Project schools

The month started with our trip to Poland for Comenius meeting. During the visit we presented our summer works – some poems, portraits of our grandparents and summer stories. We enjoyed the hospitality of Polish families – we have learned a lot about every day family life and created new friendships.

The most interesting activity offered by the Polish coordinator Aleksandra was the trip to Krakow – to the Senior Citizens House. The accommodation and every day life of Polish seniors seem to be similar to the Latvian ones. We enjoyed the games at school and common work in groups.

We were impressed by seen expositions in the concentration camp in Auswitz. Returning back to Latvia we made an informative poster about our trip in the school foyer. It displayed photos and comments about the visit.

In October our school played host to the Latvian, German and Turkish delegation. Students and their teachers stayed in Poland for five unforgettable days. The time spent together let us better get to know each other. We learnt some phrases and words in foreign languages and could better understand different cultures. During these days we worked together, played and went on some trips which will stay in our memories forever. When we were in Cracow, we had the opportunity to visit the Senior’s Home. We could witness the life of the elderly in this kind of institution in Poland. It was a pleasure for us to play host to our friends from Turkey, Germany and Latvia.Latvian summer stories

October and November are very important months at our school. In these months the students from grade 9 go to different social institutions and do a week of work practice there. This is a very important part of our school curriculum as we want to show the students some aspects of life they probably have never seen before.

Some go to different kindergartens, nursery schools, schools for the disabled, the home of the homeless people and other institutions.

A lot of them got to the different senior citizens’ homes. In our town there are four of them:

• Paulinenstift
• Gustav-Werner-Stift
• Karl-Olga-Haus
• Haus Sonnenschein

As there are more than 120 students who take part in this work practice every year it takes four weeks to do this. Every week another class goes to one of the different participating institutions so that there are only one or two students in every institution at the same time.

After the practice the students have to write a report about their experiences. Most of them are very thankful for this new look into life, but there are some who say that it was depressing for them to see in which conditions some people in our society live.

We think that this experience is very important for our students to give them an insight into some parts of the life they most probably would never get otherwise.

Our school was one of the first in our country that introduced this kind of social work practice 10 years ago. Now many other schools have copied our idea and for many students it is now a compulsory part of the school curriculum. Below you see some pictures of students working in the Paulinenstift during this work practice.

The month started with four teachers and six children travelling to Poland for a combined meeting. We spend three days working in groups, exchanging ideas, planning for the coming months, and experiencing the Polish hospitality and culture. Many thanks to our host country for making our visit so memorable.

To inform the wider community of the project the local Turkish and English newspapers printed articles about the school’s involvement in the project and the recent trip to Poland.

On the 24th of October the school had a breakfast for the extended family. Grandparents, parents and children enjoyed the warm weather,blue sky, hot tea, and yummy breakfast. Everyone joined together to fly kites, paint stones and design t-shirts. A great morning that brought the generations closer together.

Palaning calendar: