Erasmus + Project 2018-2020

‘Keeping the legacy alive, empowering professionals to inspire children through the enrichment of the curriculum’

Erasmus Project Results

Project Documentation

Throughout this two year project, teachers from Spain, Greece and Italy will be exchanging practice on how they deliver the curriculum within Europe through the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Erasmus + team will be looking at how practitioners carefully implement strong cross-curricular links in their planning and how the use of resources enrich children’s learning experiences. The teachers will observe and collectively discuss the strengths and how this could be implemented within their school.

Objectives for the project

1. To add value to the foundation subjects.
2. Enhance the teaching and learning experience for both staff and pupils.
3. To build teacher confidence and competence in cross-curricular approaches.
4. To exchange excellent teaching practices from partner schools and reflect upon innovative teaching approaches.

Throughout our training sessions within the 3 other countries who we are partnered with, we will be completing tasks and activities which will meet these objectives. Our aim to take the best practices we see across Europe and creatively apply them to the learning within our own profession.

Already within the first 6 months of the project staff who are involved are feeling more confident and competent when faced with linking areas of the curriculum. We are very excited to see what the future holds.

If you have any questions regarding this project please ask Miss Colley, Mrs Rose, Mrs Amiraly and Mrs Hussien. We look forward to welcoming the professionals from Greece, Spain and Italy in January!

What learning opportunities can you see?

First Teaching and Learning Exchange

Barcelona (24.11.18-01.12.18)

Today our Erasmus Team had their first day at our partner school in Barcelona. They were welcomed by the Spanish Team and then met the team from Greece. The day started with the pupil ambassadors providing a guided tour of the primary part of the school. Our team then observed some amazing lessons and looked at how this school engaged their pupils in different learning activities. They experienced a traditional Catalan lunch where they were introduced to different foods and drinks. At the end of the day they were interviewed by the pupils, this was then broadcasted across the school.

Today began with our team watching some excellent cross curricular lessons at the Spanish school. They were inspired by the childrens’ creative skills in an art lesson. The children used the Trencadis technique to create book marks which will be sold at a later date. Trencadis is very traditional in Spain, it is very colourful and each piece created is unique. After this, the team watched presentations from the 5^th grade, each one focussed on a different area of the world and included precipitation, native animals, local plants as well as other interesting facts.

At the end of the day, the team visited Sagrada Familia where they used this important monument to consider cross curricular teaching opportunities for our pupils back at William Bellamy.

The team had a guided tour of the Olympic Park in Barcelona, they looked at the origins of the Olympics including the religious links and how these games were introduced. This guided tour continued into the Olympic Games revival in Athens in 1896 and continued until the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Our team, along with our partner schools, considered ways of teaching the curriculum which could revive the Olympic Games while engaging pupils in their learning. The teams considered Religion, Art, Journalism, Geography, Sport/PE and Technology.

Today the Erasmus + Team were lucky enough to observe some lessons in Catalan! They were presenting information to the Erasmus + team on the famous landmark outside of their school. The children were explaining to their peers about where the landmark is situated, the history of the landmark and how long it has been there for! The children were asked to think of a name for the landmark. The professionals then met to discuss the activities that had been observed. The team then discussed the planning for the next year and how this can be successfully implemented within the year. We looked at the planning and expectations within the different key stages and identified similarities and differences with these.

Second Teaching and Learning Exchange

London (23.01.19-29.01.19)

The focus for the first training week in London was: Cross-Curricular lessons and the cognitive, personal and social development of pupils.

Training planned

The activities which were planned created opportunities for the School Exchange Partnership team to interact fully with pupils and the Curriculum Enrichment team. Due to previous training, the participants from our school were more confident in delivering cross-curricular lessons. The activities allowed the team to observe and interact with pupils to gain deeper understanding of the learning in our school. We considered ways to identify the cognitive, personal and social benefits/development that cross-curricular teaching provides. Observations of lessons provided the opportunity for further collaboration to discuss the benefits our hosts witnessed.

By meeting the staff and pupils, our visitors could gain an understanding of the ethos of our school. By seeing the local area, we were able to explain the varied difficulties that some of our families and pupils face, this was something that was important to understand the types of provision which we offer.  

How is participation in this activity going to benefit the involved participants?

We hoped that the visit not only improved our visitors confidence in identifying wider benefits to cross-curricular teaching. We hoped that it will benefit our staff, we were able to gain an insight into how other educators viewed our education and how we facilitate our pupils' learning. We will be able to follow up to consider if our training helped our visitors make explicit links within contextualised learning.

Things we considered:

The cognitive processes

Enhance pupils' learning experience

Confidently identify and explore teaching points that promote social and personal development

Delivery of lessons which authentically link key concepts and learning processes

Embracing innovative approaches to learning within their own practice

Feeling confident enough to explore and reflect positively on own and others teaching in order to improve.

Take a look at some of our photos from our partners' visit to London

Third Teaching and Learning Exchange

Athens (07.04.19-14.04.19)

Pride travelled with Miss Colley, Mrs Rose, Mrs Wiseman and Mrs Amiralry from London Luton Airport to Athens. He saw lots of different countries on his way and he was tired when he arrived! He has never visited Greece before and was excited to visit Athens, the home of the Olympic Games!

We arrived at the 2^nd Primary School, in Greece. We were greeted by the head teacher and we were taken to the hall where the children in the 3^rd, 5^th and 6^thgrade had prepared a performance for us to watch. They had prepared a power point presentation for us where it informed us about the history of the Olympic and Paralympics games. The children presented this in different cross-curricular ways - drama and music. We then had project time, where we met with the partner schools to discuss the itinerary for the teaching and learning exchange and discussed which aims and objectives of the project were being met. We exchanged passports from the children in the different partner schools! The children enjoyed writing these up and look forward to receiving more messages in the near future.

Day Two: Tuesday 9th April 2019

Today we visited Athens to explore different landmarks, including the Olympic Stadium which hosted the first ever Olympic Games! The different practitioners from the countries looked at the different famous landmarks and discussed how these can be used for teaching and learning opportunities within the classroom. We visited the Acropolysis and were lucky enough to have stood in the site as well as next to it! The cross-curricular links were amazing- we were discussing how we could link this famous landmarks with iall areas of the curriculum, especially History, Art and Design and Mathematics. The views were stunning! We talked about the history of the Acroplysis and how it was bombed! Did you know that a piece of this amazing landmark can be found in the British Museum in London? Once we finished, we went to visit the first ever Olymic Stadium. It was made out of the finest marble imported from a Greek Island! The stadium did not have any roof!

The Houses of Parliament was guarded by guards and the guard change happens at 11am every day! Outside there were lots of pigeons and people were even holding them! We bought some postcards so that we can plan some incredible learning opportunities for all of the children in our School.

We went to visit the Sounio where we visited ‘The Temple of Poseidon’. The Temple of Poseidon is a famous landmark situated in Sounio and lots of people visit this attraction every year. The Temple of Poseidon started in 1844. Did you know that Cape Sounio is the southernmost tip of Attica? It was designed by the architect Valerios Staes in 1830. It is a significant strategic point in the city of Athens! Take a look…

Today we went to the school to see different lessons such as; Technology, Physical Education, Mathematics, History and English. We worked alongside the children in a technology lesson to make a car using Lego. We used the application ‘Scratch’ to programme and instruct our car to move! The children were extremely patient and helped the teachers when they were stuck.

The children in the 6^th grade gave us a tour around the school. They were excited to show us all of their learning! We were able to visit all of the different classrooms and the children all said hello to us. There are only 226 children in the whole school! William Bellamy Primary School is nearly 5x bigger than the 2^nd Primary School in Anevyssos! They asked us some questions such as; What is your name? Where do you live? What do you like about our School? What is your favourite colour? We saw the children playing volleyball and they were keen to show all of us their different throws! We went to visit the 4^th grade and saw a History lesson. They reading the text in Greek and completed a reading comprehension in class. They were confident to translate this into English so that we could understand.

It was an amazing experience at 2^nd Primary School in Anevyssos. We look forward to seeing all of their learning in the second year.

Fourth Teaching and Learning Exchange

Milan (11.05.19-18.05.19)

Today we were taking on an exciting adventure to Lake Idroscalo for a sailing trip. We did not know what to expect but in order to be successful it was crucial that we worked as a team! Mrs Rose, Mrs Wiseman and Miss Colley got in their life jackets whilst Miss Mack was too scared! We had to work with a partner from another school to practice rowing the boat using the paddles. Before we could even move Miss Colley has a problem... She fell over in her boat and nearly fell in! Once we were able to start we worked as team and had to follow the instructor. We then got back out of the boat and.... taught us how to navigate the boat using the rudder. You have to move it in the opposite direction to what you are doing. It was harder than it looked! We then went back into the small boat and practiced this! From the corner of our eye we saw the instructor getting a boat which had a sail on and 5 people were able to fit in!!! We were very scared incase we fell in... When we got on it felt very low and we were worried that the boat was going to capsize! What an amazing opportunity to do an Olympic Sport and learn so many new skills in a cross – curricular way! Take a look at photographs from the day!! 

We were welcomed into Insituto Marcelline Tonmaseo School by the pupils and staff. When we arrived we saw the Erasmus board with each countries flag. It was amazing to see how hard the school had worked to make sure that we felt welcome. Pupils from the school explained that we needed to go into the hall for an assembly with the Olympic Silver Medalist called... They asked us to stand behind our flag. When we entered the hall the children were cheering and screaming with excitement.. It was extremely overwhelming. We were shown a video about the school (click on the link below this paragraph). They were telling us about their school and how supportive it was. It was finally time to meet the Olympic fencing champion Marco Fichera. He won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. Everyone stood up and they were sooo excited to meet him. The children had prepared questions to ask him and they were excited to do this. He responded to them in Italian and the children had to listen carefully and translate it to English! They had to make sure that they listened carefully so that they understood what he was saying. Once he had finished he took photographs and met each pupil individually to sign their paper with his autograph. Once he left the children performed a reinacted traditional dance from the partner countries! They were spectacular and everyone was clapping them! They also taught us about the 16 sustainable development goals which is similar to Rights Respecting! We then had a tour of the school and met to discuss the evidence that we had collected and the impact of the project so far. We then went on a walking tour of Milan with the Art teacher and saw iconic buildings and monuments in Milan. We are so excited to come back and come and show you these in your lessons!! Once we had finished we went back to school where the parents came in to watch the school choir perform. They had worked really hard and even performed two English songs – Somebody to love and Don’t stop me now! It was so lovely to see that the parents were so supportive of their children and were keen to watch them perform! 

We were given a tour of the School! We went to observe lessons in Art, Music and English. It was very interesting to see the similarities between our school and the school in Italy. The children performed a song for us using recorders and were excited to ask us questions about William Bellamy. In the evening we went to the the Leonardo and Warhol exhibition in the oldest underground church in Milan! The church was closed for 50 years and opened especially for the exhibition! We went into a room and watched a video on the word of Leonardo and Warhol. It got the teachers thinking about all of the amazing learning that you could do! We then visited the church.. It had the original roman tiles on the floor. It was an amazing experience.

Today staff from all schools observed different lessons in the school. We went and saw Frederick a teach Caviar Diag lesson and Mrs Wiseman was excited to see that the children in our school had done a fabulous job too! We went to see an English lesson which focused on superlatives and comparatives to talk about facts that they had read about in the Guiness World Record! The children were a little bit nervous but they did an amazing job. Mrs Amiraly and the other teachers had arranged a facetime session with Year 4 pupils but we didn’t tell them... When they saw the children from the Italian school they were so excited! They were asking each other questions such as : What is your favourite food? Do you like your school? Who is your favourite teacher? We have arranged monthly facetime sessions with the pupils in Greece, Italy and Spain so make sure that you have some questions ready! We then went into Nursery where the children sang Heal the World by Micheal Jackson. They enjoyed performing the song and were keen to show us their dancing after! They were so happy that we were dancing with us. They then went into their lesson where they were showing us toys that they had made using different resources.. Take a look! 

Leonardo Da Vinci arrived in Milan in 1482 and spent more than a third of his life, creating art masterpieces and anticipating the future. Through his genius and his intuitions he contributed to making Milan the city in which they live.

Look at the photos and text from the exhibition. 

Our Olympic Dream

Second Year of Delivering the Erasmus Project

First Teaching and Learning Exchange

                      Athens  (04.11.19-08.11.19)

We were so excited to go back and see all the wonderful children, staff and parents at the 2^nd Primary School in Anavysoss. We were welcomed by all the students who had prepared an assembly for us. They told us about their school, performed different traditional dances from all of the partner countries and played songs that they had been learnt on the piano! After this, we went into the classrooms to observe some lessons. The children in the 1^st grade were looking at colours and they were keen to practice their English by asking us questions such as; Where are you from? What are you doing here? After this, the Erasmus teams from the 4 countries met and discussed the first year. We looked at the objectives from the project and talked about what teaching and learning activities we have completed that link to these. The Erasmus teams then discussed the ‘Virtual Olympics’ in which they will be competing again all 4 of their countries. I wonder who will win? The teams then discussed the aims and objectives for this coming year, the activities that will be completed and what the teams would like to see this week! Overall it was a very productive day and we are looking forward to tomorrow!

Today we arrived to school at 8am because we were going someone very special with the children of the 2^nd Primary School in Anavysoss. We went on a guided tour to the Panathenaic Stadium, the first ever Olympic Stadium to be built. It looked a little different to London 2012! When we arrived at the stadium, we noticed that it was built out of marble and had no weathered since being built in 566BC! When we went inside we were told lots of different information about this. Did you know that the seats at the front of the stadium were used for very important people such as; the king and queen? We saw the original track and grass and workmen were setting up the stadium for a special very event on Sunday (The Athens Marathon 2019). When we were about ¾ of the way around the stadium, we were told go into this tunnel. It reminded us of a cave! Inside of this, were all of the Olympic Torches displayed! It was incredible to see all of the different designs of the torches. We learnt about how they were lit. In London 2012, there were Olympic petals that represented each of the participating countries – we were so lucky that there was one in there. Once we finished the tour, the children then participated in some Olympic Games such as; relay racing, javelin and sprinting! What a fantastic opportunity and an amazing piece of history!

Today we were lucky enough to go and visit the Art Museum! When we arrived, we were welcomed by the gentleman who began showing us some fantastic pieces of artwork. The artwork on display varied in the materials used. Some were painted, drawn, made of out straws, bottle tops and fizzy drink cans! We then went and completed an activity where we had to use different materials to make a picture. We were given a template e.g a tree. We are so excited for you to do this! Once we had finished, we went and explored the rest of the Museum. The children were so excited to learn about the artist. At the end there was an amazing surprise… the original house where … designed all of his pictures was still there! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to going back to school tomorrow!

Today we returned to the 2^nd Primary School in Anavysoss to complete an art lesson. We were put into the children’s shoes and Maria, the art teacher, asked us to complete a painting. It wasn’t so simple! Firstly, we had to make a cross on the paper to ensure that our picture was symmetrical. We then had to choose different shapes that we wanted to draw, ensuring that we did the same in each of the triangles. Miss Colley asked Maria whether we could use a ruler and she said no you have to use your eye! We were all very focused and afterwards discussed what fantastic cross-curricular opportunities this one activity had!

Today was our final day in 2^nd Primary School in Anavysoss. We were all very excited to go and see the children and see what our day had in store for us. When we arrived the head teacher asked us to go and write messages about our visit on the display. It was so lovely to read all the fantastic messages and reflect upon this fantastic opportunity that we have had. We then went into the hall where we were greeted by …. He came 2^nd in the rowing at the Bejing 2008 Olympic Games! We watched the clip of this and everyone cheered at the end! He then presented a powerpoint where he told us about what it is like to be an athlete. The children asked him questions such as; how long did it take you to train for the rowing? How old were you when you started to row? … enjoyed responding to these questions and had a surprise for the children. He had bought in 3 Olympic Torches and they were able to hold them. The torches were from London 2012, Rio 2016 and Athens 2004. The children were then able to pretend that they were the torch barer. After this, …. showed children the rowing technique and explained that 85% of rowing is completed through your legs and 15% is through your arms! After this, the Erasmus teams from the 4 countries met to discuss the week, what cross-curricular links it held and the tasks that needed to be completed before the next teaching and learning exchange.

We have had a fantastic time here in Athens and we are looking forward to implementing different ideas into William Bellamy Primary School!

Year Two

Second Teaching and Learning Exchange

                  Milan  (1.12.19-08.12.19)

The second teaching and learning exchange to Milan was very beneficial in learning about their culture, providing pupils with opportunities to explore and observations demonstrated an improved opportunity for cross-curricular planning and delivery of sessions. 

When arriving at the school, we were greeted by the Erasmus Team who had hosted a Christmas Market to show off all of the fantastic learning and resources that the children had made. Throughout the week, we observed lessons in a range of different subjects with the focus of ensuring that these highlighted strong cross-curricular links, opportunities for staff to demonstrate strong subject knowledge and pupil feedback would demonstrate high levels of knowledge and increased motivation to succeed. 

Practitioners from the partner countries visited Giacomo Puccini Tosca. A paralympic athlete, who participated in the Paralympic Games came to the school to visit. They were able to explain about their injury, how they got into athletics and which interpersonal skills that needed in order to be successful. 

Year Two

Remote Teaching and Learning Exchange

               Barcelona (01.02.21-07.02.21)

This remote exchange allowed more opportunities for pupils to communicate and learn about other cultures. The remote exchange begun with pupils from the lead school introducing themselves and children explaining what they have learned from the project. Here are some examples of what the children said. 

"I got to play lots of sport" "I was able to learn about the Paralympics and participate in some of these games" "I learned about the Olympic Games and visited the stadium" "I got to speak English better" "I went to the Post Office and wrote a post card for the first time ever!"

The children from the lead school had compiled a Kahoot Quiz for all children to share with different focuses each day. It enabled children and practitioners to work collaboratively to look at each country and focus on this. The children were able to use their ICT skills to research answers that they were unsure of, talk about what they know and demonstrate their knowledge in a fun and practical way. Being the first remote teaching and learning exchange, and all four schools being taught remotely at home, it was crucial that the children had an opportunity to be involved as much as possible. The practitioners leading each school met to discuss the project, the benefits from the week, strengths and things that could be considered. The children then went on a virtual visit to different landmarks in each country (see attachment) and were required to write down/learn new facts. This involved pupils researching information to enhance their knowledge and understanding on the world around them. At the end of the week, partners met to complete evaluation forms, which then could be used to see how successful the week had been and things that could be improved ready for the next remote teaching and learning exchange in London 2021. Pupils then had to complete an evaluation form so that data could be collated to see how the pupils had developed throughout the week (see below).

Year Two

Remote Teaching and Learning Exchange

               London (19.04.21-25.04.21)

The Erasmus Ambassadors from the lead school compiled a video to introduce their school to the other children. This enabled the children to lead their learning as well as virtually introduce themselves. The children from the lead school worked collaboratively together to consider what they thought the other teams would like to see.

After this a timetable was collated where pupils from each partner school linked up via email to email and communicate with other children. This was extremely beneficial for pupils as they were able to practice their language skills, begin to learn a new language and communicate with other children.

The project had an emphasis on ensuring that cross-curricular links were evident through planning and delivery of sessions. This day focused on critiquing two practitioners in their lessons and staff completing feedback on this. Each team were able to consider successes within this, areas of development and an opportunity to link this to the end of Key Stage targets. 

The children from the lead school had made a Kahoot Quiz for the other pupils to complete, linked to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The children collated this together and researched the answers. During the remote meeting, they spoke to the other children about the expected task. The pupils were excited about this and this enhanced their knowledge of the world around them and provided them with an opportunity to demonstrate their learnt knowledge from the delivery of the project.

The children then had the challenge of working with their teachers to recreate the Olympic and Paralympic Games!

Evaluation forms from all practitioners participating in the project were completed. It enabled opportunities for the lead school to evaluate the impact that this remote teaching exchange had on both practitioners and pupils. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoUeUj5CmbZV2S64LDAwLVXp0y0lTi-dB-VoxamShsx4O9fQ/viewform

Project Results - Different Media Channels

Get Set - Team GB