ARTFINDER: 2020_wake_up by Jacqueline Hoebers - oil on linen canvas painting. I went out of my ...

ARTFINDER: 2020_wake_up by Jacqueline Hoebers - oil on linen canvas painting. I went out of my ...

ARTFINDER: Bored by Jacqueline Hoebers - Oil on canvas painting by awardwinning artist J...

ARTFINDER: Bored by Jacqueline Hoebers - Oil on canvas painting by awardwinning artist J...

ARTFINDER: Summer of 69 by Jacqueline Hoebers - Painting oil on linen canvas showing a scene at...

ARTFINDER: Summer of 69 by Jacqueline Hoebers - Painting oil on linen canvas showing a scene at...

ARTFINDER: Black white and ... by Jacqueline Hoebers - oil painting on canvas primarily done in black ...

ARTFINDER: Black white and ... by Jacqueline Hoebers - oil painting on canvas primarily done in black ...

FINAL DAY

COMENIUS SPAIN DAY 5

We all knew this last day would be a very special one for all of us because it meant the end of an awesome week full of new experiences, new friends, and new impressions making us getting closer to each other.

We started at 9 o’clock in the morning celebrating the medal ceremony. Everyone from each country went on the stage where we were presented with a medal by the teacher for participating in the project, while the song “We Are the Champions” was making feel us like real winners.  Five people were representing each country by carrying the torch to the stage, and then they all blew out the flame to represent the end of the Olympic games that we had been playing on Wednesday. Then Father Pedro Cabrera gave a speech to thank everyone for coming and taking part in the Comenius project.

Afterwards we all went to the computer rooms to write articles about our week in Gran Canaria and different  topics like fair play, racism, immigration, that are in relation to the 3R’s (Rights, Respect and Responsibility) representing our project.

Finally we were enjoying taking part in a Gymkhana which brought us closer to an African culture.

 BY Lauren Shaul, Marta Gil, José Guillermo Gutiérrez, Isabella Russo and Begoña García.

COMENIUS SPAIN DAY 4

First we went to the mountains on the coach to visit "El Roque Nublo" ; we had a half an hour hike up the mountain to get to the top. Then we had a break to take pictures, have a snack and cool down from the hot weather. We then walked down the mountain again to get back to the coach. Whilst we were there we were looking at how well we look after our planet. We were looking at how we manage tourism and litter. We took photos as evidence to show what we found.

Then we took the coach to the south of the island to go to Maspalomas beach and we spent time relaxing, eating and having fun in the sea for 40 minutes.

COMENIUS SPAIN DAY 3

Today we began the Claret International Olympic Games, the 3R's.

First was the opening ceremony in which each country had a student to represent them in the lighting of the tourch. With enthusiasm and seriousness Douglas read the Olympic oath whilst the other students watched from the stands. The first sports taken place were athletics in which torpedo, long jump, 600 metres,80 metres and relay. After the break time it was the swimmers time to take place in the event in the swimming competition, aswell as the football players in the field. Suddenly it was 1:30 pm. The students went for lunch and had free time until 3pm. Then it was the time of the volley and basket ball competition. Now it was time for the Eurovision contest. Every country sang a song about "human rights". We rounded the day with tea time surrounded by colleagues and family with which we ended up the day.

Although the sun was very strong and most of us got burnt, overall we all enjoyed the games that were set up for us. We experienced making new European friends.

We think that this represented the fair playing. The activities proposed were quite difficult but although this, everyone gave their best efforts: there might be three different places, but all of us are winners. To sum up, "where there is a will, there is a way".
xoxo

Anastasia (IT)
María H. (SP)
Alba (SP)
Lilla (SP)
Lydia (UK)
Charlotte (Holland)
Alf (UK)

COMENIUS SPAIN DAY 2
We got to school at 8am then got in a coach at 8:30am to ByBike. We then cycled along the sea front with beautiful views, and the police guided us to the science museum where we saw many interesting things such as an aeroplane, vandegaraff generator, planetarium and watched a film in the cinema.

We cycled back to return the bikes and went to San Telmo to have lunch. After lunch we had free time to go around Triana, the main street with all the shops. Then we started the treasure hunt, we had to find the answers to 15 questions and take pictures as proof. At the end of the treasure hunt we went back to San Telmo and went home with our host families.

We had a good active day and we learnt about trying to help our environment without polluting the air, that is why we travelled by bike not car or bus.

Written by: Dan Hurd, Drishti Lalwani, María Morales Del-Nero, Frederike Karthaus, Femke Verheijen and Alejandro Henríquez.

COMENIUS SPAIN DAY 1

Today we arrived in Gran Canaria for the Comenius project except the German students, they arrived the day before. German students went to Casa Africa; it was very boring because they talked in Spanish accents. The Casa Africa is an organisation for connecting African culture with other countries, they also talked about dreams and they showed us pictures of African people. This was boring!

When the English people arrived they had lunch at Claret school the soup was not very nice. After lunch the German, English and Spanish students went to the theatre to hear the plan for the week. After school the Italian and the Dutch students arrived and went straight to the host families.

By Douglas  Quinn, Juan Torres, Svenja Richard, Jorge Cantero, Britt Van de Ven and Paula Armas.

THANK YOU UK

DEAR COMENIUS PARTNERS FROM UK,

WE JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL WEEK WE LIVED LAST FEBRUARY. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH WORDS TO EXPLAIN HOW MARVELLOUS IT WAS.
THE FAMILIES WERE BRILLIANT AND OUR SPANISH KIDS FELT JUST LIKE AT HOME:NONE OF THEM WANTED TO LEAVE!, THE ACTIVITIES WERE REALLY FOCUSED ON THE PROJECT THAT IS JOINING US, SPECIALLY THE ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH CYBERBULLYING , SOMETHING THAT UNFORTUNATELY, HAPPENS SO OFTEN EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD. THE VISIT TO LONDON WAS FANTASTIC AND WE JUST LOVE YOUR SCHOOL, BECAUSE...IT IS SO SIMILAR TO OURS!

THANK YOU UK AND WE DO HOPE YOU WILL BE AS HAPPY IN OUR PLACE AS WE WERE IN YOURS!
SEE YOU ALL SOON IN APRIL, 

PUPILS AND TEACHERS FROM CLARET SCHOOL, GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN

Comenius Project - UK meeting - 22nd to 27th February 2015

Partner schools from Spain, Italy, The Netherlands and Germany meet in the UK

 

During the week starting on the 23^rd of February 42 students and 8 teachers from our partner schools came to Oaklands as the Comenius Project 4^th meeting took place.  In total, with the host students and teachers from Oaklands we were a party of 94 working together on this project.  Here is an account from students of the activities they took part during this busy week:

Monday:

To start the day, we caught the bus to school with our German partners as they had arrived on Sunday evening. We went to normal lessons and did a tour of the school at break time. Anxiously, we awaited the arrival of our friends from Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.  Italian and Spanish students arrived around lunch time and the Dutch students around 5 in the afternoon. After having fun in History, Geography and PE, some of us got the bus into Portsmouth and went shopping and to Sprinkles Gelato. We had dinner with our host families and watched movies.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday we met at school around 8:00 to go to London by coach.  The trip was about 2 hours. When we arrived in London the first thing we visited was the Tower of London, we got to spent about 2 hours in it.  We had to split in several small groups. There were several things to see. For example the Crown Jewels and, of course, there was a lot of gold. We saw the crowns of several kings and queens as well as their cutlery. One of the highlights was the   original crown Queen Elizabeth 2^nd   used in her Coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1953.  We also visited the Traitors’ gate. The tour guides were dressed up as middle-aged people.

 Of course we visited the ‘White Tower’, the centrepiece of the tower of London. The most outstanding things to see were the armour supplies of different kings from different years, including the weapons. After the Tower of London we went to the ‘Natural History Museum’.   When we entered the museum we were in the big hall with a dinosaur skeleton and then we were divided into small groups to look around the museum by ourselves. There were four different areas in the museum: green, blue, red and orange area. They had many stuffed animals like birds. They also had dinosaurs, fishes, human biology, gems, insects and many facts about the planet there. We had nearly two hours to visit what we wanted. We were also able to buy souvenirs at the souvenir shop.  After the Museum, we made our way back home in our coaches; we encountered some traffic as we made our way out of London.

Wednesday:

On the third day of the COMENIUS PROJECT we went to Action Stations in Portsmouth. We left the school about 9:30 by coaches. We had workshops on bullying and cyberbullying. We learned a lot about bullying and how to prevent and fight against it. The Instructor played a game which he called “I am the Boss”. The game was about making clear who is the boss without saying anything else except the game’s name and using body language. At first, people thought that being the loudest was the key to winning and appearing to be confident but as the day progressed we all began to realize that having an open posture and being calm were the real keys to success. The final contestant was so “cute” that the champion gave up on the title and the contestant won without the round even starting. This taught everybody that you don’t need to be tough to avoid bullying but simply appear confident and not seem oppressed.  After our work on bullying we moved onto the topic of cyberbullying which contained information on how easy it is to trace somebody’s digital footprint (the record of everything you do on the internet)and how it can affect your life in the future. A lot of employers will check a person’s online presence before accepting a job application. So we were shown how to prevent any unwanted information on your footprint like setting privacy options on social media networks or use a good password so nobody can access your account without your permission.

                                                                                                                    

 

 

After the workshops, we had time to explore Gunwharf Quays in groups of four. Some visited the different stores and some already prepared for their trip back to their home country. We met again about 14:30 to get dismissed. After the dismissal, some of the students went back to school with the teachers and some stayed to do other activities with their exchange students like watching a movie or getting up the Spinnaker tower. Everyone had a very fun day at Gunwharf Quays!

Thursday:

On Thursday we met in the morning at school to work. We got separated into multi nationalities groups and each group worked on different topics. One group produced 5 Scrap books about the week for each country to take home. Another group worked on a video about bullying. Two groups made calendars based on the UN Convention of Human Rights articles.  After the work was done, we presented the different topics to the other groups and discussed about them. Mr Quinn came to watch our presentation.  We end the day by going to the hall in P5 to watch the rehearsal of our school production. The international students were impressed with what they saw!!

Video -
 

Friday:

This was the day to say our goodbyes!!  The German students were the first ones to leave; they were taken by the school mini bus to Portsmouth Harbour train station to take the train to Brighton. Spanish and Italian students departure soon after and the Dutch students went back home around 11 o’clock.  There were some tears around the school and at the mini buses as students said their goodbyes. We had a fantastic week!

Meeting in Italy

Trip to Italy 3rd - 7th November 2014

Day 1

On the first day, we arrived at school with our suitcases and went to the first two lessons; we then met up with everyone else and got ourselves into the coach. The journey to the airport was a good laugh with all our friends and was excitable for all of us. When we got to the airport, again we had a good laugh looking around the shops and it was nice to have some freedom to do what we wanted to do. The plane journey was good and when we landed in Turin airport we all were a bit nervous as our families were picking us up from the other side. We got there and we met our families. It was a little awkward to start with but we got in the cars and went back to their houses and settled in - the families were all welcoming. By Megan, Tayah and Jess

Day 2

On the second day we met at the school at 8:00 after waking up at 6:30 and recycled waste for an hour. After that, we made the 10 min walk from the school to the castle nearby. Unfortunately, it was raining on the second day but we still managed to have fun. After a short speech in the theatre of the castle, we head off to look around the contemporary art museum inside the castle. Our group was split into 2 groups so whilst one looked around, the other group made prints of leaves and nature using a screen print as a memory of our trip. In the evening, we went back to our families and ate dinner before heading out on a trip with our families. By Annie and Helena

Day 3

On Wednesday we took the 40min journey into Turin (the nearest town) by coach. We split into two groups and visited two local landmarks. First we visited ‘Palazzo Barolo’ a 16^th century building with brilliant architecture and spectacular ceiling paintings. Then we explored Turin: a large town that at one point was considered to be the capital of Italy. After finishing a truly Italian pizza we went onto the next activity the ‘Museo del Risorgimente’. We had an interesting presentation about the formation of Italy. In a building originally built to be the parliamentary house for what was thought was going to be the capital of Italy. In the evening I met my partner’s family and a very friendly dog. There was always a friendly and family based atmosphere. By David

Day 4

On the fourth day we caught the bus to school or got driven in. We spent the morning in the computer suite and created posters about the code of conduct in our schools. Then we designed a Comenius project code of conduct. Other groups did different things for example environmental research or finding out about the Italian constitution. We spent the afternoon with our partners. Some groups went to town, some people stayed at home. We all met in the evening to show our parents the things we had been working on. After that most people met together with people from other countries and went out. Ben, Jonah and Adam

Day 5

This was the last day of our Comenius trip to Italy. In the morning we went to Turin and did a bit of sightseeing and shopping. We had a delicious lunch in the town centre and then said ‘goodbyes’ to our host families.  It was a very busy and enjoyable week. We were able to work with students from four different countries and exchange ideas on the human rights issue. We also learnt about the Italian history and culture and started new friendships. Hopefully, we will be able to meet again during the next Comenius meeting in the UK.

Dreaming of UK

Daniel, Juan, Teresa, Raquel and Alejandro are looking forward to visiting the Oaklands College next February. They worked hard on designing their school Code of Conduct and have been chosen to go to UK.
Well done !Keep working hard!

GREAT ITALY!OUR THIRD MEETING! BY CLARET SCHOOL FROM GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN

 ITALY...AT LAST!!

OUR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FROM CLARET SCHOOL COULDN'T WAIT FOR THE ITALIAN MEETING ANYMORE!
THEY HAVE HAD SUCH A FANTASTIC WEEK! PREVIOUSLY, WEEK AFTER WEEK, THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD ON THE PRESENTATION THEY WERE GOING TO CARRY OUT  IN FRONT OF THE OTHER SCHOOLS PARTNERS INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT:A PARLAMENTARY SPEECH ABOUT THE PLANET SUSTAINABILITY. FIRST, THEY STARTED TALKING ABOUT SPAIN, OUR LANDSCAPE, AND OF COURSE ABOUT OUR NATURAL RESOURCES AND RENEWABLE ENERGY!CANARIAN CITIZENS ARE VERY PROUD OF EL HIERRO, ONE OF THE TINY ISLANDS IN OUR ARCHIPEL, WHICH HAS BECOME THE FIRST ISLAND IN THE WORLD TO BE SELF SUFFICIENT ENERGETICALLY!!

THEY WERE MAD ABOUT RIVOLI, THE CASTLE, THE GORGEOUS LANDSCAPE, SO DIFFERENT TO OURS, TURIN CITY AND ITS MUSEUMS, THE RECYCLING EXPERIENCE, THE ART IN NATURE PROJECT, THEIR OWN SCHOOLS CODES OF CONDUCT,  WORKING COOPERATIVELY, ALL TOGETHER, MAKING IT EASY GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER!

WE , SPAIN , ARE SO THANKFUL TO ALL THE ITALIAN TEACHERS INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT:SILVANA AND MANUELA GRAZIE MILLE!!THE FAMILIES HAVE BEEN GREAT TO OUR KIDS, THEY HAVE FELT THEIR KINDNESS AND HOSPITABILITY.

THANK YOU ITALY!!
SEE YOU ALL SOON IN UK!!

WAITING FOR PARTNERS’ ARRIVAL

 

 

Great Comenius week at “ Romero”

 

from Monday 3rd  to Friday 7th 85 students will work together at 3RS  a project on Rights, Respect  and Responsibility.

On Tuesday  4th , at 10.00 a.m.,  the students and their teachers will be welcomed at the Castle Theatre by the local authorities.

Some visits of museums in Rivoli and in Turin have been planned so that the students can get information and photos which will be used to produce posters and billboards.
The students will show their work with an exhibition at Romero school on Thusday 6th evening from 7.00 p.m.

 

                                                EVERYONE IS INVITED, JOIN US AT Romero!!!

Memories from the Netherlands

The last day L

            On Friday morning, the Spanish were the first to leave, an hour before the English, the Italians left at 9 and the Germans got a lie in and left at 12. Everyone was so sad that the week was finished but were happy because of the memories we had made. A few of the people in the Enghelish group and their exchanges cried because of they had to say goodbye. We left for Einhoven airport from Commanderij College and got there with a little bit of time to spend at the duty free! Einhoven to Standstead felt like a short flight and the drive to Oaklands felt like even shorter. We were so glad to have the weekend to rest and we were grateful for the half term holiday ahead of us!

Thank you to everyone for such an amazing trip! J

Memories from our trip to the Netherlands

The 4^th day

            Thursday, we cycled to school again and went to Den Haag to visit a prison gate museum, the humanity house (where we experienced the life of someone having to leave their home country) and Madurodam (a model village).

In the prison gate museum, we saw how people in the olden days stayed whilst awaiting trials. We saw the different rooms accomadating the rich and poor and the different methods used for torture. Everyone complained about the stairs as their legs were aching after Wednesday’s work out session!

The humanity house was unlike any other museum anyone had seen. It was an interactive tour where, in pairs, you would experience what life would be like if you were forced from your home country because of natural disaster, war and other issues. This experience was very life like and thought provoking because they used your own personal names and pictures within the tour.

The afternoon was baking hot so we were all glad that the model village was outside. We saw key parts of Holland including the airport and traditional wind mills. We got to drive remote controlled mini boats and we went to the food of Holland land café afterwards. There was a massive clog that we were able to sit in and take pictures in, which I’m sure everyone will remember!

The coach ride home was both sad and happy; happy because of the great day we had had but sad because it was the last night we would be together. Different groups had different activities planned for that night and we parted ways with smiles on our faces and many pictures. The group we personally were with went out to eat at a Chinese buffet, which was AMAZING! The food was great (especially the ice cream) and it was a great way to say goodbye to everybody.

Amazing memories from our trip to the Netherlands

Our Second Day:

            On our second day we went to Tilburg to a very exciting dance and drama workshop. We learnt how to turn everyday actions into an interesting dance, practiced communicating without speaking (which was useful as it was sometimes hard to overcome the language barrier) and learnt to walk with confidence in ourselves – it was very fun and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We had lunch, which our host families had prepared for us, and the groups we had been put into allowed us to mingle and make new friends with the other nationalities.

That afternoon, we went to Denbosch where we had ice cream (the weather was glorious), enjoyed looking round the historic city and bought many souviners for our families and friends back home. After the long coach ride home, everyone went back to their host families houses for dinner before going out to enjoy evening activities. Many of the groups made the most of the wonderful weather by having BBQ’s and water fights - cycling isn’t quite as enjoyable in wet shorts!