Woodford Green school gets a head-start in Olympics celebrations

Putting on the Olympics this summer should be a doddle judging by the success of a mini version at a Woodford Green school on Thursday.

St Aubyn’s School in Bunces Lane showed Olympics organisers how it’s done when they welcomed teachers from eight European countries.

In front of the Mayor of Redbridge, Cllr Chris Cummins, and the Mayoress, Helen Johnson, 20 teachers from across the continent took part in sports events including running and hurdling.

They were visiting as part of the EU-backed Comenius project to forge interaction between European schools. The school’s year four pupils were assigned to different nation’s teams, including the UK, with Turkey coming out on top.

Carol Porter, the school’s Comenius co-ordinator, said: “It was really good fun and quite competitive.

“The children were really enthusiastic about being on teams for different countries, they were really committed for their teams.

“Some of the children have Turkish and Italian parents and so spoke to the teachers in their own languages.”

All participants received medals for their efforts.

The Comenius project focuses on how schools use information and communications technology (ICT).

The visiting delegation, drawn from countries including the Czech Republic, Greece, and Italy, saw St Aubyn’s pupils using an interactive whiteboard and an RE lesson where laptops were used to design posters.

The project also calls on schools to tell part of the story of Cinderella through ICT.

St Aubyn’s teachers will present their school’s efforts on a visit to Catalonia in May.