Good Practice Cambrils - Spain 2013 – 2014 Comenius Project

By looking at and using this display children are able to learn about the countries involved in the Comenius project. A great display to share with students and parents. The Comenius corner

The Catalan language…. The Bòbila School supports children who are new to Catalan, the main language in the school. They teach language in a very practical and visual way. The classrooms offer a highly visual environment, with displays, vocabulary on the walls,storybooks and computers.. A school schedule in pictures for the bilingual children. The classrooms vocabulary in pictures on the wall.Students discussing the weather every day in the classrooms.

The English classroom It is a very visual place in the school. Basic vocabulary, numbers, days, months… everything can be seen and touched by the children. There is a wide variety of children’s storybooks in English, most of them very well known in the UK. There is also a carpet area to promote speaking and children play ‘hands on’ games. Once a week the first and second graders attend their P.E. lessons and the main language used in the sessions is English.

We found it interesting to see how our partners taught mathematics to young children. One activity we saw was a role play game using carnival costumes and through this game the children learned to make and use simple charts and graphs. Good practice in mathematics Teaching Mathematics

Soon the school library will provide children with the opportunity to borrow books and take them home. Currently the children go to the library and listen to stories and read with the teacher in charge of the library. The focus of the library is to promote a love of reading which helps the children to write. The Library

Children celebrate their culture by naming their classes after traditional figures. Names of the classes

The school supplies the same things for everyone and this promotes equality amongst the student group. Equal opportunity

The children have used art tob show their learning in the garden. The school is very proud of their vegetable garden which is almost entirely managed by the children. The school has a rainwater collection point and a compost heap which are used to show the children how important it is to recycle and protect our environment. There are teams of children who spend their playtimes monitoring the use of the garden so that all children respect the garden rules. All pupils have an opportunity to have their own garden. The children cultivate herbs, vegetables and fruits (oregano, mint, lettuce, beans and strawberries). It’s very interesting that the little coffee cups of espresso are used by the children in their gardening activities. The empty little cups keep the seeds warm and help them to germinate before they are planted in the garden. The School Garden

The school focuses on respect for the environment by recycling waste materials and using them in educational activities. The school has recycling points both indoors and outside which are accessible to all children. Every classroom recycles a specific material (like markers, water cans, little coffee cups of the espresso coffee machine) in order to use them in creative ways and in the garden. The school recycles everything and creates art from it. Recycling

There is a positive atmosphere in the school with respect between teachers, staff and students. It was nice to see how teachers from Europe were able to communicate with the children in the school, either with a very few words in English or just simply in their own languages. All partners felt very welcome in the school and enjoyed their visit very much! Positive relationship