The Comenius project was presented within a short programme prepared on the occasion, devised for primary schools and presented by the Mobility Agency at the beginning of the school year within a seminar on employment. The programme in issue is aimed at lifelong learning and mobility in the EU Member States.
After the seminar the school presented on the internet the environmental project – Linen bags over plastic and Eco Manners - and made contacts with Nether Robertland primary school from Stewarton, Scotland, which found this project interesting, since they themselves are engaged in this field. The schools exchanged experiences and set up excellent cooperation. A preliminary visit to Scotland occurred around mid September, and on this occasion schools - partners from Germany and Norway also joined.
The project titled „Linen bags over plastic“ has been implemented in Rijeka in co-operation with the utility company „Čistoća“ from Rijeka. Schoolchildren attending from first to third grades had a task to make drawings tackling the topic of environmental protection. The drawings were then printed on linen bags, t-shirts and calendars, and linen bags, among others, became souvenirs in Scotland, Norway and Germany.
Two-year long co-operation anticipates that joint projects of Norway, Germany, Scotland and Croatia would be filed to the central organisation of Comenius operating within the European Union. In May next year we will know whether this cooperation is approved or not. It has been agreed that the joint work would cover the following activities: ecology, energy, sports and culture, i.e. 7 activities in the course of two years. Cooperation will be realised via the internet, by agreements, exchange of materials and e-mail contacts. At the same time, mobility meetings have been agreed to take place in Germany, Croatia and Norway.
In order to present themselves and get to know each other better, every partner will prepare a kind of postcard whereby the school will present its own country, county, city and school. Every school can freely choose its presentation postcard. The same has been agreed for the project in which one sport will be presented by each party, and the schoolchildren attending Ivan Zajc school will present football in co-operation with the school football club in which only schoolchildren play.
The first mobility meeting is scheduled for October 2010 in Germany. Teachers will attend the meeting in order to agree further work and define two more activities out of overall seven activities projected to be covered over two-year co-operation.
The next mobility meeting will take place in Rijeka, in February 2011, within the Rijeka Carnival. Our guests will be teachers and schoolchildren from Scotland, Germany and Norway.
The key words of the Rijeka mobility meeting are: REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE, meaning – save energy – electricity and water - in your school, use again the toys that you no longer play with by giving them to younger children and recycle anything that can be recycled.
Two-year cooperation will be concluded by a mobility meeting in Germany in May 2012 with youth sports games. Every country will bring 10 pupils who will take part in various sports events. Also, every country should prepare a region or a country specific game and learn the children from other countries the rules of the game.
Primary school Ivan Zajc is the only school in our county included in the Comenius project.
(I.N.)