Craigclowan Preparatory School

POTSDAM VISIT

JUNE 2009

Brandenburg
Coat of Arms

Jonathan Doak and Wendy Duncan visited Potsdam, Germany, in June 2009
Towards the end of last term Jonathan and I were delighted to be given the opportunity to visit to our Comenius partners in Brandenburg. The trip was educational in the widest sense and included sightseeing in the cities of Potsdam and Berlin as well as plenty of time visiting the school itself. Although it faces extremely daunting social and economic difficulties, Grundschule 20 Am Priesterweg has a very positive atmosphere, a skilful and committed staff and consequently many happy children. We savoured numerous new experiences during our week and while we were happy to polish up our somewhat rusty German language skills some of the senior pupils enjoyed trying out their English as they showed us around the school and the locality.

Saint-Victor

ÉCOLE SAINT-VICTOR'S VISIT

20-25 MAY 2009

Ville de Paris

17 pupils and 3 members of Staff (Jeanne Rousselet, the Headmistress, Estelle Gaillac and Sigrid Née) travelled from École Saint-Victor in Paris to stay with the Craigclowan community for four days of immersion in the Scottish way of life.

They arrived late on Wednesday (the Air France flight was delayed by a good 30 minutes) and at half past eleven at night, the tired Saint-Victor pupils were united with their Craigclowan host families.

On Thursday, our Parisian friends from the CM1 (F.5) and CM2 (F.6) classes were given a guided tour of the Fair City and visited the Black Watch museum. Then it was lunch at school and a visit of Scone Palace.

On Friday, they were distributed among the three F.6 and the two F.5 sets and attended classes with their Scottish friends. A Comenius lunch followed (They all enjoyed that quintessentially British treat, Fish and Chips!) and then it was time to cheer the juniors during their sports day. Afterwards, there was still time to admire the stunning artwork in our first Art Exhibition before going home with their host families.

Saturday was definitely a very Scottish sort of day, with low, grey clouds gathering on the horizon as we headed for Stirling Castle. The weather stayed relatively dry during our visit which was enjoyed by all (and yes, the kitchens held a special appeal for our budding gastronomes!) but then, as we headed towards Lochearnhead, the heavens opened and a grey mist enveloped the Franco-Scottish expedition. In desperation, we stopped by Loch Lubnaig for a late, wet picnic. However, to our great satisfaction and to prove to our French friends that "Le temps change souvent en Écosse", by the time we reached Killin the sun was shining again and we could admire Loch Tay in all its majesty all the way to Kenmore. Back to Perth and the children spent Sunday with their host families who arranged a variety of outings ranging from go-karting to a visit to the Blair Atholl Highland Games.

Sadly, Monday morning at 8.30 in the Craigclowan car park was the time to bid our young visitors "Au revoir". Not "Adieu", you understand, but merely "Au revoir", since we sincerely hope to meet many of them again, whether in Perth or Paris.

We are most grateful to all at Craigclowan and in particular to our wonderful host families for a memorable international visit which epitomises the true Comenius spirit.
Merci beaucoup!

Patrick Borderie and Florence Proctor

VISITORS FROM NORWAY

27 - 30 APRIL 2009

Our Comenius Visitors

We were delighted to have a visit from three teachers from our Norwegian partner school from Monday the 27th of April until Thursday the 30th of April. Liv-Kari Ringen (the Headteacher of Aurvoll skole), Magnus Torgersen and Lene Thoresen were welcomed to a junior assembly and spent time in classes. In their free time they met other members of staff socially and went on a small tour to see some of our beautiful area.

On Saturday 11th October, Florence Proctor and Patrick Borderie travelled to Paris to attend the annual planning meeting for our Comenius project. This took place at École St. Victor, where we were warmly welcomed by headmistress Jeanne Rousselet and Comenius coordinator Sigrid Née. We were joined by old and new friends from Aurvoll Skole in Norway, Grundschule am Priesterweg in Germany and Suomenniemen Koulu in Finland.

At the meeting the theme for this year’s project, the geography and natural history of our respective areas, was discussed and agreement was reached on the format and timing of work to be produced by our classes.
• In Term 1 we will look at the trees and other plants native to our area,
• In Term 2 we will consider how factors such as history, geography and climate in our area affect tourism.
• In Term 3 we will carry out research on our tourist destinations and display our mathematical results in graphical form.

During the year we will also produce a combined art work to mark the end of the current project. This will consist of the coat of arms of the town or city of each participating school and will be displayed in each school once completed. There will be a celebration of the end of the project taking place in each school on a suitable date near to Europe Day, the 9th of May.

École St Victor is a small private school in the Latin Quarter of central Paris, comprising a Maternelle section (Nursery to age 5) and Primary classes from 6 to 11 with a total roll of 180 pupils. Although the main entrance opens off a busy street the playground is a charming courtyard with plane trees situated on a higher level. The atmosphere of the school is warm and friendly and the pupils were eager to speak to the visitors and tell them about their school. In particular the CM1 class (9 year olds) had just returned from “Classe de Mer” where they had spent a week at the seaside in Brittany studying various aspects of life there. In a whole school assembly presents were exchanged and we thanked our hosts for their wonderful hospitality.

ÉCOLE ST. VICTOR