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On the 5th of October three teachers and a classroom assistant from Bo’ness Academy set off for the Czech Republic. We were visiting a school in a small town near the German border. The school is part of a Comenius partnership which is running between Bo’ness Academy and schools in Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic.
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On the Monday we managed to see a bit of Novy Bor as our hotel was there. In the evening we had a welcome meal in a traditional Czech restaurant. It was our first introduction to Czech potato pancakes.
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The next day started with a visit to one of the school buildings. The school is run privately and has three sections :- nursery, primary and secondary. This building was for secondary pupils. They entertained us with plays and songs in Czech and English about the four countries. It was great to see their enthusiasm for learning about other cultures. Afterwards we got to speak to the teachers and pupils and had a tour of the school. I think it made us all appreciate how well-resourced our school is.
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Our afternoon consisted of a meeting with the Vice-Mayor of the town. He was a very young man who also worked as a teacher and was therefore very supportive of the project and the links between young people. After the meeting we had some time to do a bit of sightseeing.
Cseka Lipa is a small treditional Czech town which is popular with local tourists during the summer months
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In the evening we had the first of our project meetings followed by a dinner. During the dinner we exchanged documents produced by pupils from each country
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On the Wednesday morning we had a very early start as we were visiting the nursery and primary school. School starts much earlier in the Czech Republic. Formal lessons begin at 8am but a number of pupils are there even earlier as their parents work. Again we were entertained by the pupils and got to see a number of pupils at work. Veronika, one of the teachers explained some of their schemes of work and methodology. Unfortunately they do not have the same access to Support for Learning as we do.
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Later in the afternoon we were taken to a couple of the glass factories in the vicinity. That district is famous for producing glass items but the recession has had an impact on that. The glass they produce is of very high quality and all items are unique.
The host school kindly gave each country a gift from the factory.
In the evening we had another meeting followed by a wine-tasting event in a local wine cellar
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Our last day of the project was spent mainly in Prague, a very beautiful city with a fairytale feel to it. It has kept aspects of all Czech history in it and it is easy to track the changes which occurred there.
In the evening we had our final meeting and our farewell dinner. Gifts were exchanged by all the countries and dates for the final meeting were agreed.
On the Friday it was time to head for the airport and say our goodbyes. It was a tiring but very enjoyable week.
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