Pewsey Vale School’s art project linking them with a Danish school introduces us to eTwinning

At Pewsey Vale School, teacher Mrs Nina Slater was showing parents and family members the results of an art project on ‘identity’.  Mrs Slater is the school’s Head of Art, Arts Award adviser and Key Stage 3 Tutor.

Each student had made a thumb print.  These had been enlarged by 2,000 per cent giving a nice big image which each student could decorate in the way they thought best illustrated their own identity.

The project was carried out via the eTwinning system, linking up with a Danish school for pupils with special educational needs – the Pilehaveskolen in Assens.  This school is a small secondary school of about 150 students.  Assens is in central Denmark, on the island of Funen. 

The Pewsey exhibition showing the project’s results included some of the images sent over from the Danish school.  The project did not end there. 

Every student’s work carried an QR code that links through (via your mobile phone – see above photo) to the special website Nina Slater established for the project – and on this website you can listen to audio clips of Pewsey and Pilehaveskolen students talking about the project and their own work. (https://nsl210.wixsite.com/imatter)

Most of the Danish students spoke in Danish – which introduced Pewsey students to the sounds of another language.  And they even picked up a few words.  But two of the Danish students’ audio clips are in English.

The Pewsey students at the exhibition opening were all very engaged with the project and certainly wanted to talk about their work – and what they had learned about the Danish school.
        

eTwinning is an online platform for staff working in a school in one of the European countries taking part, to  – in the words of its website – “…communicate, collaborate, develop projects, share and, in short, feel and be part of the most exciting learning community in Europe”.

eTwinning is run and funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme.  In the United Kingdom it is managed by the British Council.  There have been more than 90,000 projects completed under the scheme – 11,000 of them in the UK – with 192,059 schools taking active part in the projects.   It’s thought that this Pewsey Vale project is the only one of its kind in Wiltshire.

The future of the UK’s involvement with all Erasmus programmes is uncertain – and may not survive the 31 October deadline for Brexit.  But Mrs Slater has already set up a eTwinning project for the 2019-2020 school year.

This will be based on the theme of ‘textiles’ and will involve two Finnish schools and – she hopes – two other Wiltshire schools not too far from Pewsey.  The results of that project will go on show in June 2020.