Comenius project We learn to live healthy! Wir lernen gesund zu leben! CONFERENCE Brainstorming Renovation of our school Renovierungsaufgaben und Renovierungsarbeiten in der Schule Comenius-Project 2011-2013 Wir lernen Gesund zu leben! PRIMARY SCHOOL RAGOGNA - ITALY March, 2013 Lettland
THE VOICE OF THE TEACHERS Our school was built after the earthquake of 1976 and was attended by all pupils of the commune, because the other school buildings had become unusable. Over the years there have been many changes in the school, for instance at the beginning of 1992 with the new programs has changed the school organization, thus leading to a change of schedule, with school afternoons and so also the refectory service started. This occupied two rooms that were previously reserved to the students. The trend school has changed: in the first years in the new classrooms there were 10 pupils. Subsequently, the number of students has decreased and were thus released new spaces to be reserved as specialized classrooms for English, painting, music. With the advent of technology, we have created a new computer lab with some computers.
In recent years, this computer classroom has been enhanced: now the computers are 13, and this allows the students to work two by two also with larger classes (for instance: now we have 25 students in the 4th class)
The Computer room
Currently a new technological resource has improved the method of teaching: the insertion of a LIM (multimedia interactive blackboard) in a specialized classroom. After a successful testing, we expect the purchase of new LIM which will be put into other classrooms.
During the last years the number of students is growing again: therefore the new classes have occupied the previous specialized classrooms for music and painting. Music and painting lessons now need to take place in alternative spaces or single classes.
Anyhow the school is functional, well cared and clean. There are spaces for common activities (Christmas or plexus meeting), a moving pictures room, a nice and well equipped gym. The outdoor area is well placed in the green and allows children to play during recreation and sports activities. Currently cause some works in progress (see interview to councillor Pidutti) part of this not structured space of lawn where the kids could run shall be reduced. Now thanks of this part of the project Comenius Green Class it was created near the school a garden, a botanical garden that allows also the cultivation of medicinal plants used for the study and the preparation of natural remedies very helpful for a good health. This run is supported by one of the many projects that enrich the educational offer of the school: projects related to history, music, painting, sporting activities...
The voice of the councillor responsible for the Environment The works of the erecting yard near the building of the primary school include the construction of a biomass heating system. It is necessary to activate a boiler of particular configuration which will be fed with "chips" of wood. As you may know, the chips are small pieces of wood about 2-2 3 cm wide, extended from 3 to 5-66 cm thick and 4-55 mm (0.4-0.5 cm) These pieces will be brought into the tank automatically, according to the heat demand of the users (including primary school) and this new system will completely replace fuels now used for the same purpose like methane gas and diesel oil.
All the buildings of the schools, namely pre-school, primary school and secondary school, the gym and the crèche will be heated with the new biomass heating system just for the next winter season. Even the museums and halls of the Cultural Center (former school "R. Battistig") will be warmed by the new plant.
THE VOICE OF CHILDREN Which should be your ideal school? EMMA: - Because we worked so hard for the Comenius Project Green Class in our "Garden of the Senses", I would like that in it it would be put a small wooden house with many flowers, with a small greenhouse near. So we could go there every time we want to work in the midst of our medicinal plants and in there we could keep all our preparations.
ALISSIA: - Close to my school, which should be located in the middle of a field, there would be a small house all green to "reward" the work we have done with the Green Class, so we could continue our activities even after the end of the Comenius Project. Near I see a river flowing... Then a relax corner where silence reigns. The only sound: the creaking chains: those of the swing hanging from a branch of the tree that gives shade to the lodge. There will always be flowers, even in winter because there is a greenhouse near the school. Inside the school, in every classroom there will be at least one plant
IRIS: - I imagine my ideal school all made of candy, such as that of Hansel and Gretel... COSTANZA: - I'd like it all in the midst of green and flowers, instead of cement only soft new grass. I wish I had more games in the garden: swings, slides, a small wooden house... ALESSANDRO LIZZI: I wouldn t dislike having my school near a tennis court, a swimming pool and a beautiful park with a wooden bridge and under it a small river flowing.
PATRICK: I would like to have an outside playground much larger so the kids do not clash when they are playing. I would also like a school with four floors so when the kids pass in the hall (at the end of recreation they are more than a hundred) I do not hear any noise. ALESSANDRO ANZIL: - I would like a school all yellow with a red roof. I d get out of it an Egyptian pyramid because I like the history of this ancient people. But if I think more about it, our school in Ragogna is very beautiful. And then, the most important thing is to have A SCHOOL!
AURORA: - I would like a school "all-natural": the main wall made of stone and covered with a creeper, flower-shaped windows, the walls with many petals painted like the rainbow, a WORLD designed with the word: THE LARGEST FLOWER OF ALL. On the roof, I would like to have a roof garden with trees and bushes and a brook that "falls" and forming a waterfall. All around the school I d like that everybody could feel a fairytaleperfume that would reconcile all the people. ALESSIO: - I wish that there should be a LIM in all classrooms, I would like them more spacious and with many computers.
GIACOMO: - My ideal school is a school surrounded by nature and by the symbols that recall the religious feasts. I wish there would be peace everywhere and love for the natural world and the power to celebrate all the festivities linked to the ancient natural events of weather and seasons (note: we are celebrating in our class on a regular basis the Celtic feasts dedicated to the sun and to the moon ) GABRIELE: - I d like to get many outdoor games, skating and cycling tracks... Inside I d like to have a special classroom for meetings with Chiara and those friends of Circle time with a lot of arm-chairs.
LUCA: - I would like a school with orange wall and red roof, two colors very determined. I wish that in the garden there would be also exotic plants and above all there would be a big poster with the inscription: "LONG LIVE THE SCHOOL FABIANO: - I would like to have inside a brook in which to dive when we can not go out owing to bad weather. I would like to have in my classroom some statues for every civilization that we study and a globe on every desk for when we study geography.
GIULIA: - I'd like to have something that makes you relax when you're tired, like a swimming pool with hydro massage. It would not be bad even a trampoline to jump up and touch the sky. And finally I would like a beautiful meadow full of flowers to collect more and more bringing them into the school to beautify it. SIMONE: - Outside I wish I have a park with Egyptian roundabout and I d like that the chairs should be decorated with jewels.