Read, Write, Eat Erasmus Project

Project Title

Read, Write, Eat

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Read, Write, Eat was a two year project with the main objective being on improving the attainment of Literacy through creating real life opportunities for children to write; across a wide range of genres. Within Literacy, we focused on improving the children’s skills in both composition and transcription and included elements of ICT.
In addition, another objective of the project was developing the the skills of the teaching profession in each partner school which would consequently have a positive outcome for the pupils. Through visiting each school, and observing lessons, each teachers practice would advance through the sharing of lessons, techniques and children’s work.
The theme of ‘food’ underpinned the project as through previous discussions it was discovered that each school shares a love and passion for food and it is something the pupils really engage in. In addition, food is a topic that connects all cultures and is a fundamental issue within the curriculum and community of all three schools.
The three partner schools were chosen due to previous good, strong communication links and previous eTwinning projects. Each school was a primary based school with children of relative ages.
The main activities of the project were carefully designed to incorporate and develop the skills of writing and reading:
Activity 1 – ‘Get to know you’ – the children wrote a descriptive letter about themselves, school and town and replied to each others. The children also put together a PowerPoint with the inclusion of photographs and videos to share information about each school.
Activity 2 – ‘Cook to Write’ – the children selected a recipe of a traditional dish from their country/town and made their dish. Then writing a description of the dish and also their own instructions on how to make it. ICT was also included to create a video and photographs to share through the projects eTwinning page and YouTube.
Activity 3 – ‘Delicious Poetry’– each school held a Literacy topic on poetry and from this the children selected one poem analysed the poem. From this the children created their own poetry around the theme of food.
Activity 4 – ‘Traditional Scrumptious Stories’ – each school chose a traditional story from their culture and from this the children dramatised the traditional story, cooked the food and re-wrote the story to modernise it.
Activity 5 – ‘Travel Guide ‘– the children will wrote a travel guide for their local area.
Activity 6 – ‘Mascot Narratives’ –the children wrote a narrative to accompany the local towns mascot.
Each of the activities were delivered to classes in each individual partner school. Children shared their work, learning and findings with each other through sending work via post, electronically (eTwinning, emails and video conferencing).
These activities were also the catalyst for the focus of each visit which helped develop the teaching and learning across all partner schools through analysing lesson plans and assessment procedures.
Through carrying out the project there were numerous results and consequently the project had a huge impact on all three schools including pupils, teachers and the wider community.
The teachers from all schools saw a vast improvement in the children’s understanding of the different genres, increased skills in handwriting and also in composition and fluency of reading. However, using grades and showing progress on individual pupils over the two years proved difficult but through teacher questionnaires this proved to be the case. In addition, Washingborough Academy saw their writing results for their Year 6 pupils increase during the project time frame; from 70% of pupils achieving the expected standards in writing in 2016 to 90% in 2017. In addition, the number of children achieving above the expected level in writing increased from 15% in 2016 to 23% in 2017.
The most successful result was the children’s enthusiasm to write and how through the project the pupil questionnaire showed that confidence in writing had considerably increased.
In addition, the project had a considerable impact on teachers’ own practice in all three partner schools as through visiting and observing lessons in each school every teacher who participated learnt something new which they implemented personally and shared on a whole school basis through training events.
There were also a number of longer term benefits from the project which included the impact on the wider community of each school as through celebrating the project in events, advertising the project through eTwinning and school websites it meant more people visited each school and became involved. In addition, each school has assisted others in the application of Erasmus funding; with Washingborough Academy even holding a training event at their school. Furthermore, the project was highlighted as a success within a recent OFSTED inspection at Washingborough Academy and each school has implemented international ambassadors.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 25550 Eur

Project Coordinator

Washingborough Academy & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Osnovna sola Brusnice
• Szkola Podstawowa nr 8 im. Stanislawa Staszica w Elblagu