The five students aim to learn more about the French culture, develop their French speaking skills and stretch and challenge themselves in Maths while engaging in activities with five students from the local school. 

The College Jules Ferry is a Science and Maths oriented public middle school in France, which promotes and celebrates diversity. 
Our students are hosted by the families of five gifted French students and have been attending lessons and participating in projects and activities with them since Monday 10th of October. They are also enjoying the opportunity to practise their French with their hosts and teachers and learn about the history of Chambery, a beautiful medieval city which has been the capital of Savoie since the 13th century. 

Mr Demetriou is engaged in job shadowing at the school during this week and his aim is to find out about how the project-based learning methodology is used in different disciplines at the school to stretch and challenge gifted and talented students. Here are some of his impressions: 
‘There is no time pressure on covering a syllabus and they spend more time on projects. They play games like puzzles and labyrinths. The desks are arranged individually, handouts are at the back of the class where students go to collect them. Some students are engaged in group work while others work individually. The teacher observes and facilitates. Every student has a small whiteboard, glue, and scissors and all the handouts are pasted  into their exercise books. The games are created by gifted students and in the class there was a university student assisting the teacher.

In French lessons, they have sports equipment in class and students sit on gym balls. Bicycles in the class are a great idea as students exercise and listen as well. The teacher paid for this equipment but she has her own class, and the equipment is stored there. Students are allowed to draw as the teacher is reading a book aloud. Some students exercise while others are listening. They do not have books. 
 
In Art, the students work in groups of four, and using the project-based learning approach, they have 4 months to prepare a newspaper, which they will present in class and then to the whole school. 14-year-old students are marked using two different grade systems, colors and grades out of 20. In the last year of middle school, they have exams. During each presentation, the teacher gives feedback. 

Gifted and talented students move at a different pace, and they can skip a year, having the approval of the school’s Headmaster.’ 
 

The English School team of eleven Year 5 students, Mr K. Kutuglu and Ms K. Demetriou left Cyprus on the 8th October and after a bus, a plane, a train, and another bus, we arrived in Soverato on the evening of 9th fresh and ready to take on new challenges. 

Day 1 was all about culture. We arrived at our partner school, I.T.T. G.Malafarina for the opening ceremony.  Our students played their part by delivering excellent presentations about culture in Cyprus and exchanged ideas and thoughts with the Italian students and our other partner students from Volos, Greece.  In the afternoon we socialised with the local students and ate pizza and pasta.  An exciting football match took place in the evening, made even more dramatic as it started raining too!! 

Day 2 was all about digital literacy, we used video editing software to generate videos about our trip and responsibility allocations and then we coded for 2 hours straight. Our partner school is a technical school and digital literacy plays a huge part in the education of the Italian students. After lunch the students played a digital treasure hunt game around Soverato using “Goosechase” that was really fun! 

Ms Katie Demetriou who is job shadowing during this Erasmus+ mobility, got the chance to observe good practice and see how digital literacy can be used for educational purposes to enhance student motivation, engagement and creativity.

We look forward to what the coming Erasmus days will bring us!

Our team won 1st place for The English School in the juniors category (years 1 to 3) ! In addition our year-4 student who represented the school in the seniors category (years 4 to 7) fought a great battle and managed to secure 3rd place for our school!  In the overall players standings two of our students managed to get 2nd and 3rd place. Congratulations to everyone!

The English School Chess Team are: Pavlos Chrysostomou (4G), Mikhail Kiselev (2W), Andreas Kyriakides (1G), Zilin Su (1G), Giorgos Lioudakis (1B) and Olympia Xenofontos (1B). 

Special thanks to Stelios Kyriakides (ES parent) who brought the tournament to our attention but also helped with the organisation as well as all the English School parents who attended the tournament and supported our players.

The next tournament will be in December and we will be welcoming more students to join the team. In the meantime students will have the opportunity to compete in online tournaments organised by the English School Chess Club.

Christos Symeonides (teacher in charge of Chess Club)

The girls had the chance to meet their Heads of House, talk about their sporting interests and plan the year ahead.  The Heads of House briefly introduced the Competitive and Recreational opportunities that will be available this year.
 
The programme of the day included basketball and futsal, with Newham playing friendly matches against Wolseley and Beaconsfield facing Kitchener.  The girls participated with lots of enthusiasm with their friends, showcasing their sporting skills and abilities.  The Heads of House closely observed and made notes so that they could prepare their House Teams for the Inter-House Competitions that will start next week.  It was great to see so much energy and talent on display!

They practiced individual skills as well as systems of play, led by Andreas Sizopoulos, our Head of Basketball Development.  The players were very excited to participate in this first-morning session, which will take place weekly.  In addition, they will be attending individual skill development sessions on other mornings of the week.  They will also be working on their strength and conditioning with Alexandros Solomonides, our Gym Instructor, making use of the availability of the Gym from 6.00-7.30 before school.
 
The Senior Boys' Basketball Team will be taking part in the Ministry of Education Competition, which will start in 

It was a great opportunity for our young athletes to meet with their Heads of House and participate in sports with their friends.
 
The programme included futsal and basketball, with Beaconsfield playing friendly matches against Kitchener and Newham facing Wolseley.  The Heads of House were impressed by the standard that they witnessed and it was pleasing to see our Year 1 boys enjoying themselves.

Book your place: https://forms.englishschool.ac.cy/view.php?id=21621

Email us: info@englishschool.ac.cy for more information and inquiries.
Telephone: +357 22 799 300.

Program for the Evening : 
 
18.30 – 19.15 Lecture Theatre Presentation
"It actually works!" 
Find out all the latest news about the biggest space telescope ever launched, the James Webb Telescope
 
19.15 – 21.00 Main entrance of Science Building
Observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Moon using our telescopes
 
Click on the link below if you are interested in attending
https://forms.office.com/r/dXnZdcpcLC