Antiparos, Greece

Antiparos Primary school is situated in one of the smallest islands of the Cyclades island group, in the southeast Aegean, where the ancient Cycladic civilization was born (around 3.000 B.C.)-
It is opposite the much bigger island of Paros but commuting is only possible by sea. In this sense the area is disadvantaged, as access to a larger variety of cultural and other activities is limited by weather conditions and availability of sea transportation. The island’s population is around 1100 and our school has 75 pupils, 7 teachers and 7 teachers of special subjects (English, French, German, P.E., Music, Art and computer science). We have a small number (around 10% of the pupil population) of immigrant pupils for whom Greek is a second language and whose mother tongues are mostly Eastern European.

From this European partnership we are willing to realize and expect:
• to cooperate with other European schools within a specific educational framework

• to enhance cross-cultural understanding

• to involve parents, teachers, pupils and administrators in a large-scale educational project, thus enhancing the community spirit

• to exchange innovative ideas on curriculum design and application

• to enhance teamwork skills and develop teachers’ and students’ interpersonal intelligence

• to apply communicative learning methods for foreign language learning.

My New Year Wish for you all!

Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment.

By Sydney Smith