Implementation of the third International Project Rikavas at primary school

Two years ago, THE PROJECT “A Matter of Choices” of THE EU Lifelong Learning Programme “A Matter of Choices” was approved at the end of August 2013. This is the third realization of the Comenius project. This is now the largest of all, as there were nine Member States in the project - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and, of course, we - Latvia. The project's funding is €21 000.
The first months of launching the project were interesting. We had to respond many times to the question of surprise and disbelief: “how much?” How many students are in your school? Really 46?! And as we understand that we have not overlooked, there was a worrying question whether we would really be able to realise everything that was planned in the project. 'Of course we can! In the course of the first year we have shown that Rikavas pupils, just like the rest of the rest of Latvia, are hiding in the workforce. And in the second year of the project, no one was more doubtful about us, but calculated as a full-fledged project. Perhaps the biggest test we had was the script of the film scenario, after which the short film “Let's be BuddhThanks to Bullies” was taken, the actors of which were students of all the participants in the project. In addition, our hoped rep (or, in other words, the defamation of music), when presenting the film, earned an undivided ovation and sympathy of the other participants in the project.
A total of two years of activity took place in order to achieve the goal set at the beginning of the project - to teach pupils to choose healthy and full-time leisure together with peers, beating and communicating themselves in a manner acceptable to themselves and the people surrounding them. Some of the activities:
- we learned to live more friendly and healthier (joint games, events, cycling days);
- helping the surrounding people (charitable share with red cross, good working days);
- we wrote a chain story (or story continuation) about the harmful addiction of teenagers along with all other Member States of the project;
- read, write, listen, look, draw, show the consequences of violence (both physical and verbal), different dependency problems;
- for one week, we live without using the Internet and telephone;
- organised a charitable market, during which we donated 104.91 euros, which were transferred to the organization “Ziedot.lv” for the treatment of severely ill children;
- we went to the excursion of the adventure to Sigulda - overcoming the barrier trees and releasing the object in X Soviet secret bunks in Līgatne at 9 metres below ground;
- and a lot of other activities that made our school life even more worrying. It must also be mentioned, of course, that we had the opportunity to know foreign lands and their culture, and we ourselves tried to show and tell us about Latvia's other people. During these two years, thirteen pupils and five teachers visited Romania, Turkey, Denmark, Portugal, Scotland and Belgium. For most of the pupils these were the first trips outside Latvia, particularly bright and emotions. And it is particularly pleased that the small number of pupils in this case is our advantage because - within the framework of the project, one third of our pupils was abroad. In large schools, it is likely that this would be impossible.
At the end of the project, some pupils said it was a pity that all the good always ended so fast and so fast, but they didn't feel sad because they now have a lot of new friends across Europe. So we don't say “goodbye!” but “See you again!” (“see you again!”)
 
Ilze Kuhaļska,
project Coordinator