Comenius Multilateral school partnership: ‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’
Our school is involved in a Comenius Multilateral school partnership ‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano – A Healthy Mind is in a Healthy Body’. (August 2010 -July 2012). Our partners are:
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Primate Dixon Primary school (coordinator) (Northern Ireland).
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Volkschule Unterwössen (Germany).
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Szkola Podstawowa im. rtm. Witolda Pileckiego (Poland).
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Cumhuriyet Ilkögretim Okulu (Turkey).
Our Comenius project recognises the importance of active play, games and sports participation in developing children’s physical, social, emotional and intellectual skills. We are aware that increasing numbers of children disengage from active play at an early age.
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We aim to encourage children to make choices that keep them involved in play. We will work to remove any barriers to participation, whether through ethnic, gender, disability, social, economic or other circumstance; because we are aware that many children grow up with poor self-esteem. We will provide all children with opportunities to grow in self-esteem and confidence.
We will relate common threads of development through a context of healthy living, focus on play, participation and promotion of healthy lifestyles. We will bring the playground into the classroom.
We will also focus on respect for ‘difference’ and the richness of European diversity. Inclusion and integration will be essential. We will promote maximum inclusion and positive integration, but no assimilation. We will facilitate the inclusion of all children, especially of those who may be at risk of exclusion.
Although we are aware of the sedentary and electronic games, we do want to persuade children towards more active lifestyles and participation in active play.
Some of our aims for this project are:
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Present positive images and messages about active play to encourage children to be active.
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Encourage children and adults to explore the reasons why many children, especially girls, disengage from physical play.
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Challenge all stereotyped images, gender, racial, social and other images that lead children away from taking part in active play with others.
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Tackle any preconception or barriers such as ‘I am not good enough at a game or sport’.
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Establish rules; we are aware of the importance of rules within games or sports. However, rules can also facilitate children not taking part in a game or sport.
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Empower children by: celebrating childhood and play, ensuring that every child knows that he or she is welcome to take part, promoting that principle that every child is more than good enough.
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Promote healthy lifestyles and positive behaviour.
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Participate in sports and active play.
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Develop social skills.
In each of our schools we will have special European Days each term when our children will play games which they have shared with each other.
Our European partners will visit our school in March 2012, we will share information about their games, including videos and other information, and images of our playgrounds and school play spaces. We will also plan the Comenius European Nation Football Tournament, which will take place in Northern Ireland in June 2012.