The document summarizes a Comenius school partnership project between St. Mary's Primary School in Mullaghbawn, Northern Ireland and four other European schools. The goal of the project is for pupils to gain understanding of different European cultures through blogging and sharing cultural activities and traditions. Planned project activities over two years include designing a logo, creating an electronic dictionary of local expressions, and producing a short film about life in Mullaghbawn. Teachers and older pupils will visit partner schools for project meetings in each country.

1. Comenius—School Partnership Project
“Blogging in Europe”
St. Mary’s Primary School, Mullaghbawn
November 2011
What is Comenius? What is a Blog?
The programme aims to develop knowledge A blog is similar to a website. It is also known
and understanding of different European as web log of events which are regularly up-
cultures and languages, and help young peo- dated. The partnership will be using a Blog
ple gain skills for their future lives and ca- where pupils and staff from partner schools
reers. As well as learning about their part- will be able to communicate and share activi-
ners’ society, the programme also helps ties in a safe and user friendly environment.
young people learn more about their own cul- We hope you will follow us with our regular up-
ture and build links within their local com- dates from the project on both our St Mary’s
munity. Blog and also the Blog created for the pro-
ject.
St Mary’s Blog:
http://europeanproject-
stmarysmullaghabawn.blogspot.com
In September we were successful in receiv- Comenius Project Blog:
ing funding from the British Council to par- http://europeanproject-general.blogspot.com
ticipate in a two year Comenius School Part-
nership Programme and we formed a group
with 4 other similarly funded European Project Activities—Year 1
schools. The theme for our project is to de- Activity 1: Competition—Design a Logo
velop a greater understanding of our tradi-
All pupils are invited to enter a competition to
tions and culture and to share our findings
design a LOGO for the Blog of the partnership.
with our partner countries through the me-
Two winning entries from each school will then
dium of Blogging, hence the title “Blogging in
be placed on the Blog for one week. During this
Europe”.
time pupils will have the opportunity to view and
Our Partner Schools: place a vote for the overall winner of the compe-
1. Begonazpi Ikastola, Bilbao, Basque Coun- tition. The winning Logo will then be used on the
try: www.begonazpi.org Blog. All entries must be submitted on or before
2. Zakladni skola, Brno, Chalabalova, Czech the 7th December. The winning entry from each
Republic: www.chalabalova.cz
3. Scoil Eoin Pol, Loch an Iuir, Donegal, Ire- school will appear on the Blog in early January
land for voting. We will inform you of the exact dates
4. Przedszkole Publiczne, Ostrowiec Swie- closer to the time.
tokrzyski, Poland: www.pp16.oodn.pl

2. Schedule for Project Meetings:
Activity 2: Electronic Dictionary
Project Meeting 1:
Pupils from each school will create an elec- Bilbao, Basque Country (5th to 9th November)
tronic dictionary of local expressions, Mr McDonnell, Miss Mulkerns, Miss Byrnes and
phrases and vocabulary associated to the Miss Crawley
harvesting of a traditional crop of their Photos overleaf
country. The electronic dictionary will incor- Project Meeting 2:
porate drawings to match and the pronuncia- Loch an Iuir, Donegal (19th—23rd March 2012)
Project Meeting 3:
tion of the words, expressions etc.
Brno, Czech Republic (12th—16th May 2012)
Again the electronic dictionary from each Project Meeting 4:
country will be shared on the project Blog Mullaghbawn, N.Ireland (Autumn 2012)
for all to read and listen to and hopefully Project Meeting 5:
learn a few useful phrases to say! This is due Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, Poland (Spring 2013)
for completion early April 2012. Project Meeting 6:
Bilbao, Basque Country (Early Summer 2013)
Activity 3: Short film about our locality
Dates may change due to unforeseen circum-
Pupils will work together to plan and produce stances.
a short film about life in Mullaghbawn and Loch an Iuir and Mullaghbawn will arrange
the surrounding area. The short film will be dates for pupil visits at a later stage.
based on the growing and harvesting of pota-
We will look forward to hosting teachers from
toes. We will be examining the differences in our partner schools to our school in the Au-
the traditional methods used for growing po- tumn of 2012. It will also be a great opportu-
tatoes to the modern day production. nity for our pupils to meet with and to talk
with the visitors to our school and village. We
hope that you will join with us in our prepara-
Project Meetings—Year 1: tions and the organisation of hosting and en-
This is the 3rd such project in which St tertaining of our visitors both pupils and
Mary’s has been involved in. In our previous teachers.
projects only teachers travelled to take
part in project meetings and to visit Rules for competition:
schools within the partnership. However, in Research with your child information about the
this project it is the intention of our part- countries involved: National Flag, symbol, build-
ner school in Loch an Iuir and ourselves to ings, food, dress, sport. Logo can be planned at
encourage some of our older pupils to take home but will be completed in school
part in a project meeting between Donegal Must be:
and Mullaghbawn. This of course is an ex- A4 portrait
citing development to our project and we Crayons, colouring pencils, twistables
look forward to planning and participating in 1 winner per year group through to 2nd round
2nd round - 1 winner from each keystage to be
submitted for voting on-line
Winners will compete against winners from
other schools for overall logo winner

3. Bilbao
Basque Country
Photos captured in Bilbao city centre. Can you name these
places?

4. Pupils and staff from Begonazpi Ikastola welcome us to their
school