Educators from six schools from Malta, Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia and Turkey are taking part in an Erasmusplus project entitled ‘Building on Opportunities for Story-Telling’ (Boost) aimed at improving their ability to raise their respective students’ standard of literacy. Theresa Nuzzo School, Marsa, is the lead participant of the project, which started in September 2019 and will conclude at the end of this scholastic year.

The project is a follow-up of a previous project entitled ‘Literacy at the Children’s Hearts’ (Latch) that involved the Marsa school and the Icelandic, Irish and Slovenian schools. Latch looked at the way these schools involved different aspects of reading and creative writing to improve literacy in their schools, and served as a first exchange of best practices among these partners.

For the Boost project, a school from Turkey and another Maltese school, St Benild School/Stella Maris College, Gżira, were added to the project consortium, thus enhancing the exchange of practices across a larger partnership. This is being achieved by the educators taking part in five mobilities aimed at sharing best practices. During these mobilities there is a rich exchange of best practices in the school visited and the lessons being learnt during the mobilities are not limited to the participants themselves.

Each mobility involves different participants so that many educators are given the opportunity to improve their competences in the teaching of literacy, while also ensuring that the project has a wider effect on staff in every school.

Once back home, the educators taking part in the mobility share the best practices witnessed at the school visited both on an individual basis during meetings with fellow teachers as well as on a whole staff level during morning briefings.

During one of the latest mobilities held last October in Salaskoli, Iceland, the educators learnt many lessons and skills about storytelling that can be used during lessons. Among the participants from Malta were head of school Noel Abela and assistant heads Claudia Vella and Maria Farrugia from St Benild School/ Stella Maris College, and assistant heads Marise Bugeja and Sonia Bezzina and educator Kristoff Scicluna from Theresa Nuzzo School.

Educators learnt many lessons and skills about storytelling that can be used during lessons

The Icelandic school’s mission, “to help the students to find their own way of telling a story in a way that makes sense to them”, led to many discussions on how to adapt teaching techniques according to the needs of the students.

Some of the Maltese teachers visiting the school in Salaskoli, Iceland.

The participants took part in presentations on the school being visited, exchange of practices on how the school adopts reading and creative writing to improve literacy skills across the different ages, as well as observations in class sharing to see how the school implements technology and modern tools to improve the literacy of young students.

Teachers from the host Icelandic school discussed with the visiting educators how they implement cultural les­sons and transmit information about the country’s cultural history when teaching young students how to read and write.

Following the mobility, the teachers, along with students from the six schools, will compile short stories about local culture that will be published in a final book which will include short stories from all the schools.

The results of the project and the expertise gained by the educators participating in this project will hopefully continue to be used even after the project has ended, whereby the new skills obtained by the educators will be part and parcel of the methods they use with their students.

The project forms part of the KA229 – School Exchange Partnerships, and is being funded through the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA) in Malta.