Love it or hate the Eurovision Song contest is something that is watched by millions throughout Europe. Now, through our eTwinning project, an East Lothian teacher has created his own version of the contest that has seen his school engage with 30 schools across Europe.

Inspired by both the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Year of Creativity and Innovation Yester Primary School teacher Michael Purves decided to set up Schoolovision 2009. The project saw his Gifford classroom link up with schools in 30 countries to take part in their own version of the contest with the aim of inspiring creativity and teaching pupils more about Europe.

Each school was asked to enter a song that was representative of their country and recorded a video of it which they then uploaded to the project web site. Earlier this month pupils from all countries took part in a live voting session for their favourite song.

And the winner is….

As with Eurovision many countries took the competition very seriously and the quality of the entries was extremely high. In a nail biting finish Husova School in the Czech Republic where crowned Schoolovision 2009 champions, just managing to hold off a strong challenge from Estonia.

Their song called The Bugaboo attracted 201 points to Estonia’s 172 with Yester Primary school finishing in 13th place. To acknowledge the impact of the project, East Lothian’s District Council are funding Michael to deliver a specially commissioned trophy in person to ZS Husova school this month. All of the participating schools will receive a unique Schoolovision certificate.

Recognising excellence in international education

Michael attributes the ambitious scale of Schoolovision 2009 to the confidence he has gained through his successful past projects. Of the ten projects that Yester Primary has taken part in three have been awarded eTwinning Quality Labels and A Healthy Passport won second prize at the UK National Awards in 2008.

Schoolovision 2009 has also won a place at a British Council and Ecotec exhibition to showcase the finest examples of creativity and innovation across the whole of the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme – one of only five schools in the UK to receive such an accolade. This project recognition has reinforced to the pupils, teachers and school as a whole that their project work is both valued and valuable.

Michael feels that the flexibility of the eTwinning programme has allowed staff to involve all 145 pupils at Yester Primary in an eTwinning project to suit their level of learning: 'Every class is taking part in a different project,' he said. 'For example, the primary 1 pupils have linked with a kindergarten in Hungary through an online blog to share information about their toys and schools. Classes take assemblies about their eTwinning projects and have set up displays in their classrooms and in the main corridors. Links to all project blogs can be found on the school website, and really show the excitement and high level of involvement the pupils have in each of their projects.'

eTwinning

eTwinning is a European school linking programme which enables schools to work collaboratively on cross-curricular projects through a common online portal. Each National Support System (British Council in the UK) offers advice to schools and runs continuing professional development workshops throughout the year.

Schools can search for partner schools and gain access to a private project work space by registering online.

For more information and to contact the team please visit the web site.