Following the success of our first Comenius year where over 550 pupils were involved in environmental projects in all five partner schools, we have initiated an exciting programme for this session.

Teacher representatives from all schools met in Tenerife during October 1998 to discuss the outcomes of our first projects and to plan for the second year. It was agreed to try and focus on encouraging closer communication links between pupils in each country and it was decided to introduce the theme of a Comenius Diary.

Each school has a responsibility for handling the results of one part of the project.

Leopold Wegrzynowicza School in Krakow, Poland is looking at the weather. Pupils compose questions in the form of a chart relating to an audit of the weather over a twelve-day period. Each of the partners records the weather and relay the information back to Poland for the pupils to compare. A year 8 Geography group has agreed to take on this task and are using a spreadsheet to record the data on. This will then be emailed to Poland.

IES Tacoronte in Tenerife is looking at the school day. Spanish pupils are composing questions about how the day is arranged, what subjects are taught, which are most popular, how lunch is taken, etc. The findings are either faxed or emailed back to Tenerife by each other partner school. A year 10 Spanish group have taken on this part of the project and are exchanging information with partners in Tacoronte.

De Goudse Waarden school in Gouda, Netherlands have agreed to research the homes and immediate built environment of pupils in each of our partner schools. A year 10 Art group here at KLBS are responding to their questions and, as part of a specially composed piece of coursework, each pupil is creating a montage that responds to their own environment. Photographs of the finished pieces will be sent to the Dutch pupils after Easter.

Hawkesbury Primary School, one of our Primary feeder schools, is looking at the eating arrangements of pupils in each of the schools. They are composing questions that will be faxed or emailed to all our partners and the findings displayed in their school as well as documented for distributing to all partners.

Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School has agreed to focus on festivals and celebrations as their contribution to the Comenius Diary. Each pupil in a year 10 Religious Education examination group will prepare a variety of questions to be faxed or emailed to partner pupils in each of our Comenius schools relating to the way they celebrate their festivals. The findings of this survey will be used as coursework for their examinations as well as displayed in graphic form for distributing to each partner school.

Another project that KLBS has initiated is an International Manufacturing Project centred on the school’s Rover Challenge project. A group of Young Engineers have built a go-kart using the workshops of a local Rover dealer, M. J. Fews of Charfield, and now want to design an anti-roll bar device to improve the safety of the machine. Our partner school in Tacoronte, Tenerife, has superb engineering facilities including CNC and manual equipment, which would be suitable for the construction of the product. In an attempt to illustrate the concept of shared design and manufacture across countries we want pupils to experience the process of negotiation, decision making, remote communication and transportation issues. This will be achieved by making use of video conferencing, emailing and faxing CAD images.

An advanced GNVQ (General National Vocational Qualification) group at KLBS is currently working on a Marketing Research unit of work. Students work in pairs and are responding to briefs, which include looking into the feasibility of;

• expanding catering facilities in schools in other European countries
• introducing the sale of stationery goods in schools in other European countries
• promoting the sale of anti theft devices for bicycles