Ingleton Middle School

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Comenius

Our third Comenius project: 
"Creative Approaches to Teaching Foreign Languages"

This is the third British Council funded Comenius Project undertaken by the school and the second Professional Development Project.

In this project, we are looking at ways of teaching and learning modern foreign languages and sharing ideas with our colleagues in France, Finland, Norway and Bulgaria. With the removal of compulsory MFL study at KS4 in England and the resulting drop in pupils taking languages for GCSE with interest in language and culture declining, there is a real need to address the motivational issue in primary schools and at KS3 in the hope that this will reap dividends later on. At Ingleton Middle School, we recognise this issue and believe that involvement in Comenius will go some way towards redressing the balance.

The funding allows for two teachers' meetings each year and two pupils' conferences during the three year project as well as for the purchase of materials to support the teaching activities.

The teachers' meetings take place at each school in turn so that each country has a chance to host a meeting with all the advantages that that brings. Hosting a meeting helps with staff and community engagement as well as being beneficial to the pupils concerned who get a chance to work with the visiting teachers. Guest teachers have the chance to observe lessons taught by their colleagues and to work with the pupils, using their own methods as well as getting to know the different systems within the schools.

Meetings within the project -

Meetings always involve workshops where ideas and materials are shared. All participants should be able to take ideas from each meeting and use them immediately in their classrooms. There is also a project website on which the ideas will be available for anyone to use.  www.catflat.org

Pupils' conference in Finland 3rd to 9th February 2008

 

Teachers' meeting in France October 2007

		Pupils in 6'ème and 5'ème welcome the visiting teachers with music and songs. All pupils wave flags from the visiting countries. We work with most of these pupils over the next three days.
		Several hours are used for the actual meetings at which we cover future planning, project evaluation and language teaching theory as well as having workshop sessions run by the project members and involving language teachers from the host school.
		The French staff have prepared their pupils for the invasion and several activities are planned where the visiting teachers go into lessons and are interviewed or give presentations. We also go into the local primary school.
		Visiting staff give lessons using their own favourite teaching techniques. This is Kate Butcher from Ingleton working on be +ing verbs using flashcards with the 5'ème.
		Judith Shackleton from Ingleton leads a pair work session also on be +ing verbs.

Our second Comenius project: 
"Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy World"

The school has an excellent reputation for its international links. This Comenius project was put together by the 'Circle of Hope' European schools group (so called because the location of the schools forms a circle and within the project we are working towards a better future) comprising members from Austria, England, Latvia, Norway and Poland.

The project is a School Development project funded by Socrates, and as such involves teachers exchanging professional experiences and information. Participants hope to learn about - and use - materials and teaching techniques from their European colleagues to improve the teaching of health and environmental issues in their own schools.

The three-year project concentrates on different aspects each year. Year 1 - health, Year 2 - environment and Year 3 a combination of the two, revisiting areas as required.

All schools pilot materials and activities in their own schools and then these activities are presented at teachers' meetings, which are held twice a year. Teaching theory and practice are discussed and experiences shared. Pupil conferences will be held in Year 2 and 3, at which activities will be discussed and pupils will collaborate on project related tasks.

 

Our second Comenius project partners:-

Austria

Latvia

Norway

Poland

Our first Comenius project: Eureka Europa (1997 - 2000)

Five schools were involved in this three year project, with Ingleton Middle School as the coordinating school.
Link schools were -

• 3 Scuola Media Statale Darmon, Naples, ITALY
• Öffentlich Stiftgymnasium der Benediktiner in St Paul, AUSTRIA
• Braås School, SWEDEN
• Collège Privé St Joseph, Herbignac, FRANCE

Pupil participation

The project involved the exchange of materials on a variety of topics. These materials were displayed and used as teaching materials in all schools. Pupils at Ingleton produced the materials in currricular and extra-curricular time.

Topics over the three years included:

• Survey about children's attitudes towards environmental issues
• A study of each school's locality: maps, posters, leaflets, plans, sketches
• A cassette of the top 10
• Information about the schools: timetables, photo diary, photos, classroom plans
• A newsheet with school and local news.
• Problems of Youth questionnaires
• Presentations about daily life - picture diaries of a typical day, video of popular TV programmes and adverts, treasure box.
• Project logos. Five entries from each school
• Presentation about Christmas and Epiphany
• Food project Shopping trolley collage, food likes and dislikes surveys, recipes, place mat pictures of what our children eat at different mealtimes.
• People in their environment. Large scale collages.
• Study of a local ecosystem. Looking at the plants and animals within the ecosystem, their relationship to the environment and to each other.
• Farming project Catalogue of farm implements used prior to mechanisation using index cards, comparison with tools/machines used today, the farmers year, a typical farmer's day, maps to show land use.
• Presentation of traditional crafts of the area.
• Climate and rainfall data
• Shadow length latitude study.
• Postcards and other information relating to school trips.
• Videos of musical/dramatic performances.
• Study of religious buildings and their architecture.
• Information about religious celebrations.
• A study of how various ailments were treated in our grandparents time - use of herbs, alternative medicines.
• Nursery and nonsense rhymes. Circle games and songs.
• Water supply and distribution.

We also hosted pupils from Sweden on three occasions as an addition to the project.

Pupils were highly involved in the preparation for the two teachers' meetings which were held at Ingleton at the beginning and end of the project. They prepared the building with signs and labels in five languages, as well as displays about each country. They showed our visiting teachers around and interviewed them.

There was a performance by pupils and staff of a musical drama which involved a group of pupils visiting all the partner countries in search of the missing stars from the European flag. Staff participation

Staff in almost all departments and non-teaching staff were involved in the preparation of materials for the different topics within the project.

There were seven meetings altogether. Two of the meetings were held in Ingleton, two in Austria and one each in Italy, Sweden and France. Two staff travelled from IMS to attend these meetings - usually 3-4 days - on each occasion.

There was also the opportunity for staff to do one week teacher exchanges or teacher placements which involved spending some time in the partner school and some in a local business. These took place during our school holidays. Two placements took place in Italy. Chris Lackey worked in a craft workshop, producing Christmas figurines- a speciality of the area, and our IT teacher spent time in the Vesuvius observatory. Two placements took place in Sweden. Christine Best worked on a local newspaper and Gilly Guy worked in a hotel.

All participants felt that they had gained from the experience.