80 Autumn Visitors!

September - November 2015 were particularly busy months to round off the year - but rewarding, especially for Tine & Alison, who have spent long months organising the German projects!  Our Munich visitors arrived at the beginning of September. As part of their programme they spent two weeks in local nurseries and also attended a variety of workshops and talks - special thanks to our colleague Kirsten Harrold [in action below!], and to representatives from the Care Inspectorate and the City of Edinburgh Department of Children and Families for delivering these.

Then, in early October, a group of teachers from Germany, Iceland and Albania (via Germany!) attended our week-long course for vocational teachers of English. A visit to Edinburgh College provided insight into vocational training in Scotland and the group also had the chance to see a National Theatre Live screening of Hamlet at our local theatre, The Brunton.

The following two weeks we hosted immersion courses for primary, secondary & adult teachers from across Europe in conjunction with LFEE (and special mention as always for Ros, the supreme administrator!)  Working with Frances, Alison, Barbara & Julie, all the groups enjoyed a wide range of language activities, workshops and opportunities to discuss and share best practice over the course of the week. They also had a talk from staff at one of the main bookshops in Edinburgh and had the chance to explore Edinburgh and the East Lothian castles with Alison. Evening activities included skittles at Scotland’s oldest pub, a cinema trip to see the latest James Bond film ‘Spectre’ and a meal out at Merchants restaurant in Edinburgh’s Old Town.

Study visits and exchange

As well as the training courses for teachers of primary, secondary & adult students of English,  we have enjoyed being part of VET projects and study visits which have involved teachers of other subjects than English - from nursery education to CAD technology!  We are now in the third year of a project with the City of Munich which has been looking at the theme of inclusion in early education - 30 early years specialists have now visited us and experienced a variety of early education settings here, thanks to the hospitality of Edinburgh City Council & both private and Council run nurseries in East Lothian.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will develop into a true exchange, and allow teachers and trainers from here to experience a study visit to Munich next year.

We are delighted that this is already happening with a project we have set up together with Laupheim Training College in Baden-Württemberg - The Burgh Primary in Musselburgh has not only hosted our visitors from both Munich & Laupheim, but has also been able to send some of their own staff across to Germany this year.  We are very much hoping this will grow.

Our Bavarian visitors being served by Professional Cookery students at Edinburgh College.

Over the past two years we have also enjoyed hosting  40 vocational teachers from the Bavarian region of Unterfranken and the city of Würzburg. Each October our colleague Wendy O'Hara has travelled north specially to help deliver the 'Language for Work' course to our visitors - and to add an English dimension!  After their language course the visitors have spent a week in a wide variety of businesses connected to their own specialist fields - from finance to road haulage.  We owe special thanks to local businesses who have been willing to participate in this - and to our good friend Fiona who has found them all hospitable private hosts to stay with. Our friends in the Mid and East Lothian Chamber of Commerce were equally hospitable to a visiting student from Munich who was with us us for 6 weeks in the summer - it really seemed to be a mutually beneficial exercise!