Like every year, we, the SWALS teachers, have decided to carry out another educational project. The aim of the project is to make our students aware of the richness of our folk cultural heritage, especially as reflected in fairy tales and folk stories in the SWALS countries. Therefore, our project for this school year is entitled:
"Exploring our cultural heritage through folktales and fairy tales".
Through this project we wanted our students to gain an awareness of fairy tales and folk tales from other parts of Europe, to get in touch with the cultural identity of other countries and to explore common elements that run through fairy tales.
The educational programme was carried out in cooperation with SWALS classes from the European School Karlsruhe.
From 3 to 5 May, we went on a study trip to Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden with 30 SWALS students.
Our students spoke Estonian, Greek, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish as L1 languages and thus represented the EU quite well.
The sun has been shining these three days and the summer with flowers and green leaves has made Karlsruhe even more beautiful. We discovered the sights of this university town on a guided tour: the town hall, the Karlsruhe pyramid and the castle with a large beautiful park, plus a nice pedestrian zone with numerous shops and restaurants. Although the city has only about 300,000 inhabitants, the German Federal Court is located here. Karlsruhe also has some of the most renowned computer science and engineering schools in Germany.
The morning at our sister school, the European School Karlsruhe, will remain in our fond memories. We were warmly welcomed by the director, Mrs. Anabela Santos, as well as by teachers and students! The school's wind orchestra played Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, and also more modern songs for us. We were thrilled and moved.
Our students then successfully presented the SWALS project to some classes. After lunch in the school canteen, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to this great school community.
However, we hope and plan to continue and deepen our cooperation. We would like to say a special thank you to coordinator Potr Krol and to Greek teacher Alexandra Katikaridou!
Of course, we also enjoyed the excursion to Baden-Baden, with interesting city tours, a stroll through the city and eating ice cream.
During Europe Week at the ESM, the results of the SWALS project of the year were presented. Students, parents, headmasters and teachers were cordially invited to this event.
Panagiota Papakosta, Anita Lidzbarska and Anna Wedin Berg
