Comenius

Xántus János Secondary School has been in contact with secondary schools abroad for years. Our partner institutions from the beginning of the programme are: Urspringschule in Germany and St. Margaret's School in the United Kingdom. Thank to the fruitful connection between 1998 and 2001, the three schools successfully completed a Comenius project titled 'European Cultural Panorama'. This was the first time in the history of our school to have submitted a School Partnership Project.

After the first 3 years of enthusiastic co-operation, we undertook the second Comenius Project under the name of 'Water, the Essence of Life' between 2002 and 2005. The importance of water could be approached from the point of view of environment protection, culture, art and science. Sweden, Iceland and Romania also got involved in the work, followed by Belgium and Portugal from the 3rd year on. Our 'loving family' proved that people of different nations are able and are willing to work together and fulfil creative tasks, and such ideas as collaboration and mutual help can be put into practice.

The third project named 'The Future in Our Hands' between 2005-2008 means the commitment of 8 nations. Not having won the support of the EU, Romania was not able to participate, but Portugal and Poland were given a warm welcome among the participants.

Finishing off the 3-year-long period in 2008 we came to the conclusion that we would like to back our students in the exploration and promotion of their understanding of economic, industrial and environmental processes on local, national and on a European level by providing them with opportunities to do research and compare the possible ways of managing European challenges. Our aim was to contribute to our students' becoming active and responsible European Union citizens, who can make a positive effect on our community with their innovative and practical way of thinking.

In the first project year we examined the connection of the primary sector and the environment, in the second year we focused on secondary industries, whereas we devoted our attention to the tertiary sector and the environment in the third one. International meetings were the platforms where our students worked with each other. Having done research in their home country beforehand, they shared compared and discussed the results with each other. Participating in student exchange programmes they had the opportunity to visit factories and get an insight into certain production technologies. 6 of our students were chosen to take part in the final, end-of-project student conference in Krakow.

Should you be interested in the events, reports and photos of the past three years, visit our website: www.comenius.urspringschule.de. The most outstanding outputs of our work are an international collection of recipes, a study about the use of salt in everyday life and an international travelogue especially aimed at youngsters.

The aim of our Comenius Project is to develop and maintain a close and rich relationship, to create personal contact among the students of our schools, to organise and manage teacher and student exchanges and to explore the national traits, way of thinking and educational systems of our institutions. It is also among our main goals to introduce our home country, our landmarks, cultural and intellectual heritage and current problems and difficulties to our partners. Furthermore, we do feel that international meetings facilitate the improvement of the language skills of our students.

At present we have started elaborating our fourth project titled 'Make a Difference - European Footprint on Our World' between 2008-2010. Current information regarding this can also be found on our website.