Zespół Szkolno – Przedszkolny w Halinowie is an institution in which there is a kindergarten and a primary school. Children between 3-6 years are taught in kindergarten and learners aged 6 to 15 attend in primary school. In the new system of education, the age of primary school students was extended by 2 years, while the Gimnazjum “expired”. 1000 pupils learn in primary school and 150 children attend in kindergarten. About 80 teachers work here. We have two gyms and a big playground outside.
Our school is highly involved in the implementation of the key Competences in the European education. We have been carrying out international projects since 2004. The main aim of the projects is to increase students’ ease and fluency of speaking English. Most of the students experience a blockade while speaking, have difficulty with applying their grammatical or lexical knowledge gained during English lessons, what results in unclear speeches. Such a barrier can result from the lack of practise – possibility of having a real-time conversation with English-speaking peers. Another aim of the project is to provide our students with possibility of a good start in the adult life and a chance to achieve success connected with having a good job. This would be real thanks to the awareness of being outright and active members of the European community. ICT competences progress, development of technological base and introduction of new technologies necessary for working in eTwinning portal is other aim of the project.
As we already know, this project deals directly with one of those competences: sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. We all know that the current situation in Europe is that it faces high youth unemployment and serious skills mismatches. One of the Polish national strategies introduced in our educational system was putting more emphasis on the key competences and their development at school in order to help the employability prospects of future graduates. That is why, our school has been implementing a competence-based curricula for some years now and we have then a wide experience in the area relevant for this project. Some of the activities: extra English lessons, maths, ICT , theatrical activities, Erasmus activities, activities connected with school exchange with Danish school in our curriculum include creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. Offered possibilities of language support will reflect on general improvement of learning results. Established cooperation with Danish school will have a motivating influence on the whole school community, will give a European dimension to our school and will increase the value of our school as an educational institution. Due to improved skills in the field of ICT and communication supported by good knowledge of English our students will graduate from Zespół Szkolno-Przedszkolny w Halinowie being ready to find a job and achieve satisfying goals. The teachers will apply new skills during virtual meetings with English teachers and future mobilities or job shadowing. We hope for long-term cooperation with the partnership, which would be really valuable for our school. The teachers taking part in the projects will improve their competences not only within language skills, organisation of teaching process, project work experience but also as a personal development.
With regard to the skills and expertise of the key persons involved in this project, Mrs. K. Tulewicz has already participated in different European projects and she is really eager to share her long teaching experience with new partners in a new project.