School name: Mid Calder Primary School Scotland

Teacher name: Wilma Gordon

Project name: Citzenship & MFL

Twinned with:  Ecole Antoine Pizon (France)

Project Description

To experience education in a different country through global citizenship.  We swapped mascots - Scottish teddy/French cockerel which experienced life in the other country through use of digital camera/blog/e-mail.  Both sets of children made puzzles in their own language for others to solve.  Both groups made storybooks on local history/geography. They were able to experience each others culture through photography.  We set up Skype and webcams for some face to face communication.  This all gave a real purpose and meaning to learning a foreign language.  The project has lasted for over a year and we have completed many individual items.  We wrote a novel between the schools with one chapter in French and one in English alternately, along with illustrations.  We compared school lunches, playground games and cultures, and made a variety of videos for the communal blog.

Project Outcomes

Creative Use of ICT within the project
Children used digital camera at weekends to take mascot home and allow it to experience life in a foreign country.  They then used Photoshop to enhance and crop photos and then put them into Movie Maker to produce a slide show to be posted on blog for other school to leave comments.  I have consulted and collaborated with partner teachers using Skype and a webcam.

Curricular Integration

We held a European Day of Languages and we had a French Open Morning for parents to see the French activities in action.  We are also opening a one-off bistro and internet café to allow parents to leave comments on the blog.

The main focus was to improve the learning of French/English. This has fitted well into A Curriculum for Excellence and the pupils have benefited  My project involved MFL, language, social studies, expressive arts and technology.

European Dimension

A second focus was citizenship. By exchanging information about each others towns and heritage, the pupils have learned a great deal about each others environment and culture. They have even discussed speciality food from different regions.
The French mascot, Coco, became an official member of the school and the whole school enjoyed seeing his exploits. At a result of the initial eTwinning project I applied and got the intermediate International School Award and are working towards the full award this session.

Sustainability

The project is now in its second year and, although the teachers are the same, the classes are different.  There are many different projects; writing a murder mystery, playground games, school lunches, haikus, mascot who goes on adventures and descriptions using MP3's

Results and Benefits

The pupils were inspired and motivated. They had a great deal of fun working collaboratively on the many different projects. More importantly, they gained increased confidence in speaking a foreign language. Many other classes in the school are now wishing to find partners in other countries. Primary 7 have just begun a link with a school in the South of France.