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Eva Heim of Kingsmead Community School on the benefits of hosting a Polish Comenius Assistant:
Our school is an 11-16 mixed comprehensive school in a rural area of West Somerset. As a language and humanities college the school places a strong emphasis on the global dimension and international education. Students are predominantly from a White British background and our aim is not only to make them aware of cultural and linguistic diversity, but also to bring them into direct contact with people from diverse backgrounds through a range of international visits and exchanges and through hosting four language assistants each year. A significant number of Polish families have recently moved to our community, so hosting a Polish Comenius Assistant has been a fantastic opportunity to foster community cohesion.
In early October 2008 we were delighted to welcome our four assistants: two Foreign Language Assistants (FLAs) from France and Germany, a Chinese assistant and a Comenius Assistant from Poland. Within days, not only the MFL department, but the whole school started buzzing with ideas of how to involve our assistants across the curriculum. Ania, our Polish Comenius Assistant not only managed to introduce small groups of students to the unfamiliar sounds of the Polish language, she also took whole class sessions with the support of the class teacher, where she shared aspects of her culture and history. During our fortnightly ‘Challenge Day’ where the whole school is engaged in a new, different and exciting kind of learning, our four assistants’ contributions were particularly valuable. Challenge Days are based on cross-curricular themes, creative and critical thinking and among their central strands are the global dimension and sustainable development. Many departments had the opportunity to collaborate with Ania and she came in contact with students across the age and ability range.
During a history trip to Krakow and Auschwitz, her language expertise and knowledge of the country were invaluable and she also worked with our bursar to collate key phrases to ease communication with our Polish premises staff. From helping members of the Polish community with the translation of documents to acting as an interpreter, she was always available and willing to give assistance. One of her special areas of interest was working with students with additional educational needs and she helped a group of students regularly during their German lessons. At the same time she was keen to improve not only her English skills, but also her knowledge of German. Ania attended a course for FLAs organised by Exeter University and became a star student in a fast track GCSE German group.
Her outreach work in our feeder primary schools and her help during the Duke of Edinburgh expedition and the school production were further manifestations of her total commitment and her involvement in so many aspects of our school and community.
We were sad to say farewell to our first Comenius Assistant at the end of May, but are already looking forward to meeting our new assistant in the autumn!
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