Cultures and traditions of seven countries

A three-day programme of activities to celebrate the Comenius project meeting at Szkola Podstawosa No. 15 in Poland were held at the beginning of the third and final year of the project entitled "Countries through art works".

Two staff members from Sir Temi Zammit Boys Secondary School, Mtarfa - Tanya Agius (English teacher) and Lorna Attard (French teacher) - together with two Form 2 students - Ryan Cauchi and Peter Sant - joined six partner schools from Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy and Romania for a recent Comenius meeting.

The members of the Maltese team were supported by head of school, Mr C.S. Micallef, and assistant heads, Mr A. Grixti, Ms A. Spiteri and Mr A. Mangion.

Teachers and students from the seven participating countries were taken to visit cultural and historical places - the famous town hall in Poznan, the castle of the Order of St John in Lagow, the cloister in Paradyz and the museum of Polish king Kazimierz Wielki in Miedzyrzecz.

A very warm welcome was followed by a meeting at Szkola Podstawosa No. 15. The team met the school children and answered queries from the floor about various school activities, traditions and cultures in their country.

Since living in a global village requires further understanding of other cultures through works of history, art and history of art, the project aims to unite each participating country's culture and traditions.

Therefore, various roles and responsibilities in the finalisation of this Comenius project were discussed.

Discussion also followed on how various Power Point presentations, presented by the countries, could be given an IT format, thus could easily be available on Websites.

A date was also finalised for the next and final project meeting, which is to be held in Germany between June 13 and 17. Further discussions on a school exhibition also took place.

This global exhibition aims to project each country's art works on 'Portraits' or 'A Nation's Faces' since it was agreed that this would depict one's origin and geographical position within Europe, as well as be a wonderful artistic production of a nation's identity.

There were some unforeseen changes in school staff, such as myself as co-ordinator - and new IT team members - Ms L. Galea and Ms Aquilina - were appointed to work on the project.

During the third year Maltese students' projects and artistic works will focus on contemporary history and will include book projects on the two world wars, the Maltese language and its evolution, Maltese personalities, traditional games, customs and handcrafts; embossed art works on famous landmarks, transport vehicles, monuments and traditional costumes; various models and craftwork of memorial buildings and historic monuments; charts and drawings on Maltese traditions, rituals and folklore and Power Point presentations of Maltese culture and traditions.

General information about our school, as well as annual activities and events regarding Comenius works, write-ups and a photo gallery, will be available on the Website http://schoolnet.gov.mt/mtarfasecondary. An end-of-year exhibition featuring Comenius art works will also be on display at school in May.