LTTA UK
22-28 April 2018
Sunday, 22nd April 2018: UK here we come!
St Michael's RC Primary School from Houghton-le-Spring is the host of our second LTTA! Students from Romania, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, Portugal and Croatia arrive in the UK. The Croatian team arrives early enough to take a flight on the London Eye and go for a short sighteeing tour around London, before they take the train to Durham, the city in North East England.
Monday, 23rd April 2018: Welcome to St. Michael's RC Primary School; Earth Day activities; Seven language dictionary
In the morning the bus is waiting for all the participants in front of the hotel in Durham, to take them to Houghton-le-Spring. There's a welcoming programme prepared by the host school: a welcoming speech by the headmistress, Mrs Wilson, a choir and a scene from Macbeth played by students. Each country visits a different class. All the participants mark the Earth Day together. After delicious lunch prepared by the hosts, students and teachers learn basic communicative phrases from seven languages of all partner schools. They record audio for our seven language dictionary, to be published at the end of the project. It's interesting and fun!
In the afternoon there's enough time to go to Newcastle. We enjoy sights such as Newcastle Cathedral and beautiful bridges over the Tyne River.
Tuesday, 24th April 2018: A visit to the local library; Sharing our favourite book characters
Teams from six counties, accompanied by the hosts, visit the library in Houghton-le-Spring. The staff welcomes them and introduces them to the place. It looks very cosy! There is a specially decorated reading corner for children. After flipping through books, there is also a workshop for the students. After lunch, students from all countries give presentations on their favourite book characters. It's very interesting to listen what they've prepared!
In the afternoon all the teams go for a sightseeing tour around Durham: They visit all the interesting landmarks. The most remarkable place however is Durham Cathedral, a Norman building constructed between 1093 and 1133. For students, it is especially interesting to find out that this is the place where some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.
Wednesday, 25th April 2018: Walking visit to Raintow Meadows Nature Reserve; UN Rights of the Child
Today it's time to visit Raintow Meadows Nature Reserve. We take a long walk to enjoy a beautiful landscape and fresh air and get a bit of physical exercise.
Although the main aim of our project is to strenghten the eight key competences for lifelong learning, an important issue in this process is also to make our students familiar with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Therefore a workshop with teams from all countries and Year 5 from the host school is dedicated to this. Convention in child friendly language is tackled, including brainstorming, discussion and poster making.
Thursday, 26th April 2018: Visit to Beamish Historical Outdoor Museum
We are ready to travel back to the past! This might seem impossible but not in Beamish! Everything in there exactly as it used to be in the early 20th century. It's a chance for us to learn so much about the past in the UK!
But that's not all - in the evening everybody is invited for a Ceilidh Evening at the host school, an occasion to learn Scottish and Irish traditional dances. What a wonderful idea by the hosts!
Friday, 27th April 2018: Coordinators meeting; Presentation of mascot stories and traditional music; Farewell
It's the last day of the LTTA. After the coordintors' meeting, where the agenda for the forthcoming meeting in Italy is arranged, everybody gather in the school hall: teams from all countries, all students and staff from St. Michael's RC Primary School. It's time for all of them to present stories with Cosmo - the project mascot as the main character. Traditional songs and dances are also presented.
It's time to say goodbye - some teams leave the same day, some on Saturday.
We will always remember our time in the UK - St. Michael's thank you for everything!
Photos: Branka Lamza, Dunja Mikulaj, Ida Veselovac
In the previous part you read the report by the Croatian coordinator. Now, let's find out about the other participants' impressions...
Participants' impressions
Travel diary by Zara, a student from Croatia
22nd April 2018
I's Sunday. The alarm goes on. 6 am is usually to early for me because I'm one of those people who can sleep until noon. Anyway I woke up and got ready, packed my bags and at 8:50 I was on my way to school where it was arranged to meet. At around 9:20 we were on our way to Zagreb.
The trip by car to Zagreb was suprisingly short or it just seemed like that. When we arrived, we said goodbye to our parents and went to the other side of the airport where we couldn't see them anymore. We checked in, handed over the luggage and then the only thing left for us was to wait for the plane. We didn't have to wait for a long time because in approximately 20 minutes we boarded the plane… Although it was my first time on a plane I wasn't scared, which suprised me a little. Finally the plane took off and soon we were above clouds, which I found truly wonderful. The flight lasted for 2 hours and 20 minutes.
We landed on Heathrow – one of the most popular airports in Europe. We got out of the airplane and went to get our luggage. It took a while until I saw my bag… In front of the airport a taxi driver drove us to the famous London Eye. The line for the London Eye was really long but we dediced to wait. Unexpectedly, for only 15 minutes it was our turn to board in the capsule. From the capsule I saw the entire beautiful and impressive city of London. After the ride we went for a walk across the Thames to see Westminister Abbey, the church where coronations are held.
In the evening we had dinner at a train station where we also waited for the train. It took us 3 hours to get to our final destination – Durham. We arrived to Durham at 12 pm. A taxi took us to our hotel where we settled in. Around 2 am I fell asleep with one thought on my mind: ˝I'm in England now.˝
POLAND
Three students from grade 7 participated in the meeting in Durham in the UK, who had the opportunity to experience being a student in an English school, present their favorite story "Little Red Riding Hood", celebrate Earth Day, co-create a multilingual interactive dictionary with Polish words and sentences, play games and English games during breaks, develop your English language skills by actively using the language in different situations. Everyone was delighted to meet new students from our partner countries, try typical English food, visit the library, the city and historical places such as Durham and Beamish. Thank you for a wonderful stay and experience in Durham. Thank you Emma and her colleagues.
PORTUGAL
What a wonderful stay in Durham, UK. Three students went to the UK (one from 6th grade - Marta, and two from the 9th grade - Luana and Mariana) accompanied by the Coordinador, Angela Gordino and one of the Project Teachers Amélia Morgado, from 21st to 28th April. The students had the opportunity to experience being a student at St Michael's Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School cooperating in all the class activities prepared in advance, such as presenting their favourite book “Meu pé de Laranja Lima”, celebrating Earth Day, Multilingual interactive dictionary with Portuguese words and sentences, played english games during breaks, developed their Knowledge of the English language by interacting with everyone and prepared a portuguese song. Everyone was delighted to meet new students from our partner countries, taste the English typical food, visit the Library, the city and historical places such as Durham and Beamish. Thank you for the lovely stay and experiences in Durham.
CYPRUS
At the UK meeting Cyprus was represented by Mrs Stalo Theodoridou Lambrou and Mrs Anna Panteli. Also four student travel to UK and presented their projects. Our student Marina Flouri said about UK meeting “I will remember this trip for all my life”.
ITALY
The I.C. Faenza San Rocco tooks part from 22 to 28 April in the 3rd European meeting of the ERASMUS KA2 project "Innovate together" in the UK in Durham (Newcastle). It was a nice experience for a group of Granarolo Second Media students, accompanied by the teachers De Rosa Tina, coordinator and project manager and by Professor Martina Angeli. The school's team, headed by Headteacher Marisa Tronconi, together with the teams representing five other European countries (Portugal, Romania, Cyprus, Croatia, Poland) had the opportunity to visit the English school of St. Michael's, to appreciate the his welcome, interacting with other students, exchanging information, traditions, stories, legends, dances, various teaching and pedagogical practices.
ROMANIA
This Erasmus+ KA2 project allowed our small group of 3 teachers and 3 students to represent both Romania and our school during the second LTTA meeting in Houghton-le-Spring, UK. We felt honored to take part in it. Most of the students had never flown on a plane before and we were really excited. Once when we arrived in UK, being so far away from home, we had no idea what to expect. We got to know the country by its cuisine, museums, religious buildings and people. We enjoyed the national dishes, the the Ceilidh evening, the cultural heritage and the hospitality of the English people. We got to know the students from the other countries very well because they were staying at the same hotel in Durham. It turned out that we were interested in the same things and we got along brilliantly during the project work. The activities were very diverse and we enjoyed each one of them – the games in the school yard, the classes, setting the rules and expectations of the mobility, the meeting with the Headmistress of the school, the ads competition and discussions, the presentation about the children’s rights, the presentations... The social programme was fantastic. We had a walking visit to Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve, a Self-led tour of the Beamish Historical Outdoor Museum; we went on a trip to New Castle and Durham, visited the biggest cathedral we’ve ever seen. It was a very interesting trip. We had fantastic time during the presentations of national dances and the farewell party at the school. The evening finished very emotionally on a high note. As a whole, the work on this project taught us how to be good team players and how to communicate well in English. It was an unforgettable experience. We shall always remember the days spent together with our friends from 6 European countries. Therefore we want to thank our hosts for letting us learn from them how the concept of the ideal school can be transformed into reality and for having shared with us a beautiful English fairy tale