Pupils at Shawlands Academy in Glasgow have proved that they are anything but rubbish at languages. The school is part of a Comenius project called “How to be an active citizen in a clean Europe” which has partner schools in Cyprus, France and Sweden.
At Shawlands, this initiative has linked a clean-up operation in a city park to an on-going litter campaign and has been educating pupils about environmental issues in French. The approach is cross-curricular; integrating subjects such as Citizenship, Drama, Science and ICT.
ICT plays a major part in the project, from building a common web-site to comparing European environmental performance to producing an interactive quiz.
Pupils have worked closely with partners in Sweden, France and Cyprus to produce a website looking at the environment in a European context. Two magazines have also been written to showcase their various activities. Pupils have also produced a video diary detailing their activities.
Highlights of the project include the video diary, workbook and a French play called Litterhitters, winner of "Best Play" and "Best Original Creation" in a national schools competition. Not only were pupils involved in staging and producing the play, but they played a key role in regenerating the park where it was performed as an environmental service to the local community.
The hard work of everyone involved really paid off. Shawlands was presented with the European
Award for Languages at a special ceremony in the Scottish Parliament on 26 September by Sir
Trevor McDonald and Presiding Officer, George Reid, MSP.
Representatives from all the different countries taking part in the project get together on a
regular basis to talk about environmental issues and three pupils from Shawlands recently
travelled to Sweden to share their ideas.