comenius newsletter 1
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Comenius newsletter 1TRANSCRIPT
March 2009 Newsletter number 1
Welcome to the first newsletter from the Side By Side Comenius group.
Our group includes schools from Spain, Wales, Iceland, Italy, France
and Hungary. We began our project work in September 2008 and have
enjoyed learning about the traditions and cultures of each country. This
newsletter concentrates on the work we have completed on Winter Festi-
vals. We’ve had great fun getting to know each other!
Teachers from each school enjoyed the first exchange visit to Venice,
Italy in November 2008. During the visit, project activities were dis-
cussed and the logo winners were chosen. Following the visit, teach-
ers returned to their respective schools full of enthusiasm and raring
to go. Children were shown photographs of the exchange and were
excited to hear all about life in our Side By Side schools. Teachers
are now preparing for the second visit which is planned for April
2009 in Iceland.
Our Comenius Newsletter
Contents
Hungary ………………………………………..………..pages 1—4
France.. ……………………………………………..…..pages 5—8
Spain…….……………………….……………………...pages 9—12
Iceland... ………………………………………….…pages 13—16
Italy ………………...………………………………..pages 17—20
Wales………………………..………………………….pages 21-24
Comenius Logos …….…………………………………..page 25
March 2009 Newsletter number 1
Here are the most important festivals we celebrate in Hungary. We also took and
collected lots of photos. (Class 6)
Hriszto Botev Általános Iskola and
Egry úti Körzeti Óvoda
Advent Here is our school advent calendar:
First a competition was held among
6-10 year-old children to draw win-
ter pictures. The best ones were
put on the calendar. One of the lit-
tle windows on
it was opened
every day.
Saint-Nicolas Day, 6th December Children in Hun-
gary polish their
best boot and put
it on the window-
s i l l . Mikulás comes with a big
sack full of pre-
sents. He comes with his helpers. They are
the devils. (Krampuszok) In the morning children find candies, oranges, chocolate,
walnuts in their clean boots.
Naughty children find twigs
painted gold in their shoes. Luca Day, 13th December In old times women weren’t allowed
to work on Luca Day. Men started to
make the “Luca Chair.” It was fin-
ished on 24th December. There is
also a say-
ing :"You are prepar-ing it as slowly as Luca Chair!” Men used
to take the
stool to the midnight mass. They
stood on it and they were able to
see the witches with big horns. Af-
ter that they had to run home and
put Luca Chair on fire.
Christmas Before Christmas our parents were invited
to see our Bethlehem Play.
In the old tradition, a week or a few days
before Christ-
mas, carol sing-
ers appeared in
the streets to
announce the
coming of the
festival. Then
groups of boys
made the rounds from house to house, per-
forming the nativity play, carrying the
Christmas manger with them.
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When Carni-
val comes in
February we
have a great
fancy dress
party.
According to
our custom, school leavers learn a
special Hungarian dance for the fancy
dress party called "Palotas". The
party starts
with their
performance
every year.
The most
spectacular
of the folk-
f e s t i v a l s
in Hungary is
t h e
'busojaras' (walk of the busos,
legendary monsters) in the’Mohacs’
district. On that occasion men put on
fearsome devil masks and walk through
their village shouting and making noise
with old tins and dishes. The local
explanation of the custom is that people
once made the Turks run away wearing
awful looking monster masks.
Celebrating Christmas at Home On 24th December families are to-
gether. We decorate the Christmas
tree on the 24th December and we
look forward to Baby Jesus. He brings
presents to Hungarian children.
We open the presents together late in
the afternoon. We play with the new
toys and games for a while, and then
we have our delicious Christmas din-
ner. On 25th and 26th we visit our rela-
tives, go to church or play with our
new toys
a n d
games.
Classroom and Christmas tree decorations
In Craft and
Drawing les-
sons or in
workshops in
the after-
noons—with
our parents
and teachers- we made decorations.
They were put on the class walls, on
the windows, in our
Christmas trees and
in the corridors.
We also made little
surprises for our
parents at
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Winter festivals in the Kindergarten (Edited by Class 4a.and.b and Pumukli group)
Cooperation through Christmas Activities Lower primary classes and kindergarten groups are often come
together.
Some partner groups had lots of Christmas
and winter games together. Others prepared
a Christmas play for their parents and grand-
parents. We had a great time!
How we Celebrated in our Kindergarten Groups Most of the groups celebrated St Nicolas and Christmas
with the parents and grandparents.
They brought us home-made cakes. After singing Christ-
mas songs, we all ran to the Christmas tree and opened
our presents. Everybody could take home one of the pre-
sents. All the other toys stayed in the kindergarten group
to play with.
Why are we happy to be with our schoolfriends? ’We like doing exercise in the gym, because the older ones always help us. If school
children act out something, we are happy to see them.We often join in. We feel as
we were also school children. We are looking forward to
come to school once. We have already found lots of
friends.”
Christmas food Lots of families eat fish soup, stuffed cabbage
and beigli for Christmas dinner. Beigli is a cake
filled with wal- nuts or
poppy seeds.
We decorate the Chr istmas
tree with honey cakes.
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E d i t e d by Kóbory Gyula Bence - 6.B (not in the
photo)
Szigeti Gréta - 6.B
Ihász Bence - 4.A
Wingli Máté - 4.B
Hercsik Rebeka - 4.B
Soltész Luca - 4.A
Osváth Kitti - 6.A
Told Lilla - 6.A
Iványi Noémi—6.B
Another way of preparing for Christmas With the help of his teacher, Kristóf made an advent calendar from match boxes.
On the little boxes the days were written by Braille numbers. The boxes were
covered with bright paper. He found chocolates in the boxes every day.
He made an advent wreath. He used different crops to
decorate the wreath. The fragrance could also remind
him the coming festival.
“Our Christmas tree was full of bright lights. I could see the brightest lights in the tree, and I could smell the cake from our kitchen.”
Donations In December we collected some presents for poor and special need children in the
kindergarten. Parents, teachers and children in
each group brought in toys, clothes and books. We
sent invitations. When our special guests came, we
had a Christmas programme with songs, games and
poems. There were drinks and cakes as well. Our
guests were very happy when they received the
presents.
Winter holiday If it is snowy, we skate, ski or
go sledging. We spend a lot of
time with our parents, sisters
and brothers.
4
Ecole Mme René COTY
2 to 5 years old Ecole Jean CHARCOT
8 to 11 years old
ACTIVITIES
The children from the nursery school are on the process of painting Christmas trees or co-louring in their Santa. The week prior to the Christ-mas holidays the real Santa comes to visit the school and distributes books and sweets. The parents association with the help of the town hall orga-nizes this visit.
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CHRISTMAS STORIES
Some pupils from Charcot p r e p a r e C h r i s t m a s stories to be read to the children from Coty. The lit-tle ones lis-ten with at-
Epiphany
It is on the 4th, 5th or the 6th of Janua-ry. We eat une galette des rois. It is made out of puff pastry, and is filled with marzipan. The youngest person hides under the table and decides who will get which part of the cake.The King or the Queen is the person who finds the bean in the cake (a porcelain figurine). He or she must wear a crown and choose somebody to be their King or Queen. We can cele-brate the Kings until the 31st of January.
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Mardi-gras
We celebrate the carnival at school with all the clas-ses. We eat pancakes, and we dress up.
We make a parade on the streets of the town with a percussion group, throwing confettis on the passers-
by. At the end, we burn the «carnival majesty».
7
The recipe for pancakes
Ingredients - 6eggs - 200g of sugar
- a pinch of salt - 1 litre of milk
- 500g of flour - some butter
Preparation
- In a big bowl, put the flour, the salt,
the sugar, the eggs and the milk.
- Mix them together until you get a smooth paste.
Cooking
- With the help of a paper towel, spread the butter amount the bottom
of the pan.
- Once the pan is nice and hot, pour a good amount of the pancake mixtu-
re into the pan.
- Spread the mixture around so it covers the bottom of the pan.
- Leave it to cook a little bit, then peel off the eggs and flip the pancake
over. Then cook the other side of the pancake a little bit.
Here the eight Co-menius classes from the two schools, Coty and Charcot, gathered in order to give our friends from the five other countries the pleasure to be part of such a great project.
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WHAT DO WE DO AT CHRISTMAS
Spaniards, normally set up a Nativity scene
at home with little mud figures as you can
see on the Photo. We also add some sand
and straw, some moss, virgin Cork...etc. We
display it in our homes during
Christmas.
On December 31st, Spanish
families gather and
celebrate with a big lunch. We eat
“embutidos” like cheese, ham,
loin...and afterwards some typical
sweets like “mantecados”,
“turrón” (a kind of nougat made of almonds..)and chocolate.At
midnight we drink
champagne and eat 12 grapes.
Every year , on the evening of January
5th,the famous CAVALCADES take to
the streets. They are made up of
Famous books or pictures celebrities.
The Three wise men throw sweets,
confetti and gifts into the crowds.
Nativity scene
Christmas lunch. December 25th
Cavalcade on the street
We put students into groups so that they could
create the following text
ACTIVITIES AND DECORATIONS
“ We all talked about the photos and
answered the questions……..”
We drew a tree and
Christmas balls.
We also made snowmen and
nativity scenes….
We decorated our Christmas tree
with little balls and lights. We display
it on December 20th.
We prepared some
performances in the theatre,
Christmas carols, and con-
certs: we played the flute...
Snowmen….
Christmas tree.
Pupils singing on the stage
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WE EAT ON CHRISTMAS TIME….
We usually eat the “Roscón de Reyes” as a dessert
on January the 6th to celebrate the arrival of the 3
Wise Men. It´s made of flour, butter, eggs, salt, le-
mon, and orange Blossom water. We decorate it with
some crystallyzed fruits and surprise figures. In most houses it´s bought in sweets-
hops and the one who finds the surprise has to pay the “Roscón”, just as a fun tradi-
tion.
On December 31st, to celebrate the New year,
we usually eat the 12 grapes.
This tradition began in 1909 when many grapes
were produced and their producers invented
the legend of the lucky grapes. We eat them
when we hear the clock peals
Our main Christmas feasts are on
December 24th and 31st. We eat
appetizers like prawns, ham,
sandwiches, olives, and patté de
foie-grass before the main dishes.
We drink beer, wine and other
refresments .
The “Roscón de Reyes”
Lucky grapes.
Side dishes….
We begin viewing all the photos we had collected. We
chose just 3 and afterwards a group of 4 students wrote
the text.
3rd level. 9 years old.
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OUR FAVOURITE PRESENTS
In some houses Father Christmas leaves
gifts on the night of December 24th .
In every house there are presents from
the 3 Wise Men: Melchor, the White one,
Gaspar, the blonde and Baltasar, the Black
one.They come from the Orient and come
by camel and enter our houses through the
Windows or the terrace.
The 3 Wise men bring us the presents that
we ask for in our letters. Most of them are
toys and sometimes they bring us some
clothes. They also bring gifts to our pa-
rents. They are not toys but they like them
very much.
The 3 Wise men bring us gifts on the
night of January 6th . We can´t see
them
because we´re sleeping but we awake in
the morning and there they are!!!
We are also used to going to our relatives
houses to pick up the gifts
they have left there for us.
The 3 Wise Men
Gifts are waiting….
Gifts for the whole family
Text has been written in Assembly.
5 years old students.
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We have presented the project to stu
dents, teachers, p
arents and
the whole school community. Everybody is e
xcited to keep on
working side by sid
e:)
Presentation on the school walls and on Culture Day in Njardvikurskoli
“Hello from Iceland”
Gimli Our school web page: http://www.leikskolinn.is/gimli/ and http://www.njardvikurskoli.is/
Other usefull pages about our town and our country :
http://.simnet.is/gardarj/gardar1.htm
http://reykjanes.is/
13
The project has been well taken in our school community.
We have focused on interaction between different
ages and between primary school
and kindergarten
Every Tuesday children from Gimli visit
Njardvikurskoli in a small group with their
teacher. When they arrive their friends in 2-
5th grade welcome them to the library
where they read a story together. Every
Thursday children from Njardvikurskoli
visit their friends in Gimli together they
participate in all kinds of activities.
What do you like most about the visits?
Question asked to children in 4th and 5th
grade
• I like very much everything in Gimli, i like to build with forms and paint
• To get to know new friends
• I learn how to take care of the young ones
• I like to train my reading skills
• I like how well the kinder gar-den children behave, they really know good manners
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Christmas tim
e
In December we decorate our school, listen to Christmas songs, bake cakes, go to church, make Christmas cards and ornaments, decorate our classroom, sing Christmas songs, we listen to Christ-mas stories, enjoy Christmas dinner and more and more...
We
bake
cookies
Gimli
Actors put on a play
in our school
The parents organize a
We put on a
play
in our church
We decorate
our school
There are 13 Jolasveinar, otherwise known as
'Christmas Boys'. They first appeared in the 17th
century and are the sons of two trolls, Gryla and
Leppaludi. When stories about the Jolasveinar
first appeared, they were frightening creatures
just like their parents but over the years, they
have become milder, gentler creatures. In the
earlier stories, they would arrive one at a time,
starting 13 days before Christmas. Each one
would do their best to cause minor havoc on
Christmas preparations. One would steal the food,
another would dirty the clothes, there was one
who'd steal the candles; each had their own way
to wreak havoc. Today, they leave little presents
for the children who have behaved all year. The
children leave their shoes on their window sills
and the Jolasveinarv fill their shoes with little
gifts. Any children who have been naughty get a
potato or some other reminder that good
behaviour is essential around Christmas.
Icelandic Santa
Icelandic 13 15
Christmas
time
Christmas ball in Njardvikurskoli
Christmas play in the towns theatre
The school band played Christmas songs
Enjoying Christmas Cookies Decorating the
classroom
Jesus born 5th graders in a
Geledileg jól Mery
Njardvikurskoli
Children making Christmas ornaments
Christmas dinner
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R.E.A.L. NEWS from Italy
This is the guided tour around the
“Istituto Comprensivo” “A. Gramsci” Do you want to know something about our school?
Well, welcome to our school. We are about 550 pupils distributed
in 4 different buildings. The junior secttion is on the 1st floor of
the main building, we’re about 160 students, from 11 to 14,
divided into 8 classes. We go to school from Monday to Saturday,
from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. except on Tuesday when we are at school in
the afternoon, too.
We study many subjects, but our favourite subject is …...can you
guess?????...Physical Education!!! And our favourite room is the
Gym, of course…!!
Facendo un veloce sondaggio, le materie preferite dagli studenti
sono: ginnastica, artistica e musica, ...meditate, gente,
meditate!!! Beatrice e Chiara, 12
FIRST COMENIUS VISIT IN CAMPALTO
Hello, we are Sara and Giulia, 12 years old. We are
the “receptionists” during the first visit of Comenius
partners in our school. It was a really great experi-
ence for us. Even if, at first, we were embarrassed
because of the language, but then we were very
happy to welcome teachers from different countries.
It was an occasion to meet new people and to speak
English, of course!
Il giorno 6 novembre 2008 a scuola c’era un grande movimento e un’aria di novità.
Noi alunni eravamo preparati a quest’incontro molto importante con gli insegnanti
partner stranieri con cui stiamo collaborando per il progetto Comenius. Noi due,
Giulia e Sara, alunne della classe 2^A, avevamo l’impegno di accogliere gli insegnanti
partner stranieri – provenienti dall’Irlanda, dal Galles, dall’Ungheria, dalla Francia e
dalla Spagna – e di consegnare loro del materiale didattico racchiuso in una busta.
Abbiamo così avuto l’occasione di fare un’esperienza, anche se breve, di lingua
straniera in situazione reale. L’imbarazzo, la paura di sbagliare e di fare brutta figura
non ci hanno impedito di cogliere l’importanza di quest’incontro che speriamo sia il
primo atto di una lunga e interessante collaborazione tra paesi stranieri. Il gruppo degli
insegnanti partner ci sembrava molto curioso, interessato alla nostra scuola e alle
attività che vi si svolgono e noi alunni, almeno questa è la nostra impressione,
orgogliosi del nostro piccolo, grande mondo di lavoro e di studio che è la scuola.
Students during their kayak
course, a wonderful
experience on the Venetian
lagoon
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Hand made “frittelle
alla veneziana”. They’re
delicious!!!!
These are “galani” or
“crostoli”.
Don’t forget to visit our
fantastic blog with all
the activities, pictures,
videos:
gramscicampalto.blogs
pot.com
Children from Nursery
School are preparing
cakes with the help of
their grand-parents.
ARNEVALE
MANGI MO LE
F ITTELLE E I
GALA I E POI
N MASCHERA ci
TRA ESTIAMO E I
CORI NDOLI
ANCIAMO
CARNIVAL SENSATION 2009
This is the main theme for Carnival in Venice this year, it involves
the presence of the six senses as the protagonists of Sensation all over
the city.
Everyone will enjoy a variety of performances whose senses will be enlivened and placed in their
own particular areas
Each “sestriere” is related to a particular “sense”: st. Mark’s square - the mind /San Polo - the
sight / Dorsoduro - the hearing /Santa Croce - the smell / Cannaregio - the taste/ Castello - the
touch
www.venezia.net/venice-italy/carnival-sensation-2009/
WHAT WE EAT AT CARNIVAL At Carnival we usually eat galani and frittelle, typical cakes for this festivities. We dress up or
wear strange masks and we have lots of fun!
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The true story of the crib
Presepio, Crib or manger is a nativity scene created and displayed in homes, churches and small towns during the Christmas season. This crib was made by children during the workshop “Playing with Art”. Presepe in terracotta, preparato dai bam-bini, durante il laboratorio di ceramica.
Dopo aver visitato a Betlemme
i luoghi santi, Francesco tornato in
Italia un giorno incontrò il nobiluomo
Giovanni che gli chiese come seguire le
vie del Signore.
Il Nobiluomo ispirato dal Santo fece
allestire una rappresentazione della
Natività. Durante la notte di Natale del
1223 gli abitanti di Greccio
partecipando alla celebrazione videro
in braccio a Francesco un bel bambino
addormentato. Questo miracolo venne
ricordato negli anni successivi
ripetendo il rito nello stesso modo.
Questa è la vera storia del presepe.
After the visit of the Holy Places at
Bethlehem., Francesco met the noble-
man Giovanni that asked him the way
to follow the Christ’s teaching. Gio-
vanni, inspired by the Saint, made a
representation of the Nativity.
During the Christmas night of the year
1223 the inhabitants of Greccio, being
present at the celebration mounted in
that place, saw a beautiful sleeping
baby in Francesco’s arms .
This miracle was remembered in the
following years repeating the rite in the
same way.
Classes 4 Primary School “G. Pascoli
9-year-old students
This char-
acter: "the
Befana", is
a tradi-
tional Ital-
ian figure.
The name
derives
from the
Epiphany,
when the
wise men
brought their gifts to the baby Jesus.
During the night between 5 and 6 January
the little old woman who flies on a
broom, slips down the chimneys bringing
presents for good children and coal for
those who behaved badly during the year
and puts the gifts in stockings that chil-
dren have hung near beds
THE BEFANA COMES AT NIGHT TIME/ HER SHOES ARE FULL OF HOLESSHE DRESSES LIKE A ROMAN / HURRAH FOR THE
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La novità di quest’anno è il progetto Comenius che
ci ha permesso di interagire con altri paesi
europei. E’ stata l’occasione per noi alunni di
lavorare in gruppo per produrre cartelloni, disegni,
scrivere lettere in lingua straniera,; di andare in
aula informatica e visitare i blog stranieri.
Abbiamo affrontato l’argomento delle festività
invernali: Natale e Carnevale. Tutta la scuola ha
prodotto del materiale che è esposto nelle varie
sedi o che si può visitare sul blog.
E’ stato molto bello lavorare in gruppo,
collaborare e divertirsi allo stesso tempo.
We have painted some masks, we have written
some receipts: galani e frittelle. We’re going to
send everything to our partners in France and
Hungary.
Alessia, 12 e Chiara, 13
A Carneval ogni scherzo val
At Carnival, every joke is permitted
These are the masks we have drawn and painted during our lessons. There are funny and
original masks, also with Venitian pictures.
E’ stato divertente preparare le maschere, alcune, tra le migliori, sono state esposte ad una
mostra presso il Centro Polifunzionale di Campalto.
Ten-year-old students of primary school Pascoli
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European Day wasn't only fun it was tasty too.
Years 5 and 6 had a gorgeous French breakfast
with a big long French stick, croissants and jam,
orange juice and listened to European music. It
was so cool and tasty!!!
Bonjour! Bon appetite!!
To launch the Comenius project we held a Euro-
pean Day, The foundation phase were stuffed
with different types of food from all over the
world and enjoyed listening to music!!!
European Day was a great suc-
cess with the children having fun
making flags. They got messy
with glue and felt pens, and when
they were finished they waved
them everywhere!
Year 2 had a blast
making around the world
friendship chains.
Flag making.
Making badges and
learning how to say
hello in different
languages.
21
Christmas at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili,
Wales.
The junior department’s play
was called Bethlehem.com and
saw the media chasing the new
number one (Baby Jesus) and
Herod trying to banish him.
Busy, busy, busy at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili. Everybody
is practising for the school’s Christmas play. The nursery
and reception have joined to do their play which shows
how Christmas is celebrated around the world.
Years 1 and 2 compared
Christmas in Bethlehem
with Christmas 2008.
We put up a beautiful
tree which is covered
with baubles, tinsel
and lights.
Siôn Corn (Father
Christmas) visits our
school every year.
He brings a present
to every class.
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On Christmas Day we get up really early and check
our stockings to see if Father Christmas has been.
We usually wake up our parents and open our
stockings whilst sitting on their bed. Then we rush
down the stairs, eat our breakfast and open any
presents that are under the tree.
Every year we have a Christmas fair where we
sell our calendars and other glorious goodies
e.g. cakes , lollies , books, toys, DVDs,
Christmas cards and many other
gifts. We also have a big Christmas raffle draw and
whoever gets the lucky ticket wins a marvellous
prize.
On Christmas Eve the children prepare for Father
Christmas to visit by putting a pie and milk for him
and carrots and water for the reindeers. They also
hang colourful stockings ready for Father Christmas
to fill with treats.
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Christmas dinner consists of sliced roast
turkey, carrots, roast potatoes, peas, broccoli,
roast parsnips, sprouts, stuffing, pigs on horse-
back (sausages wrapped in bacon) and gravy.
We then have Christmas pudding with brandy
sauce and then we have a lazy afternoon in
front of the television.
MARI LWYD
On New Year’s Eve, the Mari Lwyd (a horse’s skull decorated with ribbons and covered with a white canvas) travels from house to house. The tradition is that people go around the houses tapping on the window with the skull. The people inside would open the door and the Mari Lwyd group would start to sing. The family would answer with a different verse and this would go on till the people in the house would invite the others in for food and drink.
On St. David's Day our school have an Eisteddfod which is when we all compete against each other in different
competitions. We all belong to different houses called Rhiannon, Pwyll, Pryderi, and Branwen. We have competitions l ike
art, stories, handwriting, recita-tion and much more! At the end of the competition we have judges to decide which house wins. The house with the most points win a shield.
St . David is the Patron saint of Wales and we celebrate on March 1st.
Calennig
The children in year 4 made ‘calennig’
apples/oranges and went around the class
rooms singing goodwill ‘penillion’ verses.
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Here are our Comenius winning
logos. Every country held a logo
design competition and the winners
were selected in Venice. We now
need to choose an overall winning
design. Which one is your favourite?
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