Countries through art and history works

Between May 27 and June 2, two teachers from Sir Temi Zammit Boys' Secondary School, Mtarfa - Paul Schembri, Comenius project co-ordinator and History teacher, and Robert Magro, ICT teacher, participated in the second Comenius project meeting entitled "Countries through Art and History Works" held in Bibiena (Arezzo), Italy.

The meeting was held at the Scuola di Soci, a co-educational secondary state school, where schools from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, Germany, Italy and Malta met to work on this project. Since they live in a more integrated Europe, all Europeans must come closer by understanding each other's cultures through works of history and art which eventually will reflect each participant country's culture and traditions - this is the aim of the project. The project team concluded that education is the best way through which this ideal is to be reached.

After the presentations, discussions were held on the ways in which the eight participating countries are planning to match the eight national educational curricula and syllabi with the aims of the project mainly focusing on History, Art and History of Art, though other subjects were also mentioned such as the use of languages. During these discussions each participant had to introduce the school, system of education, and the area around the school, the country with national facts, various aspects from history, art and history of art which in effect reflect people's culture.

During the discussions each participant showed examples of the objects produced by the students representing the cultures of every country involved in the project. The Maltese team presented a wide range of objects produced by Mtarfa students, which were also displayed during our Prize Day and were appreciated and praised by one of the Directors of Education.

These consisted of models of the traditional Maltese luzzu, girna, razzett, the 'Fat Lady', various charts on historical places in Valletta, the Great Siege, power-point presentations, various paintings such as The Maltese countryside in Winter.

A model which impressed our partners was that of Ggantija Temples by Steven Borg of 1.1. Raymond Galea (Art teacher) helped the students to produce these artistic objects, which were then exchanged with those of other schools. These are now available at our school. A subsequent discussion dealt with the planning of exchange of teachers and students. The teachers were taken to visit cultural and historical places of the region such as the famous Duomo in Florence.

The CD produced by the Maltese team was highly praised for the efficient work and a good number of beautiful comments were passed to the Maltese team who was asked to produce copies.

Each country created a Website that is accessible to everyone. Detailed information on this project together with several photographs about our project activities is available on that page. This Website - www.schoolnet.gov. mt/mtarfasecondary - together with the other seven are to be gathered in a one common international Website: www.vacisuli.tv.net.hu (still under construction) which will be the end product of this Comenius project and will also be available on CD.

Everyone will then be able to browse on which any country they choose and take a look at the school, ways of teaching, students and their products, history, art, traditions, and other interesting activities of the school and country such as the celebration of the Corpus Christi feast at our school. This site will also provide information on the project activities, photographs and other information. Students will continue to work on their projects throughout the next two scholastic years.

Part of this project is an exchange programme for teachers to share cultures by giving extra classes for students at a partner institution and a student exchange.

Thanks to our head of school, Mr C.S. Micallef, the participation of our school in this project brings forth more involvement of our students in the near future. We believe that such participation and sharing of various ideas on education and culture will strengthen the vital preservation and enrichment of each others' culture.

The next meeting will be held at our school in October.