Trip to Herzberg: a great success!

A few hours ago, a group of nine children from Year 2 to Year 6 arrived home from a five-day trip to Herzberg-am-Harz, the self-proclaimed “Esperanto-Town”. This was the last of three visits that were part of the Springboard to Languages Comenius project, funded by the European Commission.

The visit was a great success, and was thoroughly enjoyed by children and parents alike. Families from the third partner school, Komlostetői Általános in Miskolc, Hungary, were visiting at the same time, and many of the German host families took in both a Hungarian and a British family at the same time, making for some very international households.

Kaz said that his favourite part was the day at school, where he met some nice pupils. Anna enjoyed the climbing web in the school playground, while Callum’s favourite was the mini-Olympics.

Mr Mistry, who went on the trip, said, “We are proud to be able to offer this opportunity to the children of Bar Hill, and I’m very pleased indeed with this, the final visit of the two year collaboration. I would like to think that some of the friendships formed and renewed this week will last a lifetime.”

If the tears that went with the goodbyes at the station are anything to go by, Mr Mistry may well get his wish.

Caitlin (centre) with her friends Emily (7, from Germany)
and Csenge (10, from Hungary)

Esperanto information meeting

If your child is in Years 1 to 4, you’re probably aware that they are learning a foreign language called Esperanto, but you might not know much more than that about it! If you’d like to know what the language is all about, and more importantly why it’s being taught to the children at Bar Hill, you’re invited to attend a parents’ information meeting on Thursday 25th March, to be held in one of the Uppers classrooms at 6pm.

Mr Morley will be presenting the Springboard to Languages course that your children are following, and will be happy to answer any questions you might have about it.

Esperanto books and CDs for sale

In response to requests from parents, we now have a supply of the children’s Esperanto book and CD that we use in the classroom. The book costs £5 and the CD only £2.

Usbourne's "1000 First Words in Esperanto"

Practise Esperanto at home

If you’d like to do some Esperanto at home, you can watch the BBC Muzzy cartoons in Esperanto online, or you could ask for your own copy of the picture book we have in school for Christmas! (Parents: you can buy it from Amazon.co.uk or directly from the publishers, the Esperanto Association of Britain).

Great trip to Hungary!

A group of children from Years 3 to 6 have just returned from five very enjoyable days in Miskolc, Hungary, as part of the Comenius-funded Springboard to Language Esperanto exchange project.

As well as experiencing a day in the local school, we visited the Miskolc Cave Baths, the Diósgyőr castle ruins, and had a walk in the forests of the nearby National Park to visit some caves.

Despite some trepidation before the trip about whether we would get on with our host families, whether we would like the food, and so on – I have heard nothing but enthusiastically positive reports from the parents and children concerned. The host families were very friendly and accommodating, and although we didn’t always recognise the food, it turned out to be pretty tasty. Not exactly low fat or low salt (Jamie Oliver would have had a fit in their school kitchen!) but it was really, really tasty!

In all, it was a very successful trip! Thanks very much to all the children, parents and staff who made it possible.

Next: a group of Bar Hill children will be travelling to Herzberg-am-Harz, Germany during the Easter holidays (9th to 13th April 2010). Places will be limited, so sign up soon if you’d like to take part!