Parents in Greenlinks

The Comenius project Greenlinks being carried out at Achille Ferris Primary School in Msida, is in its third and final year. This year's focus is "How can I help to make my school... my village more beautiful?" Most of the activities worked out here are also concurrently being carried out in schools in Belgium, Romania, Estonia, Italy and Spain.

European Parents' Day was the day chosen to launch this year's activities, giving parents the chance to acquire first-hand knowledge and experience of the work to be covered during the scholastic year.

On that day, parents filled the hall to capacity and after Mass they were grouped in 14 environment-related hands-on workshops. Some parents joined their children's class while others preferred to follow an activity in another group.

The workshops were run by in-house and complementary teachers while peripatetic and retired teachers were roped in to organise activities.

Going round the groups I could see parents potting and sowing, while others attended a music workshop upstairs. Another group of parents and pupils were on the landing deeply involved in painting a huge ecological painting with 'human' trees holding hands.

Book-making on environmental issues was taking place in yet another classroom while 'flower' craftwork took place in another. Some parents accompanied students in the school garden. Here information on the trees was being given by a class teacher and the names of trees were hung around the tree by students.

In another part of the garden a 'Bird Village' was created for the younger ones with bird tables and nest boxes brought over by the parenis. Another group of parents visited the Comenius Room, where pupils' projects on the flora and fauna of the Maltese Islands are displayed. Projects on European countries, together with items sent from the European schools, are also displayed in this room. It was the pupils who acted as guides while parents were the attentive listeners.

Meanwhile another group of parents was watching a video and listening to one of the students explain how he had spent his summer holidays. This video, recorded by the student's family, has been sent to the other participating schools in the different countries.

Dustbins for the separation of waste were inaugurated on the day with a teacher explaining on waste management and separation of waste. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was the theme in another class, while a drama session backed by a power-point presentation on the care of the environment was presented in another room.

This same group distributed stickers on energy-saving to be fixed on switches, reminding one and all not to leave lights on.

This day would not have been complete without the sowing of trees.

Olive trees were sown by the mayor and councillors of Msida, together with the presideni of the school council.

While the trees were being sown, the students held banners with environment-friendly slogans.

Greenlinks seems to have infiltrated into the students' home as parents still come to school with pots and seeds and newspaper cuttings on the environment theme. In my capacity as Comenius project co-ordinator, planned and co-ordinated the events on the day. So much took place and the school was really and truly alive.

The environmental message was loud and clear for all to feel. The day would not have been possible without the help of the other assistant head, Jahel Sammut, who monitored the workshops throughout, while Ms R. Borg Magro, the head of school, said: "The good participation of parents on such a day encourages us to hold more activities of the sort. Parents and teachers can truly be partners in the educational progress of the students under our care."

The Comenius project has been instrumental in the realisation of this partnership.

Ms Debono is assistant head at Achille Ferris Primary School, Msida.