Scoil Chaitríona Cailíní has a history of involvement with Comenius Project which is part of the European Community’s Socrates Action Programme. Socrates, which was first launched in 1995, “targets the whole spectrum of education from nursery school children to adult learners of any age”. It has 8 different action programmes and in 1995 S.C.C. became involved with the Comenius Action 1 which was based on school partnerships.
In school partnerships, pupils and teachers from schools in different European countries meet to work on a common topic. In 1995 S.C.C. linked up with schools in Austria, Hungary and Italy to work on a project entitled “Ancient Footprints in Europe” During 1997-1998, 300 copies of this book were distributed among the participating schools.
Subsequently another school partnership was formed with schools in France, Italy and Spain. This project worked on devising a charter of pupil rights and duties vis-à-vis the school and the community.
S.C.C. is currently coming to the end of a 3 year partnership project begun in 2005 with schools from France, Sweden, Italy, Poland and Sweden. This project, entitled “Growing up with Books” involved reading, studying and comparing stories from each of the countries.
As a result of all these projects, small publications were produced (books and calendars), plays were performed (“The Selfish Giant”), exhibitions were held (Coolock Library), Teaches and pupils improved their language skills (French, Italian, Spanish), educational ideas and approaches were exchanged and the European dimension in school education was introduced to the pupils in the classrooms.
Looking to the future, we hope to be accepted on a new two year language project dealing with European linguistic diversity. This project will compare and contrast how we teach languages in the different European schools.
Collaboration on such projects undoubtedly acts as an inspiration for continued innovation and improvement in our respective schools.
