Qormi school welcomes Maltese authors

St Sebastian Primary 'A' of Qormi is in the third and final year of the Comenius project 'Making Friends in Europe'. The theme chosen for this year by the partner schools was 'Literature through the Children's Perspective'.

During the last project meeting in Rebbelberga Skola in Ängelholm, Sweden, in January 2003, the work of the whole year was planned. This year we are seeing our plans implemented.

The first part of the project consists of two 'relay books', one for the younger classes and another for the older ones.

The relay book consists of a story, which is built bit by bit by the five partner schools.

Our school is taking part in only one book, since we have only young pupils.

Our story started in CBS Willem Alexander School in Harderwijk, the Netherlands. Then it was sent to us at St Sebastian 'A' and after writing the second part, we e-mailed it to St Anne's CE in Durham, England. The story will be finished illustrated and printed by Rebbelberga Skola in Sweden.

The same thing is happening with the story for the older pupils which started in Sweden and will be finished in the Netherlands.

The second part of the project is the introduction of authors and their books to our pupils.

All partner schools in the project chose two or three authors from their own countries, and are making a study of their storybooks.

The choice of the staff at St Sebastian Primary 'A' fell on Trevor Zahra, Carmel G. Cauchi and Nathalie Portelli.

Every class teacher made a choice of books to relate or study with pupils. This included the kindergarten classes. Stories were related to the very young pupils and read by the older ones.

Each book was translated to English and sent to partner schools together with the original book. On our part we received books written by the chosen foreign authors from the different partner schools.

The stories by foreign authors were also related to our pupils. To complement the books we also exchanged children's work like drawings, models, handmade books and other craftwork about the stories read.

Our young pupils became familiar with the storybooks and their authors. But the names of the authors were simply names without a face, so the next step was to put a face to the name.

At this stage, an idea was born and brought to life. This was an invitation to the three Maltese authors to come and visit us at school.

Nathalie Portelli, the youngest of our chosen authors, was the first to visit us. She met all the Year 2 pupils who are reading her books. She told them how she began to write short stories and she answered many questions.

Ms Portelli presented the school with copies of all the books she has published so far.

The well-known storywriter Trevor Zahra met the whole Primary section in the school hall though only Year 1 and the Kindergarten pupils are using his books.

He told the children how he writes his books and illustrates them himself. He then answered various questions and later went round the kindergarten classes.

He was delighted to see the artwork made by the children about his stories. Though still very young the children related and mimed his stories in his presence.

Mr Zahra was pleased to hear from the children themselves how many of his books they are familiar with.

Alfred G. Cauchi met the Year 3 pupils who are reading his books. Like the other authors he saw all the work being done.

Some pupils had prepared short stories they had written and they read them out to him. He was so interested that he asked for copies of these stories. Mr Cauchi presented the school with several copies of his books.

All three authors congratulated us for the work going on in the school as through this we are promoting Maltese literature.

Pupils are being encouraged to read more and also write their own short stories.

This year's topic 'Literature through Children's Perspective', which is part of our Comenius Project is a success and this could only be achieved by the collective effort and dedication of all the staff who works hard to instil so much enthusiasm in our young pupils.