Pauline Trench, 2b teacher, recently visited École Saint-Victor in the Latin Quarter of Paris. She was warmly welcomed by both staff and children and she enjoyed meeting some of the parents too. The whole school performed songs and dances in a welcoming assembly and many of the children were wearing some tartan. A little fellow called Duncan sported a kilt, see you Jimmy hat and a huge furry sporran. Pauline enjoyed visiting some classes and becoming more familiar with education in France.

She also enjoyed being in Paris!

Finland in March was beautiful, the temperature was unusually high for the time of year - between -2 and 2 degrees C, still cold by our standards!

Markku Kukkonen and his wife Helena welcomed us in true Finnish style. We had a wonderful meal at their house, we were given a guided tour around both Markku’s school, Suomenniemen Koulu which is our Comenius partner and Helena’s school which is the school in the main local town. We spent much of the time with two Norwegian ladies from our Comenius partner school, Aurvoll Skole,
Tretten in Norway. Gerd Eli and Mariat, both of whom were excellent company and enjoyed the trip as much as we did. Marrku’s pupils put on a performance for us where they sang some Finnish songs and played some instruments to accompany their singing. We were also taken out for a Finnish evening which consisted of every kind of traditional Finnish dish ranging from smoked fish to smoked reindeer and elk. This restaurant was situated in a remote part of the countryside beside a lake - which was at the time frozen over like all the other lakes - it was surrounded by trees and had a sauna and hot tub attached to it to provide guests with added relaxation!

Liz Henderson

In order to facilitate the building of the Middle School accommodation, a tree planted in memory of Moira Cruickshank was removed. The wood was stored and used to make the markers for our trees planted to celebrate the end of one Comenius Project and the start of the current project, REACH.

Forms I-IV prepared flags to decorate the dining room while Jean and the dining room staff prepared a Comenius Lunch with a “French” flavour! We look forward to our growing friendship and cooperation with Norway, Finland, France and Germany.

Representatives from all five schools in the new partnership met at Suomenniemen Koulu (Finland) to plan the launch of this exciting “REACH” project.

Mary Radcliffe, our Comenius co-ordinator, represented Craigclowan which is the lead school of the project.

REACH - Comenius Project

September 2006 sees the start of the 3rd Comenius project for Craigclowan School. The countries involved are Norway, Finland, France, Germany and Scotland. As the title suggests, we hope to reach out to our European partner schools and exchange information about our heritage and culture.
During our assembly, Form IV gave some ideas of the school activities where we share interests with other school friends. They looked back to a previous project with Denmark, and looked forward to making new friends through the new partnership.
Form V delighted us by giving information about France, in French.
To complete the assembly, the Brass Band played one of their German folk songs.
We know a little and we look forward to learning more.