St. Patrick’s Primary School Gortin
Comenius Project

This school approached for help in sharing a little about their lives with their partner schools in the Comenius Project. They are linked with schools in and their principal had visited on of these schools in Slovakia, Spain, Poland and the Republic of Ireland.

Prior to the Verbal Arts Centre’s involvement the school had highlighted their links to schools in other parts of Europe through their European Christmas Tree. This tree had been erected in the school hallway and was a terrific way of showing the different ways each of their partner countries celebrated Christmas. The school wanted to share more about St. Patrick’s Primary School and the Gortin area with their partners so together with the Verbal Arts Centre they created a number of Digital Stories which could be shared online or sent on DVD to the other schools.

The stories the young people created told their European friends about their culture, differences between parts of their community, their school, and their involvement in the Comenius project.

What is the Comenius Project?

COMENIUS focuses on the first phase of education, from pre-school and primary to secondary school, and it is addressed to all members of the education community in the broad sense – pupils, teachers, other education staff, but also local authorities, parents' associations, non-government organisations ...
COMENIUS supports school partnerships, projects for the training of school education staff, and school education networks. It thus aims to enhance the quality of teaching, strengthen its European dimension and promote language learning and mobility.

COMENIUS also emphasises certain important issues: learning in a multi-cultural framework, which is the cornerstone of European citizenship, support for disadvantaged groups, countering under-achievement at school and preventing exclusion.