Monday

We began the final conference week with preparations for all the events. Students and staff of Iceland, Ireland and England made recycled kites to decorate the school and fly later in the week. Guest teachers were shown around the school. The Scandinavian model of education puts a strong emphasis on arts and crafts, woodwork and ‘learning by doing’. The English teachers introduced their school and work for BGF to students and staff of Iceland and Ireland. Mr. Twig impressed us again with his beautiful tour on green possibilities in London and his travels to Iceland. The product of collaborative work from all countries, The Big Green Footsteps book and puzzle, was unpacked and played with. The puzzle proved quite a challenge!

In the afternoon project leaders tried to get their head

around the final report. After working out a good plan, guests finally had time to see a bit of town. In the last three pictures you can see the Laugardalur Football stadium, Einar Jónsson Sculpture Garden, with Hallgríms church in the background and Harpa concert hall.

See the photographs from Monday here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/132094786@N08/21Br5K

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Tuesday

In the morning the Italian teachers joined the festivities. Ireland made its introduction about Our Lady’s Hospital school and their work for BGF. The Irish team has found a wonderful format to make three games. Students of all ages have been involved, and each participant played a specific “expert” role to develop a ‘Top Trumps’ questionnaire - research these, picture research results, make drawings and colourings and transform all work through ICT into Snap, Top Trumps and Old Maid games. The try-out was well received.

The morning was spent in the Family Park and Zoo in Laugardalur, within walking distance of Brúarskóli at Dalbraut. In the park one could enjoy many animalsfromf Iceland and some immigrants in the reptile house.  In May it is Icelandic tradition for many school parties to visit the zoo. This always goes with the grilling of hotdogs. Of course all visitors had to try One with All, meaning a hotdog with fried onions tomato, mustard and remoulade sauce.

In the afternoon the Polish team arrived and work on the final report and preparation for our festivities continued.

See the photographs from Tuesday here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/132094786@N08/hiAw1D

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Wednesday

The day started by visiting the the  Child and Youth Psychiatry ward at the National Hospital of Iceland connected to Brúarskóli with Dalbraut. The ward offers a homely atmosphere to the students of Dalbraut. Several playrooms are part of the treatment program which emphasizes family and individual and group therapy. Special to the ward is the exhibition Völuspá by artist and illustrator Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir. The Völuspá is part of the old poems of Edda; it recounts the stories of the Old Norse gods. Sarah tried to be Odin on the throne, being informed by the ravens Huginn and Muninn who told her all that was going on.

Afterwards the Italians introduced their school and work for BGF. Their speciality Cinema resulted in very funny short films about choosing Big Green Footsteps, riding a bike in Torino and The Develoop animation with computer- and traditional memory game. They earned a well deserved round of applause.

During the latter part of the morning students and staff and visited the Reykjavik Museum of Modern Art - Kjarvalstaðir. The painter Kjarval is said to have opened our eyes to much of our surrounding nature. The students did a treasure hunt around the exhibition Newly Painted which showed  art from many famous contemporary Icelandic painters. In the surrounding park Klambratún, we finished the morning by flying kites. Most of them flew quite well and gave a lot of joy.

In the afternoon guests visited the hospital school connected to the somatic ward of the National Children’s hospital. Teacher and actress Guðrún explained how she works with puppets to support her students.

See the photographs from Wednesday here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/132094786@N08/VH0165

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Thursday

The Polish team started the day with introductions about their school and work for BGF. They have done marvellous work with recycled materials producing short films and games for the project. Their games the trip, sensory memory, chess and recycled imagination are truly original and proved much fun to play.

Then the big Let’s Play event started. All of a sudden we had an invasion of guests and players from all departments of Brúarskóli, the neighbouring kindergarten Laugarsól and guests from supporting organizations. The Icelandic games: animal timeline, Go-fish recycling and Outdoor Othello were introduced as well. All games were well received and we has a lot of fun. During the Big Celebration of our two year cooperation, the Icelandic team was rewarded with the Green Flag award from the national agency of the Federation of Environmental Education, Landvernd. Brúarskóli at Dabraut joining the large number of Green Flag schools in Iceland and throughout the world. If partner schools would have been more separated from hospital circumstances, all would have been entitled to the award. All BGF partners certainly deserve a Green Flag award for environmental education.

The day ended with an introduction to the main department of Brúarskóli – Vesturhlíð. Björk Jónsdóttir , head mistress and several members of staff, explained about the approach to the special needs of children and youth in Brúarskóli. A main pillar of practice is the Aggression Replacement Training which all students follow during their stay in school. Their main policy and objective is to work towards reintegration students back to mainstream schools.

While project leaders finished the final report, other guests visited The Pearl on top of six huge water tanks with its beautiful view over Reykjavík. The final conference ended formally in the evening with a nice dinner in town. 

See the photographs from Thursday here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/132094786@N08/qcv887

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Friday

On Friday some of our  partners stayed on for a relaxed and quieter day in school with music, play and song.

See the photographs from Friday here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/132094786@N08/4063TC

Hi All

Here are our 2 group photos - I couldn't decide which one was best! I've put links to the original files below.
The photos from our week together look great and I will post them here soon.

best wishes
Martin

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