As part of the Erasmus+ Project Getting to Know Us, we attended the first mobility to Croatia. Activities took place from the 18th to 23rd of October 2021, with participants from Austria (Vienna), Croatia (Varaždin), Germany (Heide), Ireland (Galway), Northern Ireland (Belfast), and Slovenia (Ptuj). The locations of the first mobility were Varaždin and Zagreb.
After
the welcome event at the School Center of Education Tomislav Špoljar, the
school Headmaster Marin Vučić gave us a detailed presentation of the work of his
institution and the special needs students’ education system in Croatia. Later
on, the main coordinator of the project Colm Burns (Northern Ireland)
summarized the work done so far on the project and presented plans for the
future. The group set the dates for the following mobilities and Zoom meetings.
In
the course of the mobility, we visited School Centar Tomislav Špoljar for the needs of children
with developmental difficulties. We visited the school and had the opportunity
to attend classes and were impressed by the equipment of the school, which is
very modern and adapted for students with special needs, the activities they carry out, the way of
teaching, the engagement of the teachers, their hospitality and willingness to
share ideas and examples of good practice. We also attended various workshops (fractal
drawing, music workshop, baking of the traditional »Varaždinski klipiči« and ceramics
workshop, where we made Christmas ornaments and bowls, which will be decorated
by the students of Centar Tomislav Špoljar in the following weeks). Also, we
visited a regular primary school with pupils in integration VI. Elementary School
Varaždin, where the school Headmaster Mario Stančić and his colleagues gave us
a tour around the school and presented their work with children with special
needs. There we debated the differences and many similarities of school systems
and working with students with special needs. The final part of the mobility
was dedicated to getting to know the participants and their students even better.
We had a videoconference call with participants' classes. The students and
teachers presented themselves and then every group had to sing a song for
others to sing and dance to. Students were very excited to see each other.
In addition to all of the
professional and educational content of the mobility, we also had the
opportunity to see some of the outstanding places in Varaždin, as the historic
city center with the guided tour of the castle and the museum. Especially
interesting was the exhibit of the clothes and accessories which were once worn
by the residents of Varaždin - very different from the clothes worn today. We
would also like to mention the visit to the capital of Croatia – Zagreb. We
walked the streets and admired the many sights. We visited a unique museum
called the Museum of broken relationships where we learned the love stories and
their endings from people from all over the world. It was interesting to learn
how people in all different parts of the world have very similar life
experiences.
The first mobility gave us a very
valuable insight into the practices of working with children with developmental
difficulties. Through observation, presentations, and conversations we
exchanged experiences, examples of good practice, thoughts, visions, views, new
ideas and gained motivation to transfer all this newly acquired knowledge to
work. We are particularly grateful to the staff of the School Center Tomislav
Špoljar and the main coordinator Mr. Marin Vučić for the well-chosen activities.
We would like to once again sincerely
thank you Mr. Marin Vučić for the organization of a great start to the Erasmus+ Project and we
are excited to see other participants and learn their way of working with
students with special needs. See you in Belfast next time.
Slovenian team
