The Poznan Educational Society

Last week the students of Dębinka took mock Cambridge exams. The sixth-form students took KET exam, whereas their older schoolmates took PET and FCE exams. They could verify their language skills and practice the strategies which might help them pass the official exams in June 2012.
While the written part of the exam went smoothly, the students found the speaking part rather stressful. However, practice makes perfect and we hope in June it’ll be a piece of cake.

Within the framework of a project Sharing European Memories at School , our School is carrying out a programme “Memory – identity – materialism as part of a priority educational project called Generational Memory (Pamiec Przodkow) planned for 2011/2012 school year

The pupils of the Lowe Secondary School participate in a series of workshops devoted to oral history and how to document it. Students prepare their own interviews with eyewitnesses of some special events that took place in either Poznan, in the region of Wielkopolska or generally in Poland during the 20th century. What interests us most is finding changes that happened in the daily lives of people living in the area – their socio-economic, social and political situation, threats to their lives, as well what brought them happiness or sadness. We also want to investigate how different the area around our school is, or the district we live in. During our research we might touch the problems of minorities living in our region, their coexistence and even the extermination that affected them during the Second World War. We refer of course to the events surrounding the lives of Poznan Jews and Germans.
By doing this project we hope to make young people interested in local history and show the connection between family stories and events known to them from the pages of their textbooks.
Our findings are going to be archived in the school “memory bank” which will hopefully be read in years to come.

On 19th and 20th January pupils from class 0-3 and 4-6 showed their talents and interest in English language by taking part in a competition for the best interpretation of a rhyme or a poem in English.

Most children were very well prepared. Lots of rewards such as games, books and sweet treats were given to the best performers. The jury comprising of teachers decided who deserved the best prizes. All participants received a diploma for making the effort and taking part in the contest.

Recently our school was visited once more by Richie Mullaney, representing the organisation called NaukaBezGranic which promotes British and American culture, history and language, here in Poland ,among pupils of all ages.

During the workshop Drama for Kids, for the younger students of our school, Richie ran simple and effective drama exercises, or made kids take part in role –play games.

Feedback from pupils was very positive, this is what some of them wrote:
“It was fantastic, he made us be loud!”
“I liked it because I had fun. I hope he will visit us again”
“I liked it because I understood everything he said. It was fun to play all games”

During Teenage English Richie (who is very young himself) told pupils how to decode text messages, taught them some slang words and showed them how logically they are often created. The funniest part was the little play-role using slang that even us teachers could barely understand.
“That was a really nice lesson. We found out about teenage English. It was so interesting, the atmosphere was really good. The best were “scenes” at the end.
I really enjoyed it” (klasa II gimanzjum).

On 6th December the second grade students went to see an Irish film called “The Runway” shown at the Ale Kino Festival in Multikino, Poznan.
Generally the students liked it for its interesting plot and fast action.
And here is what some of them wrote about it:

On 6th.11. classes IIA and B went to see a film “The Runway” at the Ale Kino Festival. It was about a boy who lived in a poor village. One day a plane crashed nearby and the local people had to repair it.
It was a funny and interesting story about a family, their problems and especially about love. I really enjoyed it.

“I liked this movie, it was different from any other movies I have ever seen in the Festival Ale Kino”

“The story was about friendship between a young boy and a pilot called Ernesto.
I enjoyed it.”

“The film was good. I quite enjoyed it. One actor was very nice….. I thought it could be based on a real story because it was about a great friendship between a boy and a man”

“The film was interesting because there was a lot of action. It was the best movie
I have ever seen as part of the “Ale Kino” festival.

“ I saw the film with interest. I think that it was very nice. The story about a small boy was interesting and I am happy that I could see it.”

“The name of the film we watched a few days ago was “The runway”. It was about a man whose plane broke down in a small village. The man, Ernesto, and a lad from the village became friends. The lad and some people from the village helped Ernesto to build his plane.
I liked this film because the plot was interesting and the actors were funny.”

“Everything took place in Ireland, in a small village. People there were bored but everything changed when a plane crashed near the village. The film was good. I liked the plot; it was interesting. I think that this film was better than the one last year.”

The Comenius School Partnership programme titled „If Life is Energy, our Future is hidden in Saving” has been carried out at our school since September 2010.
During this time we have organised a lot of activities such as : workshops dedicated to the subject of saving energy, art competition, an audit checking the energy consumption and a campaign educating about the ways of saving energy.
Some of our students and teachers have participated in partnership visits to Italy, Bulgaria and Turkey. The programme is financed by the European Fund to Improve Educational System.
Between 10 - 15 October our School was the host to the 4th partnership visit. We were visited by 17 heads and teachers from Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Italy. The visit was a great success. For more information about our involvement in this project and full information about the partnership visits please go to www.debinka.pl/comenius.

We have been trying for years to celebrate the Independence Day at school in ways which enable us to discover the meaning of the words ‘independence’ and ‘patriotism’. This year the school celebration took place on 10 November and were connected with discovering our local history. Therefore, the students went on excursions around the city. They were visiting many places commemorating the uprising in central Poland.
Before the excursions, the students gathered in the gym where they officially started the celebration by attaching to their clothes hand-made rosettes of the national colours of Poland. The youngest students of Dębinka went on a tram trip. They were told many stories about Poznań and could admire the views from the windows of an antique tram. Whereas the second and third form students stayed at school and attended lessons during which they talked about regaining independence, the national emblem and sang patriotic songs.
The Independence Day celebrations were also connected with the celebrations of St Martin’s Day. The students read some tales and legends, solved some puzzles, watched multimedia presentations and… ate delicious croissants. That day was full of concentration and enjoyment.

For some years our Middle School pupils have participated in some interesting workshops conducted by native speakers and organised by association called NaukaBezGranic.
On Wednesday 23.11.2011 class IIIaG attended a workshop which was more like a concert, given by Steve Bingham, a renowned British violinist. It was a tour around The United Kingdom in words, music and images. The artist took his inspiration from the landscapes of Scotland, the popular music of the sixties, seventies and eighties, traditional folk music and British cinema, the classical tradition and contemporary culture. The workshop was illustrated by a variety of music and images, also involving participants in the artist’s inimitable way.
Following are some comments given by our pupils:
“The only thing I can say is “Wow!” Mr Steve Bingham showed his amazing talent and great skills also in being a wonderful host to such kind of event. It was just amazing!”
“We met an excellent musician who also taught us something about England”
“A very funny and original event. These days it is hard to find somebody with such passion and I think this guy really loves what he is doing”
“Incredible views, it could go on and on and I would not be bored! Awesome!"
“What can I say! Amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. That’s all."
“I was almost crying when he played “Clocks” by U2, it was unbelievable”.

I always thought about one problem. We've got in school Goodbye to Summer, then Welcome to Spring but nobody celebrates Winter. Maybe because we want to end it quickly. And for me it was rather sad. So I was very pleased when I heard abut the idea of Winter Evening of Poetry.

On 1st March 2011 ,when I came to see the play, class nr 204 looked so changed that I couldn't recognise it. The white cloth to which sparkling snowflakes were attached looked magic. Against the walls were sofas and near the window desks, covered with tablecloth on which stood candles. Everything looked just brilliant. During the play the actors were talking about Christmas and winter, reciting poems on that topic. To add to the atmosphere, from a huge basket in the middle of the room, they were dressing themselves with woollen scarves and hats. They were also drinking tea from small cups. All of them were different and it all looked really nice.

Then there was a break and a small change of scene . Everybody watched the latest performance prepared by the group „Drama in English”. We played a short adaptation of „Christmas Carol”.
The evening lasted only less than an hour but watching it (poetry) and preparing (drama) was a great fun for me.

Winter holidays are over. We have just come back to school and started working hard thinking already about the end of the school year and summer holidays.Many people would probably say that they are already tired of frosty days and streets covered with snow.But not the representatives of our school, who are leaving Poznan this Sunday to take part in The Winter Olimpics for Non-public Schools in Witów. Those almost 30 Elementary School pupils and High School students are going to ski, snowboard, ice skate and also try cross-country skiing in order to get the dream-come -true Cup.