Multilateral Comenius Partnership „3Rs Heritage:Rights, Respect and Responsibilities” 2010-2012

I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. M. Kromera in Gorlice, Poland, http://kromer-gorlice.pl/comenius/

1st Comenius Meeting – 24th- 29th October 2010

I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Marcina Kromera

in Gorlice, Poland

Our Comenius Partnership entitled “3Rs Heritage: Rights, Respect and Responsibilities” started in September 2010, with the beginning of the school year. And the First Comenius Meeting was scheduled for 24th- 29th October 2010, in our town, Gorlice.

Other Comenius partners from Italy, Greece, Turkey and Portugal are all from the south of Europe, and visiting Poland in autumn was a new experience for them.

The First Comenius Visit started on 24th October, with the arrival of the groups.

In the evening, the newcomers arrived at our town, students were welcomed by host families and teachers by the staff of our school. It was very interesting to meet our partners for the next two years, who would participate in Partnership’s programme.

On Monday, 25th October we all gathered in I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im M. Kromera in Gorlice. Our headmaster, Mr Jerzy Nalepka welcomed our guests, introduced the teachers, workers and students to them.

First, we walked around the school building, showing the guests our classrooms and equipment, the library, staffroom and the exterior of our school’s building.

Next, we went for a walk around our town. Despite cold and a little gloomy weather our guests liked the streets, the buildings of the Town Hall, Catholic Church and the Museum of the Region, with rich exhibition of the local history.

In the afternoon we all gathered in our school, for introductory workshops. Each partner introduced their school, region, people who have come to take part in the First Comenius Meeting.

We exchanged the first impressions and ideas about our Partnership. Also, we presented the results of the surveys about students rights, which were carried out in our schools at the beginning of school year.

Tuesday, the 26th was the day of the trip around our region. As our Partnership stresses ecology and the cultural heritage of our region, we wanted to present the multicultural history of our region as well as the influence of economy on natural environment.

During the trip our guests saw 2 wooden churches in Sekowa and Owczary, beautiful examples of woodwork in the region. These two churches are Catholic and Orthodox, which showed our guests that a few religions have been coexisting in our region for centuries.

After that, we went to Krynica. This town is a well– known spa of the region. Our guests saw there the old architecture of the town, and the Museum of Nikifor Krynicki, the local artist who painted the streets and monuments of Krynica in the second part of 20th century.

Next we travelled to the village of Czarny Potok, which is a ski resort. The mountains of Beskid Sądecki were transformed by man for the needs of tourist industry and the changes done to the environment could be easily observed by our guests. During the trip we could enjoy the sight of first snowflakes falling around.

On 27th October, 2010, our guests took part in a conference entitled Human Rights and Voluntary Service. The first part of the conference was connected with human rights.

To begin with, students of our school showed a PowerPoint presentation of human rights in history, stressing Polish regulations of this subject. After this introduction, Ms Laura Koba from Children’s Rights Ombudsman Bureau presented the idea and definition of human and children’s rights in international and Polish legislation. This excellent presentation made human rights more familiar to the participants.

Then, the second part of the conference started. Another guest, Ms Malgorzata Olasinska- Chart gave us information on the aims and work of one of the biggest charity organization in Poland- Polish Humanitarian Action, which helps people in Poland and all over

the world. She encouraged young people to voluntary service, helping others and in this way developing themselves. After this presentation, young voluntary workers from an organization called “Strim” told us about their experiences with voluntary service and their organization.

The conference was held in English, as it is the common language of our Partnership. Apart from the foreign guests and the students of our school, it was attended by students and teachers from other schools from Gorlice, which gave us the opportunity to advertise our project among local community.

In the afternoon, the guests and Kromer students from took part in sports activities, such as badminton, volleyball and basketball games in our school’s gymnastic hall.

On 28th October, our guests were able to get to know about our educational system, as they took part in lessons of English and Latin in our school. Also, they were taught elements of the Polish language in order to make the Polish culture closer.

We held workshops, where students and teachers exchanged ideas, worked on common tasks and designed the project’s logo. Students worked in mixed- nationality groups and apart from the winning logo, prepared many interesting posters.

The Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish and Polish students presenting posters…

In the afternoon, there was a school festival and a disco for all the students. The teachers meet at school to discuss the activities of the project and plan further actions.

29th October was the last day spent at our school. We gathered in the morning for the last workshops.

The last meeting at I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. M. Kromera in Gorlice…

We summed up the 1st Comenius Meeting, planned the future ways of communication, and distributed Certificates of Participation in the Meeting in a small ceremony. As all our partners had to fly to their countries on that day, we drove them to Krakow.

1st Comenius Meeting held in Poland was an excellent way to start our Partnership and get to know each other. As most teachers and students had come to Poland for the first time, they had the opportunity to see our region, country and climate, different from their own, southern surroundings.

Everybody was happy to meet other partners and was lookong forward to the 2nd Comenius Meeting in Filyro, Greece in March 2011.