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Report of the Meeting in Thuin

I am always so stressed and  thrilled when preparing a meeting ‘at home’… So many people and tasks to match…

This first edition of Erasmus + was very special again:

·         a new, local Hotel/ Bed and Breakfast… Friendly old people doing their best to show their patrimonium… cocoon and family… with the good and bad points…

·         One of the coordinators with a serious health problem… her part being taken by a very friendly partner, who really did her best and managed quite well..;

·         the visit of our NA representative… so helpful after a meeting in Namur, which had put so much pression on all the audience when mentioning the possible checks, the reports, the possible sanctions, …

The meetings , from Monday to Friday, were mostly devoted to coordination work for the teachers and classes for the students.

 The first day was the occasion to meet the different delegations, teachers and students, and matching the students according to the working hours of the parents… 

 The guided visit of the school with information about our school-system, on Tuesday morning (prepared and led by final year students), was a step forward in getting to appreciate each other; the European meal-prepared by the students and new colleagues from the school – an opportunity to meet lots of teachers .

 With the help of Mrs Morel, our NA representative, we finalized the calendar, the different activities, being careful to keep to our initial aims , we had so much to share and so many new ideas…  A potential new project ahead???

On Wednesday, we shared our breakfast at Le Domaine de la Grande Celle with Mr Dejardin , THE reporter, who writes about all the important school events in our regional newspaper… Walking from the hotel to the school together… a new opportunity to talk , talk and talk … Everyone finding their own step and giving their opinion… we were allowed a whole page in L’avenir, our newspaper.

 The second part of the morning was another interesting step forward: students and teachers working together to (try to) discover how eTwinning  (a safe platform supported by the EU) works…  

Wednesday afternoon… No school… Yupee for the students who went to Brussels , an idea from the host families, which scared a bit the different delegations, but the Belgian students are really responsible and their parents are always (even secretely) behind to support them!

 The teachers went for a walk in Lobbes , remembering WWI which was so active and cruel in our area… A visit to the Distillery of Biercée helped all of us to get some warmth  in the early evening.

 Working together for such a long time, we also realized we have to take new marks, adapt our ways of working… On Thursday we set up some guidelines for assessment risks, as stated in British schools… when students are hosting and hosted, they have to follow ‘rules’, very simple, common sense, but we felt we have to write them down…

 The last afternoon was devoted to some shopping in Thuin for some… At first they had further destinations in mind, but not easy to get away from Thuin at this time of the year and be back before dark…

A second group (Spain, England, Belgium) stayed at school to work on a longer meeting project: a group of 20 students from each school will share a whole week in a partner school, attending classes every day, working on the project in the national language, a new challenge ahead, hopefully the English students will pass their GCSE in French with high grades in March…

 Véronique Payen

IND THUIN, BELGIUM