Our visit in Maidenhead 24-26 September 1997

We have a very interesting program in Maidenhead, England. We were visiting Eton college, Altwood Church of England school, Reading & Language Information centre, Thames water, a girl school and much more. Here you can see some photos from our visit.

                                       
Eton sign       Students in Eton        The Swedes and Keijo         
                                                     in front of Eton College    

                            
Three heads; Keijo,                Photos from a girlschool in Reading
Lennart and Hans-Christian 

                       
The library in            Assembly in Altwood         
Eton College            school, Maidenhead

Comenius project meeting in Maidenhead, England, September 24-26 1997.

On September 24 1997, the headmaster of Liljeborgsskolan (Lennart Larsson) and three teachers (Jan Jönsson, Christina Larsson and Anna-Karin Skoglund) had the privilege of attending a Comenius project meeting, hosted by Altwood Church of England School in Maidenhead, England.

After having a close to near-death-experience taking ground at London City Airport, the four of us mingled with the English commuters and took a train up to Reading, which would serve as our home away from home during our stay. In Reading we also met up with old and new friends from the other participating countries; Denmark and Finland.

The focus of the meeting was to evaluate the Comenius project so far and to set up new goals for the future, but our hosts also had a great deal of interesting and exciting events planned for us.

As teachers we thought it was especially interesting to get an insight in various examples of the English school system; not only did we get to follow our English colleagues in their daily work at Altwood School; we also got to visit a girls´ school in Reading, and the famous Eton College.The three schools turned out to be very different from eachother; and all of them also very different from Swedish schools. -Especially Eton College, where time seemed to have stopped a hundred years ago!

We also got to visit the Reading and Language Information Centre at the University of Reading, which serves schools and libraries with literature for children and young people, and which also offers a wide range of courses and events for teachers.

A visit to Thames Water, the largest water company in England, showed us how a big company can work hand in hand with the local schools, providing work material, books, site visits, work experience, teacher workshops and other resources. The company also offers and pays for a training program for students from the age of 16 to 21, which leads up to an exam as an electric or mechanical technician.

Altwood School also invited us to a couple of social events, which were very much appreciated. -The evening soaré in the school´s music room, where students performed with great talent, was most impressing, and so was the wonderful dinner at a hotel by the river in Maidenhead, the last evening of our stay.

When the meeting was over we all felt that we had learned a lot, not only about the English school system and other educational areas, but also little bit about the English lifestyle. The four of us, who got to spend one and a half day in London before returning home, are convinced that the Swedish participants are not the only ones who will miss having English breakfast in the morning, cream tea in the afternoon and maybe also a pint of lager at the pub in the evening!