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What would happen if you didn’t believe in any gods? asked Buckhurst Hill Community Primary School. Read what Dr. Raúl Macuil Martínez had to say.
Our Lady St. Edward’s RC Primary, Nottingham (Click on image to enlarge) |
Funded largely by the government’s Department for International Development, the 3-year project began formally in the summer of 2005, and 10 schools are in each country are taking part in the first ‘phase’. Though UK-Mexico secondary schools links already exist, this is the first time primary schools are involved, basing their links on language and international communication.
Kingsway Primary, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Click on image to enlarge) |
As part of the project, Mundi invited the Mexicolore team to run a series of whole-school sessions in the Notts schools introducing them to Mexican culture and history. The sessions ran from January to February 2006...
Kingsway Primary, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Click on image to enlarge) |
... and have got off to a flying start. The very first school, Kingsway Primary in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, wrote to us after our visit:-
’Thank you so much for a wonderful day. The children are going to be talking about your visit for weeks, and I know they will remember it for the rest of their lives! The lighting effects created a fantastic setting, and I think the children thought they were stepping back into another time. Your artefacts are amazing and we could never hope to let the children see so many truly awe-inspiring items, let alone give them the chance to hold them and use them. They loved the dressing up, all the more because they were trusted to go back to their seats still wearing the costumes. Everything combined to give us an unforgettable day.
’But it wasn’t just the artefacts and materials, it was the lovely, friendly, enthusiastic atmosphere created by the two of you. The children felt very comfortable and able to ask questions which were going to be answered without them feeling silly or embarrassed, and they loved the way Graciela treated them as if they were really Aztecs or modern day Mexicans.
’I know that over the next term, I’m going to be referring back to your visit every time we work on Mexico and the Aztecs, and we can’t thank you enough for your input into our topic work.
’Thank you so much,
Joy Pearson (on behalf of everyone at Kingsway)’
Awsworth Primary, near Nottingham (Click on image to enlarge) |
And Ian Baxter, Link Teacher for Háblame at Awsworth Primary near Nottingham rated the educational value and general success of our visit to Awsworth as ‘fantastic - universally acclaimed by staff and pupils. A perfect positive experience to help launch our Mexican link and our teaching/learning of the Spanish language...’
Misson Primary, near Doncaster (Click on image to enlarge) |
PGCE student teachers training to teach Spanish, who attended our sessions, wrote afterwards:-
’It was an invaluable experience; loved it. The Mexicolore people were brilliant. It was such a fab experience for the children.
’Really enjoyed it and very enlightening to [work with] different methods of teaching the language, especially having to plan for different year groups on the same themes.
’It was a very different experience which I have never had the chance to be involved with. We were able to help the school with writing of Spanish letters then type them up, which the children really enjoyed.
’The Mexicolore morning was fantastic - lively, interesting and full of information - the children loved it.’
Kingsway Primary, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Click on image to enlarge) |
Finally, Alex Kosogorin, Director of Mundi, called one of the sessions he attended ‘one of those life affirming days where I felt priviliged to be involved in this line of work’.
Awsworth Primary, near Nottingham (Click on image to enlarge) |
The whole point is, it wouldn’t be fair to showcase our visits in this way without stressing that, if if wasn’t for all the tremendous work undertaken behind the scenes by Alex, Raúl and the Mundi team, alongside all the dedicated and committed efforts of all the teachers involved in the Háblame link project, not to mention the enthusiasm of the children in ALL the schools taking part, none of this would be happening at all, and we are humbled and proud to be taking part in this exciting venture...
Kingsway Primary, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Click on image to enlarge) |
You can see examples of display artwork produced by some of these schools in our School Display pages (follow link below).