Visit to Poland
During the October break, eight teachers from READS visited Kate Taylor's native town of Naleczow in Poland (self-funded). We are all teaching Polish youngsters in Gloucestershire and wanted to have a better understanding of Poland and the Polish education system, so when Kate suggested the trip, we jumped at the chance to find out more. Before the trip Kate prepared us by giving us some Polish lessons, which we enjoyed but found quite challenging!
Kate had arranged for us to visit four secondary and one primary school in and around Naleczow, which is a beautiful spa town in the South East of the country. The Polish saying is 'Guest in the home - God in the home' and the schools certainly overwhelmed us with their hospitality. The head teachers were proud to show us round their schools and answered all our questions. We observed Maths and Science lessons and participated in several English lessons.
We were impressed by the behaviour of the children in all the schools and by the work they produced - despite the lack of resources, which our children take for granted. Each school had a couple of IT rooms, with fairly old computers but there were none in classrooms. Children in Poland have to buy their own text books and materials for school. Every school has a full-time E.P. and a dental surgery two or three times a week. The corridors were very wide (5 metres), with benches on either side for children to sit during breaks; this meant that there was no pushing as children changed classrooms. The sports facilities were also excellent.
One of the schools was an Arts High School for A level students, which students from all over Poland attend. The machinery they worked with looked ancient and they could not afford to buy a kiln, but the quality of the furniture and hard and soft toys they produced was outstanding.
We did have some time for sight-seeing and visited Lublin, the capital city of the region, where we hunted for Polish versions of 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Of Mice and Men' to help our pupils and sampled 'Pierogi' (filled dumplings with dripping). We also visited Kazimierz Dolny, a picturesque town on the Vistula River and on our return journey we visited the beautiful old town in Warsaw. We all felt that we would soon be returning for a second visit to Poland!
Wendy Abbott-Wright
