Comenius project partners Uwe Trausche, Katharina Appel and project coordinator Rainer Loeffler visited Lily of the Valley Girls’ Secondary School in Mosta last month.

The project’s title, Communicating in a Chang-ing Europe, is represented in various projects. The mission of the first year was to work on the subject of Youth Issues faced today through the medium of cartoons.

Another part of the project deals with the preparation of a “City Guide”, which highlights the towns and villages of the partner countries: Mosta, Kiel in Germany and Caxias in Portugal. This project incorporates the historical and cultural aspects of the three towns and their countries. Particular emphasis is placed on a glossary of words commonly used by visitors when travelling to Malta, Germany or Portugal. The students of the three schools worked on this part of the task with the help of their respective teachers, using emails to consult and confirm the vernacular of the languages.

During the Christmas season, a substantial number of students from the three schools involved exchanged information through emails about the similarities and differences of the customs and festivities experienced at this time.

During their visit, the Comenius partners had an opportunity of meeting school head Josephine Mifsud as well as the teachers participating in the project, Marie Ann Ciantar and Patrizia Micallef. Discussions on the development of the programme included the various projects that will be tackled in the next scholastic year, such as video-conferencing and the exchange of “cultural magic boxes” that will involve students of the three countries in a discovery of heri-tage through tactile and visual experiences.

Part of this experience included visits to historical and cultural places such as Rabat, Mdina, Dingli, Vittoriosa and Valletta, as well as a visit to the Cittadella, Marsalforn and Dwejra in Gozo.