Erasmus meeting in Starogard Gdanski 04.11.2019

Erasmus meeting in Starogard Gdanski 04.11.2019

In November the representatives for each of the countries involved in the current Erasmus project ‘Sparks’, met up to discuss the current status of the project and share ideas.

 Our Polish hosts warmly welcomed us, our trip luckily coincided with the 10th anniversary of their hospital school, and we were able to take part in an educational and informative conference. It was wonderful to experience our shared profession, as well as continuing our own professional development of certain areas such as how to support students in a psychiatric setting.

 As well as the conference, we were given a fantastic tour of both hospital school provisions, providing us with information of how each site is run. It was extremely beneficial to see each site as it allowed us time to compare and contrast on our own sites in London.

 During discussions and observations, it was evident that at the forefront of each teachers mind is the care and compassion that is delivered to each and every student, no matter what the setting and resources available.

 At the meeting with our partner teachers, we were able to discuss a range of things; including the SPARKS website. We shared feedback as well as introduced new areas such as information relating to the current visit. The meeting enabled us to discuss further our plans for a well-being book and the way in which this could be delivered, including its content and formatting.

 Each of the partner schools were then able to share specific pages that they would like included in the well-being journal, linking to the work that they themselves and their students have completed. This ranged from colouring in pages as created by students, recipes for cooking activities and ideas of relaxation techniques to cope with stress and anxieties.

 Also introduced to the discussion were micro actions. This is an idea in which a small activity can be included to refresh and reinvigorate one’s mind. The partner teachers all engaged with a some example of micro actions that can be carried out with students. One particular favourite was linked to the ‘Making your Mark’ project, in which each teacher had a short time to create a drawing based on the mark they were given. These pictures were then put together to tell a collaborative story. We thought about how micro actions could be introduced and included in the well-being journal.

 We ended our visit to Poland by seeing some of the wonderful sites that Gdansk has to offer, as well as tasting some delicious local cuisine.

We are truly grateful for the warmth, hospitality and generosity shown by our Polish hosts and are thrilled with the success of our visit.