Comenius meeting in Portugal

1. Comenius 2010/2011 NEWSLETTER 2
LIVING BY THE SEA
Welcome to the second newsletter of the Comenius project “Living by the sea”.
Our group consists of eight schools from Denmark, France, Guadeloupe, Iceland,
Ireland, Latvia, Greece and Portugal. This project will be developed between
September 2009 and July 2011.
(winning logo in the Portuguese school)
Comenius teachers visit Escola José Carlos da Maia –
Olhao in Portugal
Tuesday, 23rd of March 2010
The deadly duo (from Iceland) arrived at our hotel around 21:00 local time on a beautiful Portuguese evening,
found our room and met a few of our Comenius friends. We realized it would be a meeting very different from the
one that was in Ireland because of a lot of pupils coming from Denmark, Greece and France. After a quiet night we
went to bed ready for the start of the meeting.

2. Wednesday, 24th March 2010
We were officially welcomed at an assembly in the Escola José Carlos da Maia, where the principal greeted all the
Comenius guests and talked of the importance of the partnership for the school.
Following the formal welcome, where the attending
guests gave presents to the hosts we embarked on a
tour of the school and a visit for each nation to “friend
classes” in the school there was the first official
Comenius meeting. When the meeting started the
pupils visiting went to a fun park called Braveland along
with a few pupils from Olhão.
At the end of the day all the guests headed back to Faro for some leisure time.
Thursday, 25th March 2010
“The tour day”
Now it was time for a field trip. The decision of our hosts was to let us get to know a few of their best known tourist
landmarks. The trip started by taking the group to Silves fortress, an ancient site of the Moors time in Portugal and
later the lodgings of Portuguese kings. Following a big and great midday meal we then travelled to the most
western part of mainland Europe, the Cape of St. Vincent near the town Sagres. There we were told the history of
the fortress at St. Vincent, from where it was a common last sight of the ships sailing to far parts of the world in The
Middle Ages, where the cape was often called “The world’s end”.
After a good stop at St. Vincent we headed back to Olhão, stopping briefly downtown the beach city of Albufeira
where the northerners (Iceland and Ireland) made a run for the beach, of course because they really wanted to
touch sand in Portugal!
Silves castle
Cape St.Vincent

3. Friday, 26th March 2010
Following a project meeting at the school we were given a brilliant welcoming show by the hosting pupils, full of
traditional singing and dancing, even giving the guests possibilities of participating in dance shows, for some of us
(including Maggi) this was their first dance show and it could of course be seen!
Then it was off to lunch before the group took a ferry to Ilha do Farol, a small island just off the coast from Olhão
where many of the brave guests went to the top of an iconic lighthouse on the island.
The night belonged to a big party at the school where all the Comenius friends, along with staff of the Escola José
Carlos da Maia, the pupils and the parents had a very nice meal where thanks were given for brilliant hosting.
Following the farewell party at the school members of the Comenius team went to informal socializing where the
project master (no names mentioned Niels!) held the Viking (Ireland, Iceland and Denmark) party for ransom, all
too long!!!
.
Saturday, 27th May 2010
The day was planned for a tour of Olhão, but because Maggi ran into troubles regarding his Portuguese visit (he
was staying the next week in his mother’s house in Albufeira) we had to miss the bus ride.
That meant the Icelandic delegation checked out of Hotel Santa Maria at lunchtime that day, Gunnsteinn was
dropped to Faro airport and Maggi went off to further Portuguese adventures.
A brilliant meeting and a good visit to great friends had ended full of smiles!
Muito obrigad Olhao!

4. Our trip to Portugal!
A tale by Danish pupils!
We took a train from Aalborg to Copenhagen, very early in the morning the 22 nd of March. All of us
were very tired when we arrived in Kastrup airport about 6 o’clock in the morning.
We ate some breakfast, and waited a long time to check in. The clock was a few minutes to one local
time, before we arrived in Gatwick airport in London. In Gatwick we got some time in the shops, and we
could relax. It was very nice to have some time on our own.
At 5 o’clock we should fly from Gatwick to Faro. It took three hours, and the most of us slept in the
plane. When we were close to Faro we could see the land with a million of lights, it was a very beautiful
sight!
When we arrived in Faro, we all were very
surprised with the heat! In Denmark we were
used to all the snow and cold, so it was very lovely
to feel the warm weather again. A bus came to
the airport, to pick us up and drive us to our hotel.
The name of the hotel was Hotel Santa Maria. It
was a very good hotel and we were all happily
surprised. We stayed three and three each room,
except two boys. When we arrived we were very
tired, but also very hungry, so we needed to get
some food. Most of the boys went to McDonalds but the girls went to an Italian restaurant. After that
we went straight to bed.
The Tuesday morning we first ate breakfast at the hotel. A boy from our class had a birthday and we
surprised him with flags and a present. We had to take a train to a city next to Faro called Olhao where
we should visit the Portuguese school, and meet the students. The students were all very sweet and
kind. We ate at their canteen, and there was fish on the menu. After that we went on a tour of Olhao
along with the Portuguese students. It was very exciting to see the city, and it’s many beautiful
buildings.
When we arrived back at the school the French students had arrived. They were also very sweet. Four
of us stayed with the Portuguese students at night with their families but the rest of us should just eat
with them. It was a very nice experience and the families were very friendly.
The next day we went to school again. We were showed around at the school by some of the students.
Then we should eat at the canteen again. After that, some busses came and picked us up. We were
going to an adventure Park, called Braveland. It was a very fun trip! We played paintball and some
sports activities, we arrived at the hotel very late and after a long day we were all tired and went to bed.
The Thursday we went on a sightseeing trip. It was our last day in Portugal and we were ready to enjoy
our last time we had together with the other students. A bus came to the hotel and picked us up. The
first sight se should see was Silves. We saw old ruins and a castle, and we ate lunch at a restaurant with
all the other students. It was a very big dinner, with 5 dishes!

5. After that we took a bus to Sagres. It is the most southwestern point in Europe. It was a very beautiful
place, even though it was quite windy. Then we were going to a little city called Albufeira. There we
had the opportunity to buy some food for our trip home. We also said goodbye to the other students
from Portugal, France and Greece. It was very nice to meet them and we hope to keep the contact with
them.
The next day was the day we should travel home. We got up very early in the morning, and took the
plane from Faro to Gatwick. Again we had some time to shop in Gatwick and when we took the plane
from Gatwick to Copenhagen we were all very tired.
We took the train from Copenhagen to Aarhus and we had to wait a long time there. We finally arrived
in Aalborg at 5 o’clock in the morning, and we were all very tired after the long trip, but also happy
because we had such a great trip, where we met a lot of new people. We will never forget this and we
are very thankful for this opportunity that we got!

6. Impressions from the trip to Portugal, from the French pupils.
Fantastic trip! (Quentin)
On the third day, we visited the fortress of Sagres in the Cape St Vincent. It is the place at the far end of southern-
western Europe. I enjoyed this visit because we saw the ocean and the coast, it was a beautiful view! It was great!
(Yasmine)
….
This trip was very connected to the project: we visited a lighthouse, we went to a port, we saw the beaches, we
went on a boat to an island… and we ate a lot of fish! (Yasmine)
I was very happy because I met very nice people. It was a magic trip for me! That week was great and a good
experience for my English. But I was sad to leave because I made good Portuguese friends. I hope to go back there
next year. (Yasmine)
At school, we played different games, then we listened to the pupils’ concert and saw traditional dances. It was
good fun and very interesting. (Pauline)

7. Referendum from the meetings in Olhao
Proposal for Comenius meetings
May 2010 Riga – Latvia
October 19th – 24th 2010 - Greece
29th of January – 5th of February 2011 Guadeloupe( 450 euros from Paris to Guadeloupe, if we are a group of 10)
We think it is best to come on a Saturday and go back on a Saturday. Tell Cathrine how many people (men and
women).
April/may 2011 Aalborg – 2nd week of May
June 1st week evaluation meeting Olafsvik Iceland
Websites – blogs
We will change from Windows live to Facebook. Perhaps a wiki with pictures.
Newsletter
The first is finished and Iceland will make the next one. On the head there should be the Comenius sign.
Other ideas:
Build a national calendar together with the logos, the national days and so.
Evaluation of the second period
All the schools have had a very good working period. At the schools there haven’t been big problems with the
activities. The pupils have been very motivated, and their work have resulted in beautiful products.
We have had some discussions about how to make the collaborative writing. After the time schedule the story
had to be finished by the meeting in March. We decided that the schools can choose different models. It is okay
to make a collaborative writing story with few participants, so it can be closed to the fixed time. A story is rotating
to all the schools, and this story will be finished in the second project-year. It will be okay to wait because this
story is closed.
The schools have sent photos of the products to the common project web-site www.gug-skole.dk (international
sites). Some schools have made blogs – these blogs can be found as links on the web-site.
We have used windows-life as a working platform. It has been very useful, but most of the teachers are using
Facebook as a working platform as well. Because of that the participating teachers have decided only to use
Facebook from now on.
The partner school from Kalymnos joined the project in October. Unfortunately they couldn’t participate in the
meeting in Killarney, and it meant that the Greek teachers felt uncertain of what to do. Of course we tried to help
them, and from their work we can see they are doing very well.

8. To the meeting in Olhão all schools had to look for the forms for the first year’s evaluation.
In some countries the forms weren’t on the net yet, and in the other countries they weren’t identical. We decided
to communicate about the first year’s evaluation on the net and finish it in the meeting in May.
We didn’t have the time for finding an evaluation model on the meeting in Killarney. We now have decided to use
a Danish evaluation model called “Star Model”. We have to set up the criteria for success. The coordinators have
to send the criteria for success for the project:
For the school, for the teachers, for the pupils/students and for the local community
Evaluation of the meeting in Olhão
All of us felt that the meeting was a big success. The meeting in Olhao was very different from the meeting in
Killarney because so many pupils/students participated. It was a very big job for the Portuguese staff to prepare a
meeting with so many participants. On the excursions and in some activities on the school both teachers and
pupils participated, but during meetings and in the evenings there were special activities planned for the pupils.
All were well planned and we were met with great hospitality and kindness.
We had two meetings – On both meetings we were discussing Comenius-activities but on the second meeting
we were also talking about other activities which can strengthen the cooperation..
Here some conclusions after the meetings and after the week
 To the meetings about the project-activities we have until now decided that only two teachers from each
country can participate. Many teachers want to participate in these meetings. On the next meeting (Riga)
– all the teachers who want to participate can do it (minimum 2 from each country)
 There has to be at least two meetings
 It is a very good idea that each country is adopted by a class. On schools with many pupils a group of
teachers (if there for example are 6 teachers from a country) can be divided in two or three groups, so it
is possible to adopt more classes
 It is important to involve parents and people from the local community
 It is important that the teachers are mixed under common meals
 It is a important to plan activities where the students can be very active and where they can interact – ex.
sports, cooking, action parks
 It is a good idea that the students are communicating before and after the meeting
 It is a good idea to make a project log-book
 It is a good idea to make a Comenius-calendar at the school with the Comenius activities and the national
days
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“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein.”