1. European Stories

2. The main idea of our project was to make a survey about our grandparents’ school life So the most important were personal meetings children with their grandpas and grandmas And listening to their stories as there is never too much time to spend time with our grandparents and to love them

3. To summarise it we made an exhibition and a performance

4. And presentation with school pictures

5. Our grandparents were born from 1932 to 1959 so their childhood took place during very stormy period in Polish history. As a school in this time was a tool for totalitarian systems ruling in Poland, our grandparents ‘ experiences vary a lot.

6. Polish school before World War II

7. During the Second World War elementary schools last for three years. After that time children were expecting to work on a farm. They started schools at the age of 6-9 vary to times and region They finished education being 10-19 All of our grandparents were attending to elementary schools After the War Elementary Schools had ten years.

8. At school  Classes were from 11 to 30 pupils depending how big village it was  Usually they were at the same age, in smaller villages there were differences  At elementary schools girls and boys were learning together  They were spending from four to six hours daily at school  Before the war there was only one teacher taking all the subjects, during the war one teacher- German, after the war 4 or 5 teachers  Subjects - during the war: German, Maths, Geography (Polish after school at home) – after the war : Polish, Russian, History, Geography, Biology, Maths, PE, Music  Uniforms were required after the war, before the school clothes were just smart ones

9. School equipment Writing penInk - bottle

10. Wooden pencilcaseElementary book

11. AbacusPaper bacpack

12. Differences  Hand bell, writing with ink, blackboards with chalk, classes at teacher house, tiled stoves in the classrooms  School books were passing on between pupils  Children walked to school even for long distances  For bad behaviour pupils were beating at school