INTERNATIONAL LINKING The language of food


With Comenius Week 2011 approaching, we continue


our focus on schools’ work through the programme. This week we visit Staffordshire, where one school’s focus on food has engaged the entire school and partners abroad. Alison Thomas explains


by a two-year Comenius project, funded by the european Union and supported by the British Council, that has united five european partners through the language of food. They call it restaurant rendez-vous and the timeframe changes as it moves from school to school. In Finland, the celebration dinner was designed


I


around the limited range of produce available during the great Depression of the 1930s; in germany, medieval fare was the order of the day. By the time it reached


Union address: NUT There is an alternative


The government cuts have already ensured that its


social mobility strategy will not work. But there is an alternative, says Christine Blower


The governmenT’s strategy for tackling social mobility, Opening Doors, Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for Social Mobility, will not achieve its objectives. Fine words and work placements will not undo the social damage created by the coalition government’s policies. The cuts to public services, including sure start centres, will simply lead to a vast reduction in the support and facilities available to those most in need. If nick Clegg is serious about addressing


social mobility, he would do well to return to his pre-election promises of abolishing tuition fees. staggeringly high university fees coupled with the reduction to the educational maintenance Allowance will ensure that it is only the usual suspects who will have access to further education and higher education. The government needs to recognise that these


aspirations for social mobility mean nothing without the money to implement them. Axing local authority budgets, which leads to reduced public services and social provision, takes away the very means by which adults and children can maximise their potential in life. There is nothing fair in such an agenda. Cuts to public services are already having a detrimental impact. These are ideological attacks which will see the social provision in this country vastly reduced. In their desperate pursuit of a privatisation agenda, the government has made much of their


policy in haste. We are already seeing a huge backlash to their policies. Partial u-turns have already been done on the educational maintenance Allowance, school sports, and their ruthless attack on the nhs is unravelling. many frontline services provided by local


authorities are seriously under threat with many services such as sen and music provision axed. This situation will only get worse as reduced budgets for the next financial year take effect. The budget last month reinforced this position.


This was not a budget for growth if it had been the chancellor would have announced a reversal of the government’s public sector cuts which are damaging growth and strangling economic recovery. Cutting taxes for big business, while axing


public sector budgets, is a far cry from “we are all in this together”. The government pretends that it is protecting the living standards of ordinary people, but in reality – as inflation increases – the chancellor is attacking the living standards of public sector workers by freezing their pay and increasing their pension contributions. The nUT deplores the government’s decision to


endorse Lord hutton’s recommendations on cutting public sector pensions. There is nothing in this Budget to reassure teachers and other public sector workers that their futures are safe in the government’s hands. We say no to the government’s plan of paying


more, working longer and getting less. Under the government’s plan, nQTs could pay up to £61 a month and experienced teachers up to £102 a month extra. new teachers will have to work to at least age 68, and older teachers until they’re 66. There is a great groundswell of resistance to these


unnecessary measures, as the TUC march for the alternative last month showed with half a million people from all over the country taking peacefully to the streets of London to protest. There is an alternative; the robin hood Tax


for one. What there is not, is a will. The cuts are so drastic it is impossible to sit back and watch it happen. The nUT along with other TUC-affiliated unions will continue the fight against the cuts.


• Christine Blower is general secretary of the National Union of Teachers. Visit www.teachers.org.uk


s There a link between diet and cultural identity? how have history, agriculture and trade helped to shape what we eat? Can our culinary traditions withstand the influence of globalisation? What does the future hold for small-scale farmers and local traders? These are some of the questions posed


Wolstanton high school in staffordshire, the clock had moved forward again and 60 guests sat down to a typically english meal from thevictorian age. Typical, that is, in terms of the menu and the


locally sourced ingredients. gastronomically, it was an original masterpiece created by michelin-star chef, Pierremoinet, and his trainees from the Lycée hôtelier Daniel Brottier innormandy. Food technology students and staff watched in wonder as the humble victoria sponge was transformed into five luscious cream gâteaux, each one individually decorated to represent one of the partner schools. The victorian theme continued with a visit to a


coalmine, another to the Wedgewood visitor Centre and a performance ofFood Glorious Food fromOliver.


only the grand finale broke the mould with a sparkling eurovision song Contest, which brought everyone to their feet and reduced them to tears in turns. For Clint Lakin, architect of the partnership on the


British side, it was “the most awakening week” he can remember in his 20 years at the school. he continued: “I never imagined when we started


our journey two years ago that we would reach as many people as we did. Absolutely everybody got involved. By the Thursday or Friday, children who didn’t have any direct contact with the visitors were saying when can we meet them? Can they come into our lessons too? “I think that a Comenius project attracts idealists


and that was perhaps the most beautiful thing about the whole experience. We were populated that week by a mixture of teachers who were dreamers, creative people who think outside the box. The value-added for my staff has been immense.” mr Lakin is assistant headteacher and director of


Culture, one of four “mini-schools” formed two years ago to encourage cross-curricular links and build on Wolstanton’s ambition as a humanities college to broaden pupils’ horizons. The inception of a european partnership was part of that drive, and even played a role in determining the shape of Culture, which embraces history, technology and modern languages. For its part, the new school structure has been


instrumental in facilitating the diffusion of the project into every corner of the curriculum. each mini-school is paired with one of the partners and a series of off- timetable days has been devoted to furthering the depth and breadth of those links. In Culture, pupils have been working primarily with


France. one group made models of the eiffel Tower in straw, wood and steel; another studied Franco-British collaboration at the time of the D-Day landings. For a third group, French fashion was the focus, while others compared breakfast traditions or explored the unique characteristics of regional cheeses. “When the visitors arrived, they were stunned by


the way we had embraced and celebrated their culture. They were completely blown away by the scale of pupil involvement across the entire school community,” said mr Lakin. The baton has now passed to spain for the final


rendez-vous in may, but that is not the end of the story. Inspired by the way that Comenius has united the departments of Culture, Futures (geography, ICT


Comenius Week


Running from May 2 to 9, Comenius Week is an opportunity for schools to raise the profile of their work. Wolstanton has planned several activities. In key Stage 3, each subject area will teach something about one European country while adopting the classroom practice of another. For example, pupils might take off their shoes, Finnish style, before sitting down to a lesson on Maltese poetry. Meanwhile, a key stage 4 ‘Council of the EU’ will debate issues facing young


Europeans. To inform their arguments, the speakers will use eTwinning to canvas opinions in their partner countries and post these on the students’ learning platform webpage to facilitate whole-school feedback. Also, the four students who are about to set off for Spain will deliver a series of Comenius assemblies, while two competitions will be promoted – the European Economic and Social Committee Design Eleven award, which invites entries for an innovative, sustainable and creative product with a strong civil society message, and an internal school competition for a piece of work in any medium that represents the artist’s place in Europe. These will be placed on display prior to judging by the local European MP. For more information on Comenius Week, visit www.britishcouncil.org/comenius-week-2011


Euro links: Holly from Britain and Jeremy from France with the commemorative Restaurant Rendez-Vous mugs (left), while German, French, Spanish, Finnish and British students screen-print scenery for the Eurovision Song Contest


and science) has established a link with China and Aesthetics (maths, music and art) is working with a school in Tanzania. only Wellbeing (Pe, re and english) has yet to find its international niche, a situation that is about to be rectified. meanwhile, mr Lakin has already applied for


another Comenius project with three of the existing partners and a new recruit. The eU’s eTwinning programme, which supports international collaboration through ICT, is also on the agenda, in the first instance as a modern languages initiative but with a view to incorporating it into Comenius as well. once again, restaurantrendez-vous has been the catalyst, as it was directly responsible for a root and branch revision of the department’s key stage 3 scheme of work. gone are the conventional topic areas such as the


rooms in a house or personal identification. In their place a series of units which cover some of the same vocabulary in a more meaningful context. medieval France, for example, takes in towns and villages, dwellings and castles. Wartime resistance in France and germany includes an analysis of the personal qualities it takes to become a resistance fighter. new for next year will be a unit on youth culture,


to include topics chosen in consultation with students. each class will have its own eTwinning link with France or germany to share and discuss information, create blogs and exchange work. If all goes well, modern languages teacher vicky Taylor hopes to introduce an element of peer assessment too. “When we tell them that teenagers across europe


listen to english and American music, it doesn’t really sink in. It’s so much more meaningful when it comes straight from the horse’s mouth. Peer assessment would be the icing on the cake. “You put a lot more effort into a piece of work if you


think that somebody else, somewhere else is going to read it and give feedback. It’s a fantastic opportunity!” she said.


SecEd • Alison Thomas is a freelance education journalist.


Further information For details on Comenius, which is managed in the UK by the British Council, visit www.britishcouncil.org/comenius, email comenius@britishcouncil.org, or telephone 0161 957 7755. For more information on eTwinning, visit www.britishcouncil.org/etwinning


12


SecEd • April 14 2011


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16