Gospodarska škola Varaždin

The second meeting of the partners was held in Istanbul, Turkey, the host school being Dr Nureddin Erk, a state secondary school named after the famous Turkish doctor who donated money for its foundation.

The welcome

The school principal hosted a reception for all the participants welcoming us to Istanbul and wishing us a successful continuance of the project. The last day, the host school organised the certificate ceremony at which the students of the school presented some of the country’s traditions, music and dances and prepared the exhibition of local cuisine specialties.

The work

During our stay in Istanbul, several meetings, presentations and workshops were held to discuss various project-related topics: the comparison of different education systems (conclusions drawn from the questionnaires provided by each partner), questionnaires  for students, teachers and parents (regarding the motivation to learn foreign languages, different methods used, etc.), the publication about good practice activities (its content and illustrations made by partner school students), etc. Also, the partners could see the host school facilities and the students presented their schools, discussed foreign language classes, played games, practiced acting out a play in a foreign language and started producing the comic book for the final publication of the project.

Learning more...

All the participants of the Comenius project had the opportunity to see some of our hosts' enormous cultural heritage. Some of the sights we visited were: the Hagia Sophia Mosque, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque – the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the bazaars, the Basilica Cisterns and Galata Tower. The hosts also organised the Bosphorus cruise so that we spend a few hours between the two continents: Asia and Europe.

Vanja Perši presentation

Students’ presentation in the school library (April, 2013)

Branimir and Valentina  presented the Comenius project to all the class representatives in the school library. They described their trip to Istanbul, the host school and the workshops they participated in.  Also, they showed the photos of the sights they visited in Istanbul and answered to many questions about their impressions of everyday life in Turkey. Finally, they pointed out the importance of learning English to be able to get by and communicate when you travel and meet people from other countries.

STAFF MEETING – PRESENTATION by Irena Ipša

Irena Ipša presented the activities of the second Comenius meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, to the school staff at their meeting on 11th July 2013. She described the host school, students' and teachers' activities.

There were 11 foreign students who participated in this meeting. They attended English classes at the host school, gave presentations of their countries and schools, worked on comics aimed at promoting foreign language learning and prepared a short play about foreign language learning which was shown at the final ceremony. The teachers discussed the results obtained from the questionnaires on legislation, methodology and assessment practices in their countries, they agreed on how to carry out the students', parents' and teachers' questionnaires and how to process the obtained data. The best publication cover design was selected (competition winner: Germany). The partners shared some useful activities to be used in teaching English in all the partner schools.

The meeting in Istanbul was also an opportunity for the teachers and students to visit some of the city’s great historical and cultural sights.

Third Mobility: Kristiansand, Norway (22^nd-29^th September, 2013)