Hello everyone,
And a special mention to Oliver Phillips who is the only person following our blog! You can definitely have a happy certificate when we get back.
Day 5 was another interesting day.
We left very early in the morning and went to visit a local city - it was very different as it was all underground. It was amazing, although Miss Fountain managed to bump her head a few times!! There were once nearly 5 000 people living in the city. There were all kinds of different rooms and even an underground church.
After that, we went to visit a ceramic factory and watched a few demonstrations from some of the local people. We saw the different stages of how the pottery was made which was really interesting - some of the plates were so huge and it could take up to a whole day just to paint just one item becasue the designs were so complicated. They asked for a volunteer to have a go and Miss Fountain was the one chosen to use the pottery wheel and make her own creation. She absolutely loved it, but her design wasn't the best ever! She had to put on some crazy trousers to keep her clothes clean...we have some pictures to show you all when we get back.
We then visited an open air museum which had at least 15 churches - this again was very interesting.
We hope that you are all ok and that you have had a great week at school! Have a brilliant holiday and we will see you on 31st October.
Stay safe.
Love Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
Friday, October 21, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Day 4
Hello everyone,
We have had another really busy day and the weather has taken a turn for the worst! It is freezing!!
We have spent most of the day in school and even managed to join in a Turkish lesson. Miss Fountain and I can now count to 5 in Turkish - the children were very impressed that we learned to do it so quickly - however, they could count very well in English so they put us to shame a little bit! Hopefully, if we practise every day, we will remember how to do it and we will teach you when we get back.
We had a big exhibition in school today and we did a display on England, Sunderland and Benedict Biscop - all of our friends and the children and staff from the school thought it was great and the Turkish children especially liked seeing the Sunderland football top!
We have taken loads of pictures for you all to see.
Missing you all lots, hope you are all ok and not missing us too much.
Love
Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
We have had another really busy day and the weather has taken a turn for the worst! It is freezing!!
We have spent most of the day in school and even managed to join in a Turkish lesson. Miss Fountain and I can now count to 5 in Turkish - the children were very impressed that we learned to do it so quickly - however, they could count very well in English so they put us to shame a little bit! Hopefully, if we practise every day, we will remember how to do it and we will teach you when we get back.
We had a big exhibition in school today and we did a display on England, Sunderland and Benedict Biscop - all of our friends and the children and staff from the school thought it was great and the Turkish children especially liked seeing the Sunderland football top!
We have taken loads of pictures for you all to see.
Missing you all lots, hope you are all ok and not missing us too much.
Love
Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Day 3
Hello everyone,
Hope you are all ok and having a good week at school.
We got up at 4.30am today to see the sunrise as we had been told it was magnificent in this part of the world! It was very windy and cold and there were about 300 people from all over the world [Japan and USA as well as out European friends] - it was stunning and well worth getting up in the middle of the night!!
During the day, we had very long meetings to make all of the arrangements for you all to visit the other countries. We have decided to visit all of our partner schools and hope to go to France in January. The programme sounds very exciting and everyone is eager to come and see our school next September! Get your thinking caps on as to what you would like them to see!
We had a traditional Turkish lunch [although Miss Fountain opted out of having the kebab]. We then went shopping, with our Polish and Italian friends, for some souvenirs for our displays in school before having dinner with everyone last night.
Miss Fountain has been practising her French and Italian and is really good.
love from Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
Hope you are all ok and having a good week at school.
We got up at 4.30am today to see the sunrise as we had been told it was magnificent in this part of the world! It was very windy and cold and there were about 300 people from all over the world [Japan and USA as well as out European friends] - it was stunning and well worth getting up in the middle of the night!!
During the day, we had very long meetings to make all of the arrangements for you all to visit the other countries. We have decided to visit all of our partner schools and hope to go to France in January. The programme sounds very exciting and everyone is eager to come and see our school next September! Get your thinking caps on as to what you would like them to see!
We had a traditional Turkish lunch [although Miss Fountain opted out of having the kebab]. We then went shopping, with our Polish and Italian friends, for some souvenirs for our displays in school before having dinner with everyone last night.
Miss Fountain has been practising her French and Italian and is really good.
love from Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
Monday, October 17, 2011
Day 2 - Turkey 2011
Hello everyone,
We went to visit our partner school today and we were welcomed by children performing a traditional dance and were delighted to get a lovely flower as a welcome gift.
We met parents, staff and lots of children who were all very happy to show their school off to their friends across Europe.
We joined in some lessons. The school is very different to BB - all of the children sit in rows and there are not many pupils in each class. There were no displays on the walls but the children were all very well behaved. Some of the children even knew English football teams, so we told them that we supported Sunderland!!! We gave a presentation about Benedict Biscop and everyone said they would like to come and visit and all thought our school looked lovely.
After the school, we had a traditional Turkish lunch and then went to meet the mayor in his office where he gave a speech about Turkey and said how delighted he was to have us all as visitors in his town. We gave him a BB paper weight as a gift to say thanks for hosting us in the town. We met the local authority director of education and had some time to ask lots of questions about schools in Turkey. We will tell you all about it when we get back.
On the way back to the hotel, we had some time to explore the amazing pink rocks which are like nothing we have every seen before. Inside there are miles of caves where people used to live and there are monasteries carved into the rocks. The views from the top were simply awesome!
We are off to have some tea soon and for an early night as we have to be up at 4.30am in the morning!!!
Hope you are all ok and having a good week at school.
Love Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
We went to visit our partner school today and we were welcomed by children performing a traditional dance and were delighted to get a lovely flower as a welcome gift.
We met parents, staff and lots of children who were all very happy to show their school off to their friends across Europe.
We joined in some lessons. The school is very different to BB - all of the children sit in rows and there are not many pupils in each class. There were no displays on the walls but the children were all very well behaved. Some of the children even knew English football teams, so we told them that we supported Sunderland!!! We gave a presentation about Benedict Biscop and everyone said they would like to come and visit and all thought our school looked lovely.
After the school, we had a traditional Turkish lunch and then went to meet the mayor in his office where he gave a speech about Turkey and said how delighted he was to have us all as visitors in his town. We gave him a BB paper weight as a gift to say thanks for hosting us in the town. We met the local authority director of education and had some time to ask lots of questions about schools in Turkey. We will tell you all about it when we get back.
On the way back to the hotel, we had some time to explore the amazing pink rocks which are like nothing we have every seen before. Inside there are miles of caves where people used to live and there are monasteries carved into the rocks. The views from the top were simply awesome!
We are off to have some tea soon and for an early night as we have to be up at 4.30am in the morning!!!
Hope you are all ok and having a good week at school.
Love Mrs Thompson and Miss Fountain
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Day 1 of Turkey visit
Arrived safe and sound after a 21 hour journey and 3 flights later. We left Newcastle airport after a shaky start - my padlock on my suitcase had to be cut open as I had forgotten the key! Anyway we flew to Heathrow and left for Istanbul late on Saturday evening.
Having left Istanbul airport for Neveshir in central Turkey we got here about 9oclock on Sunday morning. We were met by one of the teachers from our partner school who brought us to the hotel where we met our friends from Italy, Lithuania and Poland. They all speak really good English. Having had a few hours sleep we are just about to meet with all our friends for our first meeting to decide how we are going to communicate with our schools.
Mr Kelly is going to try to Skype tomorrow so we may be able to see you and talk to you when we go into the school in Turkey in the morning.
The place where we are is very barren, very few houses beside the airport and our airplane was the only one on the airfield. The customs officers even locked the doors of the airport once we had got our suitcases so we had to wait on a roadside for our friends to arrive. as we drove through the hills to the hotel there were lots of people living in cave houses which is very different. We are going to visit some later in the week as some of the pupils from the school live there.
We will keep you posted and try to upload pictures tomorrow, when Miss Fountain takes them!!!!
Having left Istanbul airport for Neveshir in central Turkey we got here about 9oclock on Sunday morning. We were met by one of the teachers from our partner school who brought us to the hotel where we met our friends from Italy, Lithuania and Poland. They all speak really good English. Having had a few hours sleep we are just about to meet with all our friends for our first meeting to decide how we are going to communicate with our schools.
Mr Kelly is going to try to Skype tomorrow so we may be able to see you and talk to you when we go into the school in Turkey in the morning.
The place where we are is very barren, very few houses beside the airport and our airplane was the only one on the airfield. The customs officers even locked the doors of the airport once we had got our suitcases so we had to wait on a roadside for our friends to arrive. as we drove through the hills to the hotel there were lots of people living in cave houses which is very different. We are going to visit some later in the week as some of the pupils from the school live there.
We will keep you posted and try to upload pictures tomorrow, when Miss Fountain takes them!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)