Art education at Siggiewi Primary

A preparatory meeting at the beginning of the last of the three-year Comenius project "Artistic education and pupils' success" took place at Bistrita, in the region of Transylvania in Romania.

Ms Nadia Sammut and myself, teacher and assistant head at Guzè Delia Primary School, Siggiewi, recently joined representatives from Northern Ireland, Spain, France and obviously Romania.

Meetings were held at Liviu Rebreanu National College, where we visited all classes hosting students aged three to 18. The experience of a real fully-fledged college with its advantages, opportunities and difficulties, was already an enlightening experience since we are currently embarking on the college system at home.

Visiting the kindergarten with its indoor and outdoor play areas, and its dining rooms and classrooms-cum-bedrooms offered us fresh ideas in trying to upgrade our kindergarten section at Siggiewi.

The same goes for our visit to the primary section where we could compare textbooks and teaching methods used. We admired their system and writing pads when teaching handwriting skills. The Mathematics textbooks were quite different but they use the same 'Way Ahead' for English.

Meetings focused mainly on the main project. After using painting and three-dimensionals as media in the previous two years, this year we opted for collage in its many forms. Any material can be used: paper, carton, salt, rice, dry pasta, cloth; re-using or recycling of any material, such as newspaper cuttings, is encouraged since we are thriving to kindle the principles of eco-school in everyday school life.

The topic chosen was "People". Teachers in each year group will choose to tackle this subject according to their particular syllabus, probably with special emphasis on social studies topics. A case in point is the year group which will depict important Maltese historical figures.

A few samples of the students' work of art will be presented during the next meeting in Ireland in March, while the final project will be presented at the last meeting in June in Spain. Finally, a publication containing a Manual of Good Practice full of lesson plans and photos of the process and the finished works will be compiled.

Another offshoot of this collaboration are the so-called Partnership Classes. Each class in our school has been partnered with a class in one of the four schools. Correspondence is via e-mail and post on different occasions throughout the year, mainly for Christmas and Easter, and by hand on the occasion of the three meetings.

Other interesting activities took place during the visit in Romania. A cordial meeting with the Bistrita mayor was followed by other visits, all revolving around the main subject: art. The visit to an art museum in Bistrita, to three artists' studios, to the art museum of Cluj-Napoca and the half-day activity at an Art and Design School all helped us with the development of our main topic.

All the staff at Guzè Delia Siggiewi Primary endeavour to promote a holistic approach to education and this project and the partnership between these five schools amalgamates all main subjects taught at primary level through art, a medium through which each and every pupil can succeed.

More details about the Comenius and other projects and initiatives at Guzè Delia Siggiewi Primary can be obtained at http://schoolnet.gov.mt/siggiewic.