Unforgettable school visit to Ghent

St Sebastian Primary School 'A' Qormi, is again participating in the three-year Comenius project "Eurokids: Knowing me, Knowing you", with partner schools from Denmark, Belgium, Finland and the Netherlands.

The project co-ordinator, Sonia Vella, made all the arrangements for Doris Pace, assistant head, Suzanne Bezzina, a Year 2 teacher and Joan Camilleri, a kindergarten assistant, for a three-day exchange visit with two kindergarten schools in Ghent, Belgium.

The headmaster, Patrick D'Haenens, who is responsible for both schools, explained how the topics for the year are chosen. The teachers choose the topics but these are liable to change according to the children's needs at the time.

Personal experiences of the children are discussed with the help of puppets. In fact, in the younger classes, Jules, a puppet, accompanies each class during school activities, outings and also at the children's homes during weekends. The children are encouraged to talk about what Jules is going through and make a logbook. This encourages the children to talk and overcome their shyness.

Children in Ghent start school at the age of two and a half years and attend kindergarten till they are six. There are two levels. In the first level classes, one finds children from two and a half to four years in the same class. In the second level the children are from four to six years old. Intake of pupils is five times a year, usually after the school holidays.

The children work in groups most of the time, each group working at a different type of activity. The fact that there is a lot of space in the classrooms facilitates this because the classrooms are divided into activity areas without the need to put away all the resources after each activity. Children move about freely and work very quietly. A lot of junk material, some of which is stored in the classroom, is used to build artefacts.

During activities in groups the children in the second level often work unattended even when using scissors. They are told what is expected of them but they are free to make their own designs while experimenting with the different material available using their acquired skills like cutting and fixing.

Since the schools visited are also day care schools, children can go to school from 7 in the morning and stay there till 7 in the evening. Carers are employed to prepare meals and take care of children before school, during lunch break at noon and after school.

During the first two days of their visit, the Maltese teachers visited all the classes in both schools. They presented children's work from the kindergarten classes in Malta to the matched partners in Ghent. Maltese nougat was presented to teachers and children.

One of the classes they observed was a class from the younger groups during a PE lesson in the gym. They were doing physical exercises for gross motor skills such as walking on a plank, climbing, going through tunnels and walking on all fours. Since the theme was Easter, another class was cooking eggs in different ways. Afterwards the children ate small pieces of the cooked eggs.

The Maltese teachers also joined a second-level class for a session in a nearby swimming pool. The objective was to make the children familiar with water, not to teach them how to swim. The class played a number of games in the water. In the changing room it was noticed that even the four-year-olds were already trained to change on their own.

On the third day, the Maltese teachers were invited to an Easter activity organised for the grandparents at Bollekens School. This consisted of a buffet-breakfast, dancing for children, teachers and also for the grandparents and a search for Easter eggs by the children in the garden. At the end of the activity the children gave their grandparents presents which the children did themselves at school.

This was a very worthwhile visit for the Maltese teachers since they brought back an unforgettable experience packed with ideas for their classes.