We went to France for two weeks and seemed to travel the full width of the country. Spending a week in the Loire Valley, 3 days in Disneyland Resort Paris (to give it it's full name) and then 4 days in a tiny little village on the French/German border called Liederschiedt visiting a friend. It certainly was action packed a lots of fun. Best of all I and my family got to speak lots of French and I discovered that my 7 year old really is a budding linguist, able to work out the meaning of signs and words with far more ease than many pupils I teach. It was so amazing watching her use all of the clues that I tell my pupils to use, without me even having to tell her. Also fascinating was the friendship that developed between my two children (7 and 4) and my friend's two (4 and 2 1/2). My children speak next to no German or French and Heike's children speak mainly German and often French. Despite the language barrier all four children played really well together and there were tears shed upon our departure.

Naturally, we had our usual visit to Eastbourne to visit my sister and watch the airshow. We saw the Red Arrows an all of the days we attended the event and enjoyed many other thrilling displays.
After that work seemed inevitable and I began to contemplate the year ahead of me. Where am I going? What am I doing (and why)?
There are some exciting things happening this year - none less so than the fact that I am to teach ICT for 6hrs a fortnight to Y7, Y8 and Y9. In order to do this I am going to have to learn how do use some applications quite quickly. Can't wait! In particular it will be interesting to see my job from the perspective of another subject area. How do they teach in ICT? Is it really different from teaching MFL? In addition ICT is taught in Tutor Groups throughout KS3, whereas MFL is taught in sets from Christmas of Y7, what will that be like? I already like teaching ICT before I've even had one class, as I already have all of the lessons and resources!
Added to that I have acquired a "new" job title, that of "International School Co-ordinator". Basically it means I just continue doing what I'm doing already. Continuing with that theme, we will re-apply for a Comenius Grant, after failing to gain funding last year. I'm currently trying to organise a preparation visit for January which will be entertaining! Also we have an all new French exchange with a school in Caussade near Toulouse.
As far as my MFL teaching is concerned, I have to admit to feeling a little stale, so I want to focus on injecting some enthusiasm into things. Naturally I'll continue to use ICT to motivate pupils and also lead some staff CPD within the department to encourage colleagues to follow suit. I'm also going to do some work on Phonics with my classes. After seeing Rachel Hawkes speak at Grasping the Nettle and being in touch with Suzi Bewell, I've bought a Jolly Phonics French book and a lovely Frieze and am going to spend time focusing on pronunciation with many of my pupils.
So not much then, in the year ahead. It should keep me out of trouble anyway!

Eurovision - IRS Style

Yesterday I had the dubious priviledge of being involved in the organisation of my first ever whole year group event.

I chose Year 8 as the unwilling victims of this activity and we labelled it "EUROVISION". Now if truth be told it didn't really end up anything like the real Eurovision, it was more of a day that involved Year 8 finding out "stuff" about Europe and the EU. They did Internet Research, Geography, Art, Music and Languages in a kind of carousel. As far as I can tell, initial responses from Year 8 were very favourable.

In Art, they set to work designing new flags for EU Nations and even for the EU itself (well the stars are a bit boring...) and I've seen some wonderful designs that really the capture the nature of Europe, bringing in flavours of many member countries.

Music involved comparing various European National Anthems and, in particular listening to two very different versions of Ode an die Freiheit, the traditional version and this one:

They were then charged with the task of creating their own EU Anthems on the keyboards. All of which was really enjoyed by many Year 8s.

Geography saw them learning the names of key European countries and doing some Independent Learning in groups, researching physical and economic geography of chosen countries. Pupils found it fascinating to learn that the UK is so small in comparison to many other countries. I think some were quite surprised at just how big some countries are.

For Languages they had two possible activities, one involving learning about the origins of European Languages, which went down really well with the pupils and the other involving Spanish and designers. Both activities were really well received by the Year 8s.

The ICT Research project was rather chaotic, being the first activity of the day and involving lots of shared computers. Oh, and of course the old "blocked" problems (which was curious, as I'd checked them on Friday!).

I made a little plenary activity at the end. The pupils had to watch the video below and list which countries they recognised as being represented. There are 14...go on, see how many you get!


www: pupils seemed to like it and most staff seemed positive by the end of the day.

ebi: better organisation of the first ICT activity and don't put them all in to do that at once, don't get so stressed, check websites again and again and again.

Will it happen again? I hope so! (I believe so, with the introduction of project weeks next year!)