Schools trying new approaches to health and welfare education

Among the activities carried out at St Francis School Cospicua during this second year of our Comenius project 'Developing Health and Welfare Education in the European Primary School' was a survey on health and welfare that was carried out among Year 2, 4 and 5 students.

The survey enabled the children and teachers to see how health permeates the curriculum, and the balance of activities within the curriculum that have a potential health aspect, such as physical education and personal development. Similar surveys were also conducted with some staff members and the head teacher Sr Claudia Zammit.

At a recent project meeting held at Danegrove Primary School in East Barnet, England, representatives of the six partner schools from Scotland, Belgium, England, Poland, Germany and Malta, delivered presentations on the various tasks undertaken during this scholastic year.

By sharing with the other partner schools information gathered from the survey as well as the content, approaches and methodologies to teaching health and welfare education, all the partner schools will be able to try new pedagogical and curricular approaches within their particular context.

At the meeting the partner schools also discussed the methodologies that each school will be trying during the project's third year. A draft copy of a 2007-08 health calendar in five different languages featuring photos related to the partner schools' activities about health and healthy living was also presented.

The visit gave us the opportunity to see and appreciate the work of our project partners, and we can say that our children are on the right track in education when compared to other European students.

During our visit to Danegrove School, among other activities, we had the opportunity to observe and discuss with the class teachers the various methods they use to teach, their books and their vast range of resources.

We would like to thank all at Danegrove School who worked so hard to make our visit successful, as well as our national agency for giving our school and our students the opportunity to benefit greatly from this project which is funded by the EUPU national agency.