This year marks the launch of the new EU-funded
programme, ‘Erasmus +’, combining the former Comenius, Erasmus, Grundtvig and Leonardo
programmes – a lot of the time that has elapsed since our last blog post has
been taken up with figuring out how Confluence Scotland will fit into this –
however, other things have been happening too, so here is an overdue update!
Despite the initial widespread confusion regarding
the new Erasmus + system, we finally seem to have it sussed and we are
currently processing the mountain of applications we have for our 2014-2015
immersion courses for European teachers of English. Our immersion courses,
jointly run with LFEE Europe, are taking place in July and October of this
year, and March and April of next year. Preparation for the workshops is
starting to take shape and we are very much looking forward to welcoming
participants from countries all over Europe, from Iceland
to Malta.
In addition to the above immersion courses, we also
have 3 groups of teachers from Germany
coming across in June, September and October. The first of these groups,
arriving in June, are trainee primary school teachers from Laupheim Teacher
Training Institute in Baden Württemberg, and we have placements organised for
them in schools across East Lothian. In
September we have a return visit from nursery teachers from Munich
who will be on placements in nurseries across the Lothians; and then in October
a group of 20 vocational teachers from northern Bavaria arrives and they will be job
shadowing in companies throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians. These visits are
between 2 and 3 weeks in duration, and in addition to the placements the
particpants will also be taking part in our language workshops and cultural
exchange activities.
Aside from all that, every day work continues! This
includes language teaching for our individual and business clients, setting up
a new German Club for kids in Portobello, and preparation for the busy period
ahead. We can also announce that we are delighted to have welcomed Rachel Seago
on to our team. Rachel is a languages
graduate who has also completed a TEFL qualification – it’s great to have her
on board!
