Students shine at Vetrina Scoops

Participants at the recent Vetrina Scoops, the annual conference about school cooperatives, were this year promised a "conference with a difference". They were not disappointed. Outlook Coop, the implementers of the Scoops project, made sure that the students themselves would be the protagonists by giving them plenty of opportunity to express themselves.

The half-day conference was held at the Metco Conference Centre and was attended by government and business representatives. The first half of the morning was devoted to workshop sessions in which students and teacher-managers were divided into groups. Together with a facilitator, each group prepared a creative presentation to perform later on in the morning, choosing some aspect of the cooperative experience as their theme.

The experiment with this format was a great success in that it allowed students and teachers from different schools to interact and take part in creative activities while experiencing in practice - through the team-based activities - the principles of democratic management, cooperation and solidarity which underlie Scoops.

Some of the presentations were very original. One group, for example, inflated some disposable gloves, turned them into puppets and performed a news bulletin with them.

The Scoop of Vincenzo Borg Brared Boys Secondary School was contracted to provide the catering service, a job they carried out with professionalism, and high standards of quality, service and hygiene.

Outlook Coop Scoops manager Michelle Vigar said that "offering the various Scoops, through a tender process, the opportunity to provide the catering service for the Vetrina Scoops is a vote of confidence in the abilities of our Scoop members.

"We feel that it is the least we can do to put the principle of cooperative solidarity into practice and encourage other organisations to do the same."

The newly revamped Scoops Website, sponsored by Keyworld Ltd, was launched during the conference. It is brimming with information about the project and offers each Scoop a page in which to showcase its product or service.

The final part of the morning was devoted to a question and answer session between the students and four guests: Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi; Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo; Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino, chairman of the Coops Board; and Mary Rose Mifsud, director for student services and international relations.

In what turned out to be a lively and lighthearted session, the student members of the Kumitat Nazzjonali Scoops put questions to the panel about the project. This exercise, the panel were duly informed, was intended to take them back to their student days so that they would be able to empathise with students during their upcoming examination period.

The members of the panel then replied to the students' queries and concerns about their experiences in Scoops.

The goods or services being offered by the individual Scoops were also on display, and included examples of woodwork, silver work, ceramics, as well catering and theatre services.

The Scoops project is sponsored by the Coops Board and HSBC.

At the conference, HH Limited provided Safari Juices and Law. Quintano Ltd. donated Evian and Ferrarelle mineral water.