The first week of November was a very exciting one at St. Albert the Great College in Valletta.

The members of staff at the primary school and children from Years one to six experienced moments of great friendship when foreign guests came to visit. The children’s enthusiasm bubbled over when the long awaited moment arrived as our school welcomed for the first time our new Comenius Project partners from Wales and Lithuania.

The other two school partners couldn’t be with us for the first meeting but they will be present for the second one in February 2008. The schools involved are: (Malta) St. Albert the Great College, (Wales) Ysgol Gynradd Llangadog and Ysgol Gynradd Bancyfelin, (Lithuania) Ezerelio Primary and Secondary School, (France) Ecole Elementaire Leon Blum and (Ireland) St.Brigid’s Girls National School.

On the arrival of the Welsh and Lithuanian guests, our children welcomed them in the school hall were we had a special Assembly. The introduction was made by our Deputy Head of School, Ms. Anna Buttigieg, while the children personally greeted our guests. During the assembly, our partners showed great interest in the children’s response and they enjoyed it.

The Welsh and Lithuanian representatives introduced themselves to the boys, showed them their respective flags and talked to them about their countries. The visitors were Sian Evans, Shirrie Williams, Gwyneth Stephens and Karina Davies from Wales, Rasa Bakiene and Elena Mieliauskiene from Lithuania.

Through this collaboration between pupils from five different countries, the project will try to encourage a positive attitude towards diversity and emotional well-being, develop an awareness of European environmental issues and lifestyles, share best practice and expertise, and improve language skills through completing meaningful tasks.

The project aims to embrace as many of the teaching staff and students at our schools as much as possible in order that they feel an ownership and involvement in the project. This is the direct reason we have chosen to expand our parameters to include many different activities and products.

Since the project has an ecological theme, local singer Nadine Axisa was invited to school were she performed her song Eko Eko. Nadine showed great interest in the project and everyone sang the song joyfully. The song will be used for this project and a translation in English was prepared to share it with our foreign friends.

When the special Assembly was over, the visitors had time to meet with the headmaster of the school, Mr. Mario Mallia.

The project meeting was held at school where partners discussed the format of the first year of the project. It was hard work to finalise the first year but in the end everyone was happy with the result.

The proposed activities include: a booklet including numbers and phrases in five languages, recorded phrases and numbers on cassettes or CDs, displays on every other country involved in readiness for a community launch, recycled Christmas Cards, surveys and investigations about energy waste in schools, posters for awareness campaigns, an environmental local song to be performed by the children and produced on a DVD, the design of the sleeve cover,and publication of the lyrics in the native language and in English.

The second project meeting will be held in Wales at the end of February. The third meeting of the project is scheduled to take place in Lithuania at the end of April. During this meeting, the second year of the project will be discussed and settled.

The delegations from the Comenius Project visited the classrooms and had the opportunity to observe, discuss and share ideas with the students and teachers. The Year 6 students explained to them that during this first scholastic term they are focusing on the theme “Legends” and the visitors seemed keen to know more about Maltese legends and traditions.

Later that morning, the excited children greeted the delegations with loud applause as they entered the school hall for the Motivational Assembly of the Year 5 boys. At the end, certificates were given to some of the boys for originality. A representative from our local Comenius National Agency was also present for the ceremony.

The host meeting included other activities. The guests had the opportunity to visit Mdina, the Valletta Waterfront, the Malta Experience, Sliema, St. Julians, Baystreet, Ghadira, Rabat and Birgu, where they were invited for a cup of tea and some kannoli.

During their stay, the guests had time to try the local delicacies such as pastizzi and qassatat. In addition, the school organised a Comenius Cultural Evening, a traditional Maltese night with local food, wine, costumes, music and dancing.

This was certainly a memorable experience for the whole school. It was a well-planned meeting which consolidated the collaboration between European schools. Now we are all looking forward to embarking on what promises to be fun activities in our schools.