San Andrea Senior School has been involved in a Comenius Project since the beginning of this scholastic year. Other countries involved are Italy, France, Poland and Bulgaria. The purpose behind this project is for the countries involved to learn about each other’s cultures and to be able to find connections between these different cultures. As the name of the project implies, the learning is done through the senses, such as the sense of taste, where different types of traditional dishes are tasted, and also by sharing experiences on a blog which was specifically set up for all the members to use.

Ongoing activities are part and parcel of any Comenius project. Such activities include meetings among the teachers involved in this project to build up an action plan, which in this case, caters for two scholastic years. In November 2012, Charlene Genovese (Home-Economics) and Sharon Abela (French/Italian) went to France in Challans to discuss such matters with the other teachers involved. It was in fact decided that in March 2012, a group of students with their teachers from all the participating countries would spend a week in Pisa, Italy. The Maltese students were chosen thanks to a photographic competition that was launched at school. The students had to capture images of Malta which represent our country’s cultural and natural environment. The chosen students were Jacques Azzopardi, Laura Azzopardi, Elena Borg, Nathalie Bugeja, Nicholas Cassar Torregiani, Thomas Cassar Ruggier, Miguel Castagna, Jessica Farrugia, Kurt Said and Julian Zammit Lupi. Their respective photos were then part of an exhibition at the Liceo Statale Giosue’ Carducci in Pisa. These students were accompanied by Joanne Buttigieg (Environmental Studies) and James Cuschieri (Geography).

During the trip, students attended various cultural outings, visited the Piazza Dei Miracoli, the leaning Tower of Pisa, the Duomo and the Battistero. Students were also taken on a day trip to Firenze and another day trip to San Gimignano. The trip to San Gimignano was particularly fun as the students were involved in a culinary activity where they had to bake their own, typical Tuscan bread using no salt. To be honest, the Maltese contingent all agreed that the local bread tastes better!

All the students were given a particular task on this trip – to teach each other a few basic sentences in their native language. The students were split into different groups, each group having two or three students from the countries involved. At first the students were quite apprehensive, but as they got to know each other more, and even found similarities between their native tongues, the exercise turned into a fun experience. The students had to then record each other while having a conversation in one of the foreign languages. These videos may be found on the blog.

So far this has been a very fruitful experience where the students have had the opportunity of expressing in various forms what Malta has to offer. Being exposed to foreign cultures and ways of life also has its benefits such as understanding European cultures and values. It has also helped students acquire personal development skills such as better communication.

Louise Grech Abela (Maltese), Leslie Nixon (Drama), Lara Muscat (English) and Marie Louise Kara (French), who is also the co-ordinator for this particular Comenius Project, also gave a helping hand in this project.