Comenius Students Arrive in Leighton Buzzard

Over the last 18 months Gilbert Inglefield students have been proud to be part of a European Comenius Project sponsored by the British Council. Through the project the school has established links with 6 partner schools in Italy, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Sweden and certainly broadened their horizons. Teachers and students have visited 4 of the countries and in March Gilbert Inglefield Middle School acted as the host school welcoming 28 students and 16 teachers into their school lives and into their homes for a 6 day visit.

Mrs Pauline Wright as International Co-ordinator organised a full programme of activities where visiting and host students enjoyed getting to know one another and overcame language difficulties by using sign language and Google translator!Twenty one Gilbert students acted as hosts and they have written about some of the highlights of the visit.

Their first night was about introducing them to their home for the next five days. Leo aged 10 … hosted a seventeen year old this is how he described his first night, “When he first came he was very quiet but spoke very good English. It was his first trip abroad out of Spain. We showed him around our house and showed him his room after we had dinner and watched a movie that was our first night.’’

The next day 77 students, teachers and parents all had to wake early to get on a train and head to London. Catherine tells us how her day went:” At Leighton Buzzard train station we caught the fast train to London. When we arrived we got a trip on the open top Big bus tour round London.

We stopped at Trafalgar Square and saw many of the other London attractions. We saw: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, The Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, the Olympic clock, St James Park and the National Art Gallery. After a lot of sight seeing we eventually had lunch in St James Park. Then at half past two, all of the groups had to meet up at Tower pier, where we enjoyed a river trip on the Thames.

The third day was the day of rest; the host families could do what they wanted with the visiting students. I chose to go to Milton Keynes shopping. We had an excellent day and it wasn’t over! On Sunday evening the school hosted a Ceilidh. Members of staff and parents helped to prepare a chilli supper which was very welcome after some extremely energetic dancing. Everyone had a fantastic time with all ages joining in the fun.

On Monday, the fourth day, our visiting students and teachers were able to experience Gilbert Inglefield for the first time and took part in lessons alongside their host students. They all had to do P.E (Physical Education), Mr “V” our P.E teacher said that it was great to share our way of learning. They either did dance - taught by our year eight dance leaders - or dodge ball. They also had a guided tour of our school. Most students and teachers were amazed by our brand new food room (only finished the week before the visit).

The visit highlighted many differences between the way schools operate in different countries. The one thing that amazed them all was the high standard of behaviour and the respect shown to teachers. Seeing over 500 children going into the hall for assembly in silence led one teacher to remark that this seemed like ‘science fiction’!

On Tuesday many were savouring the time they had left with their new found friends. The morning was spent in Leighton Buzzard town centre where they experienced market day and were able to buy some souvenirs or in most cases sweets! Amy Pepper enjoyed spending time with the visiting students as on Tuesday afternoon ‘we went out to Dunstable Downs to test our kites. Ours was bad at the start, but then we got the hang of it! I got a go on the big kite, which was a laugh. This was a really good experience!” James Callow one of our parent governors gave an amazing display of one of his stunt kites as he is part of the England

team. Hazel Price, one of our host parents wrote ‘All too soon Tuesday afternoon had arrived and the girls had to start packing their bags again in readiness to go home. We did manage some games again. This time the four children played Twister. It was the first time Isabel and Bea had experienced this game. It was so brilliant to see the fun they had. Time just flew by and we soon had to leave for the Red Hot Buffet in Milton Keynes for the farewell dinner which was attended by 108 students, teachers, parents and family members. Everyone seemed to enjoy

themselves. It was very apparent that some great friendships had developed already in the short visit between visiting students and family members of other host families. Even friendships between English families who had not had the opportunity to meet also began to form, likewise between families and staff with the foreign teachers as well. There was a special feeling in the restaurant that night!

Mrs Wright said that ‘The visit was an outstanding success and we were fortunate that several parents took time off work in order to support the teachers during the visit.” Hazel one of our host parents wrote

“Do we regret doing it? No way! Would we do it again? We sure would! It was a fantastic experience and I loved every bit of it. In fact the experience was so positive I’ve now asked if I can be a volunteer at the school each week. Not so many hours usually, but I would increase if they are doing another similar venture and need the extra support. As for Mark, well it was great to see Mark enjoying himself so much as well. In some ways not much of a holiday, he went back to work exhausted! Exhausted, but satisfied!

Saying good bye on the Wednesday morning was tough with lots of tears – strong bonds had been established with many promises and plans for future meetings made. Hopefully the visit will be the start of many lifelong international friendships.

The final meeting for the project is in May when all the Comenius students gather in Stockholm to visit our partner school Runby Skola in Upplands Vasby. The globe trotting students at Gilbert Inglefield haven’t finished travelling for the year– they also have another visit planned in June when 40 of them are setting off to spend a cross curricular week in Normandy and over the Easter holidays one group is setting off to Austria for a week’s skiing with Ashton Middle in Dunstable