It all began a few months ago when Miss Petroudi, assembled all the 2nd formers in the Auditorium to announce that our School had become a member of the Socrates Commenius Project.

Apart from us, five other countries would also be participating: Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Germany and England. Miss Petroudi spoke to us about our new family, “My European Family“. We were briefed about this project but no one knew what to expect, or what Miss Petroudi was preparing for us.

After a while we began our gradual participation in this project, corresponding with other countries. We were all very excited and we tried our utmost to make a good impression.
In general we wrote about our life in Cyprus. We wrote about our hobbies and our family as well us our School and we were eager to receive replies to our letters. We were glad when we received them, but when we read them we realized the difference in culture and the way of living that other teenagers of our age experience. Every Wednesday there is a web chat with students from various countries participating. Through this web chat we learn more things about our fellow students and also make new friends.

On Tuesday 2nd May, all 2nd formers wore “My European Family” T-shirts, symbolizing our European Family and showing the joy we felt.

Apart from this, as you all know four GCS students have taken part in a student exchange programme which took place in Italy. I would like to stress that there will be more chances for all students to participate in the future in similar activities.

In conclusion, we learn to communicate with strangers through this project. It is a once in a life time experience through which we learn about other countries and at the same time celebrate diversity.

1st Meeting in Vechelde, Germany

Following our first meeting during the contact seminar last year in Italy, the first official Comenius Project meeting took place in Vechelde, Germany on 8-11 November 2005, where the six partner schools of Germany, Sweden, Cyprus, Italy, England and Belgium met up to discuss the development of the Project for the next year. Representing our School were Mrs Evi Panaou of the French Department and Ms Frangesca Pieri of the English Department.

For the first time in the School’s history, the Socrates Comenius 1 project has finally commenced after months of painstaking work from Ms Georgia Petroudi who managed to prepare everything so that the GC School of Careers would be approved by the Local Socrates Agency to join this wonderful project which has so much to offer our students. Comenius is part of the European Community’s Socrates action programme in the field of education, where the main goals are to strengthen the European dimension within the field of education and also, what our School considers to be the most important factor, to promote intercultural awareness. Comenius School Projects promote European cooperation between groups of students and teachers from various European countries. The cooperation gives the participants an opportunity to explore each other’s countries, cultures and ways of thinking and living, and also to learn to understand and appreciate them better.

The concrete aims of this particular Comenius project – entitled “My European Family” – that the G C School of Careers has undertaken carries out a number of activities on a European level which will enable the students of our School to gain a greater understanding of their fellow Europeans, as well as to strengthen their perception of themselves as European citizens. Another aim of this project, involving partners from six different countries, is to enable students and teachers to exchange ideas as regards the routines, settings and notions of a number of communities. These communities start from the smallest, which is the home and the family, followed by the school, subsequently by their country, and finally by their largest community, Europe. An effort is made through the “My European Family” project to identify the similarities and differences between nations and try to bridge the gap between cultural diversity, thus establishing the idea that we are all different as much as we are similar within Europe, as we are within our family, school and country.

In September, our Form 2 students began to write their letters of correspondence to the five other partner schools working on the project with the G C School of Careers and finally sent them abroad in October. Our students wrote letters to, as well as received letters from, their counterparts from the partner schools in Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Italy and England where they informed each other about their school, family and home. The schools between them share a very different socio-economic make up and cultural background of pupils.

On their trip to Germany, both teachers, Ms Frangesca Pieri and Mrs Evi Panaou, had the remarkable opportunity to meet teachers of the different schools and to even observe lessons at the partner school, ‘Gymnasium Vechelde’, in the little town of Vechelde. The experience was extraordinary and tremendously inspiring as all teachers got to exchange ideas and ways in which their pupils will continue their correspondence with one another and create stronger bonds and friendships.

The most memorable part of the trip according to Mrs Panaou and Ms Pieri was the way in which they were welcomed at the school by the pupils: “They sang for us, interviewed us, and constantly wanted us to tell them about our School in Cyprus. It was amazing to see how much these children want to know about their peers from a different country and how much a different culture interests them.”

The most emotional part was when Mrs Panaou and Ms Pieri were shown the wall display where all the letters that had been sent from Form 2 of our School were on display with pictures of the students and their three-page long letters.

“The other countries were fascinated with the way in which our pupils seemed so keen to let the pupils from the other countries know everything about themselves, their families and school through their lengthy letters.”

The lessons which were observed by the teachers gave them the valuable opportunity to get closer to the pupils of the German school and to exchange more information about their schools:

“All the students just wanted to keep on learning more and more about Cyprus, and especially about our students at the G C School of Careers from whom they had already received letters and with whom they already feel some sort of connection. The whole project is great, a marvellous experience for both the students and teachers who are involved and for our School as a whole.”

This is indeed true as students learn to cooperate with people from a different culture and appreciate how they can discover the real importance of language learning in their lives. The overall gain for students is that Europe has grown a human face. The visiting teachers and the regular correspondence with other students open a window on the world which could never be achieved through traditional lessons and textbooks. This project can be enormously inspiring for both pupils and teachers. The Comenius Project, without a doubt, gives so many new incentives and the GC School of Careers has vast hopes for this project, hoping it will be a breakthrough with long-term impact which will change our view of the world… In the end, we will hopefully all – pupils, teachers, parents as well as the wider community – be able to see a unified community which is a celebration of our multicultural and multiethnic Europe.
It’s thrilling to be a part of this celebration!

Remember! This is not just the Second Form’s project!

We are all involved!