The project day at Bednarska started at 10.15 on Wednesday, January 27, 2010. Divided into groups of their choice the students went to the classrooms. Both the first and the second form students, around 200 of them, participated. They could take part in a wide range of discussion panels as well as engage in art or multimedia projects or a cooking workshop.

All the discussion panels, carried out either in Polish or English, focused on the four countries belonging to the TIE project covering the topics such as Modern Architecture, the European Aspect of Polish Literature, Educational Systems and Schools, Food and Drink, Sense of Humour, Energy Problems and Solutions, Common Scientific Programmes, Gains and Losses of European and Monetary Union as well as Foreign Borrowings into the Polish Language, Religious Variety, Mass-culture and Unemployment. Teachers of Polish, English, Maths, Physics, Art, Geography, Biology were involved trying to make their classes as interesting as possible.

In the school canteen, the main area had been cleared for a spectacular cooking workshop led by one of our biology teachers. During the whole day, two groups of over 20 students each could enjoy their time preparing and tasting international dishes, made specially according to national recipes, having a lot of fun and enriching their knowledge about different types of national food.

A separate group had been set to work on European Monuments project, giving the outlet to their imagination while creating posters with their own rendition of Big Ben, The Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate and Wawel Castle. Still another one was working on a Powerpoint presentation concerning the European flags, trying to analyze their origins and history.

The event was great fun both for the teachers and students who easily and heartily got involved in everything they were offered. It was an opportunity to expand their knowledge about our neighbours, see how much in common we have with each other and how often our paths have been crossing. It was a day to remember, encouraging the students to focus more on our European issues and a way to help understand each other a bit more.

Mariusz Kozlowski