Institute of Education promotes European cooperation

Monday, 02 April 2012

The University's Institute of Education (IoE) hosted 43 trainee teachers and 10 visiting lecturers from 11 European countries recently for an Erasmus Intensive Programme - SoliTifoLa.

The participants come from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the UK. They took part in a wide range of activities on the theme of solidarity and cooperation between generations in education for sustainable development.

A central part of the programme involved the visitors working together in international groups to prepare and deliver lessons in local primary and secondary schools.

The staff of the IoE  provided a number of workshops at the London Road campus, which ranged from sessions on principles of classroom learning, and the pedagogy of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) through drama and music workshops, to practical skills such as photography, ceramics and felt-making.

The London Road campus is ideally situated for a visit such as this in terms of accommodation and travel links, it is within walking distance of the town centre, a large number of local schools, MERL and RISC (with whom the IoE collaborate on a number of projects).

Our lovely new facilities with large well-equipped, up-to-date teaching spaces on a beautiful, historical campus has made it a perfect venue for the visit.

The diversity of the town of Reading also adds an extra dimension to the project and our visitors are guaranteed a warm welcome at our local schools.

The group travelled further afield with a trip to London, a guided tour of Reading, visits to MERL and RISC, opportunities to meet the wider community through fieldwork and visits to local schools.

The schools taking part in SoliTiFoLa were: Maiden Erlegh School, Reading School, Reading Girls' School, Kendrick School, the Ridgeway Primary School and Christ the King Primary School.