UK version

Our hosts school in Portugal

Ingot - Open Standards in ICT for Europe

26th February - 2nd March

First project meeting in Mealhada Portugal hosted by Escola Profissional Vasconcellos Lebre The other four partners are: - From Turkey Gaziosmanpasa Cumhuriyet Lisesi School - From Germany Geschwister School - From UK Sunbury Manor School - From UK The Learning Machine Ltd.

Everyone hard at work in the classroom Each of the partners introduced their school with a short presentation. The INGOTs was then introduced starting with Bronze level and then after lunch progressing to Silver Level. At lunch time there was the opportunity to have lunch with other staff and students at the school. In the late afternoon we were taken to the Caves Mesias in Mealhada where we tasted the local wines. In the evening the school cooked us a lovely meal of fish caught off the Portuguese coast and we were joined in the school dinning room by the Principal and his staff and several students from the Cape Verde Islands one of whom played his guitar and sang for us.

Visiting the beautiful Bucaco Palace

Friday 28th

Training continued with Gold Ingots and extending Ingots to Enterprise qualifications Then we progressed to using Moodle and Manfred showed us how to access the project calendar on Google. Finally we net to decided on targets and activities for the next meeting which will be held at Gaziosmanpasa Cumhuriyet Lisesi School in Istanbul Turkey on 29th May. We were then taken on a lovely visit to the Bucaco Palace which was formally the Palace of the Portuguese Royal family. The 250 acre woodland surrounding the palace was originally created by Carmalite monk, there are many trees here from the New World which was the result of discoveries made by Portuguese sailors.

Ian and Joaqium speaking to the press about our visit

Saturday 29th

Joaquim arrived bright and early at the hotel to take us to visit the Conimbriga Ruins and Museum which are one of the greatest European discoveries of architectural significance built by the Romans. This was a fascinating visit and we were lucky to have an excellent guide provided for us. We visited the museum and then sat together for a delicious lunch in the restaurant overlooking the site. In the afternoon Joaquim then took us to the Joanina Library and Coimbra's University. Coimbra which is steeped in history having been the place for Portugal's first and only university for some time and also Portugal's capital. Today it is a lively cosmopolitan town. The old town is quite compact with sights at intervals up the hill. We walked down the steep narrow cobbled streets Amet was to be seen gallantly helping Jo to avoid her falling on the very uneven cobbles. Eventually we arrived at the river side and sat down for a much needed beer. In the evening we returned to the school and were once again treated to a delicious meal of slow casseroled goat and roasted pork prepared by the schools cooks. A very big thank you to Joaquim and all the staff at the school for making our visit so enjoyable. The project has made an excellent start. The partners are now all trained as Ingot assessors. The next meeting is at Gaziosmanpasa Cumhuriyet Lisesi School in Istanbul 28th May to 1st June.

The teachers from Turkey, Ahmet, Fatih, Aziz and Ahmet enjoying our visit to Caves Mesias in Mealhada

The first year report

Still to do:

- 10 hour learning unit to support a chosen subject context, age and attainment range. - Pilot course with translations. - Produce finalised courses in open formats. - Present results and out comes at national/ international eventually. - Evaluation report.

Group photo