The way started in September 2003 in Olomouc, Czech Republic, where the Roots and Wings partner finding seminar took place. There were 64 participants from elementary and secondary schools from Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Sweden and Wales.

My school – Secondary School of Gastronomy and Services, Přerov, Czech Republic – was very succesful. We found partners from Denmark, Sweden and Wales. The name of our project was Let´s Make the Euro Action Puzzle and the main idea was to learn about each country´s history, culture and traditions. Each activity of the project was a small piece of puzzle and we put them all together to make a picture of common Europe. We made lots of posters, booklets, pictures and videos, introduced Christmas and Easter traditions and compared the systems of education and gave the ideas of an ideal school.

During all those three years of project we also visited all the partner schools in Kolding (Denmark), Burry Port (Wales), Malmö (Sweden) and Přerov (Czech Republic). Pupils were hosted by families to get the best taste of life in different country. We made a lot of work and had a lot of fun together.

Three students who were involved in the project told me:

„It was a great experience, I met a lot of new people and some of them are my friends up to the present day. I often think back on the moments when we were working on projects and I never forget the visit in Denmark.“ (Václav, 20)

„I got the opportunity to take part in the project and I met a lot of new people and made new friends abroad. I tried the real life in the family in the different country, which was my best experience. But most of all – we had a lot of fun.“ (Petr, 20)

„The project was really great. I could improve my English and learn a lot of interesting things about other countries and nations. In the project I met the people who shared my interest in English and thanks to the visit in Denmark I could try the practical part of the language. But the more important is that I met lots of good friends and had a lot of great time with them.“ (Marie, 20).

As you can see from the students´ response the project was really great experience and we didn´t want it to finish after three years. And so we decided to meet again at the conference in Elblag, Poland in November 2008. Here we found new partners from Poland, Spain and Austria and made a preparatory plan for the new project which we called „Book Me a Ticket to Europe“. But the project has not started yet and we must face the first problems. The Danish cannot be in the partnership, one Polish school had to withdraw as there cannot be two schools from one country in the same project and we lost the contact with the Spanish partner. But we don´t give up!

And what do the new students expect from the project?

„I hope my English will improve and I will find some penfriends.“ (Pavlína, 16)

„I will get new information about foreign countries.“ (Katerina, 15)

„I want to learn about different cultures and this will be an opportunity to speak English to a foreigner.“ (Markéta, 16)

„I think I will get more self-reliance but I also look forward to a team work.“ (Pavlína, 15)

















17 January 2009



Dagmar Vykoukalová, Přerov, Czech Republic

(you can see more about the previous project at: raw.sirava.cz/)