Cardiff, the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales was the recent setting of the conclusive Comenius meeting for St Albert the Great College, Valletta, and schools in Dublin (Ireland), Lithuania, Limoges (France) and Wales.

The main aim of this final meeting was to evaluate our two year project, to discuss and fill in the final report which we have to hand in to our local national agencies. The project, known as ‘Euro Eco Kids’, has been very effective in creating a positive attitude towards diversity and emotional wellbeing, developing an awareness of European and Global environmental issues and lifestyles, sharing best practice and expertise, improving language skills through completing significant tasks and experimenting with new ideas based on each other’s constructive criticism.

During our last term we created ways to improve the external environment of our schools. Another chore was that of creating markings on the school playground. The project’s coordinator, Ms Sian Evans created ‘The Footprint Shoebox’ which provides many ideas that could be used by other institutions and illustrates the breadth of the activities carried out by the partner schools.

During our visit to Cardiff, we visited numerous attention-grabbing places. We visited ‘Techniquest’, a science centre in the heart of Cardiff Bay. The centre offers vast hand-on exhibits which are suitable for school children, teachers and parents. We went through Cardiff Bay, which is just a mile from the city centre and we enjoyed a wide range of restaurants, bars and shops in Mermaid Quay. We took the Aquabus and cruised on Cardiff Bay. We explored other popular attractions, such as the Welsh Millennium Centre, the Millennium Stadium and the Norwegian Church. Its main claim to fame is the church where author Roald Dahl was baptised.

The highlight of our visit was an evening at the castle. We discovered the Welsh hospitality in the historic surroundings of Cardiff Castle. Dating from the 15th century, this is one of the oldest castles and we enjoyed the very best of Welsh food, singing, dancing and a friendly atmosphere. We also had a chance of boarding a sight-seeing bus to tour other parts of Cardiff.

This final visit proved to be extremely inspiring, both from a professional point of view and also from a cultural aspect. All the partners were proud to say that there was an effective cooperation among all participants and positive support throughout the whole project.

I would like to thank all our partners for their sincere friendship during the project. This project and visit were made possible through the funding from the EUPA.

This final meeting was a window to the past and an eye on the future full of collaborations with our European friends!