Sunday 25th September 2016
All participants flew to Warsaw (Chopin airport). Those we were lucky to have early arrivals had the opportunity to move around the old city centre and to admire its unique architecture. In the afternoon, according to our itinerary organized by our Polish partners we gathered and stayed overnight in a Warsaw hostel.
Monday 26th September 2016
The day included various activities in Warsaw. First, we attended a lecture given by a clinical dietician in a Warsaw university hall. It was on the importance of a healthy and balanced diet and also on the nutritional value of the apple. Next, divided in teams, we participated in a treasure hunting through which our Polish organizers very cleverly familiarized us with all the important Warsaw sights. At noon, after a short break for a snack we were guided in the impressive royal palace of Warsaw.
In the afternoon we departed for Konskie, the seat of the Polish School. We mainly crossed rural areas with lots of orchards where the apple cultivation was predominant and so we verified the statistics which say that Poland is first in apple produce in Europe and fourth in the world. Upon our arrival at Konskie the host Polish families welcomed the students they would put up while all the teachers found accommodation in the Astoria hotel.
Tuesday 27th September 2016
Early in the morning, we met at the Polish school the ΙΙ Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie, which is occupied at an old but well preserved building across the city’s beautiful park.
We were welcomed by the school’s headmaster Beata Salata and the Polish organizers gave us traditional sweets which were made by the students’ families. Later, the students participated in icebreaking activities, such as drawing each other!
After these activities we were tourguided in the school’s facilities and we found out that every single teacher or a group of teachers from the same discipline has its own classroom, while the students have to change classrooms at every teaching hour. We were also really impressed by the fact that all classrooms were decorated and equipped depending on each lesson, which predisposed us in a really positive way.
Then, each national team presented its work. According to the programme there were two different topics, on which we had to work for the meeting in Poland. The first topic, was for students to explore the best ways to present themselves as ideal candidates -either in written form or in job interviews. So all national teams collected information about issues such as: best practice and behavior, appearance, answers etc and they published their research in the twinspace of our project available here. The second topic, was to study the apples’ nutritional value and to create a poster promoting healthy diet. The posters are available here at the twinspace of our project.
After the presentations, the students were divided into 4 international groups, and they prepared questions in regards to preserving employees health at workplaces which were to be asked the following day while visiting 4 enterprises. The teachers had a meeting to address organizational issues of our partnership.
In the afternoon, we went on a field trip at the lake Sielpia, a beautiful place near Konskie and we enjoyed various games in the natural environment.
Wednesday 28th September 2016
The daily activities began with students visiting four companies and gathering information in relation to their policies to preserving the health of their employees. Then, students and teachers visited the company KSWP. We were guided in their premises and we were informed about their activities which are acting as consultants to future entrepreneurs and providing a kind of cooperative resource management to them. We also discussed about the conception, the activation and the growth of a start up company and we were given valuable feedback for the materialisation of a business idea.
At noon we all had lunch together and later we were guided at Konskie, a provincial town inhabited by 20000 residents in central Poland. We wandered around the city center and we saw all the key sights such as the gothic st. Nicholas Church from the 14th century and a small part that is saved from a renaissance palace of the 17th century.
In the afternoon the students went to the Polish school, they were divided into 4 teams and they were assigned to create a leaflet “Do’s and Dont’s” for good and bad practices of a candidate in interview for a job appliance. The rest of the day was free for teachers.
Thusday 29th Semptember 2016
Full-day excursion at the apple route of Świętokrzyskie Province. First, we went hiking at Pieprzowe Mountains and we visited the agrotourism center: Dzika Roza where they presented us their idea about ecological entrepreneurship as well as the way they materialise it. We were offered and enjoyed tasting their delicious regional speciality: apple pie!
Our next stop was at Sandomierz, a picturesque town which we walked both aboveground and underground! It was really fascinating to find out that at the 14th century the city was such a trading center that the increasing demand for storage space for commercial products resulted in traders excavating cellars and connecting them which led to a substantial underground labyrinth. Those of us who weren't claustrophobic had the chance to walk around 500m of this underground trail and see how various chambers communicated.
Then, we split in 3 groups and we visited 3 different laboratories of traditional professions: the Alicja Aleksandrowicz tapestry workshop, the Cezary Łutowicz gallery of stripped flint and the Jurij Sulimow art workshop. The most interesting was to learn about the striped flint, a unique stone located only in the surrounding area, for which the city is famous for. We were told that the city attracts tourists who come to Sandomierz only for buying jewelry of this stone!
After having lunch, we visited the Orchards museum at Obrazow where we saw traditional tools used at orchards and we also tasted organic apple juice.
In the afternoon we had a short stop at Kielce and in the evening we arrived back to our base at Konskie.
Friday 30th September 2016
In the morning, students met at the Polish School and took part in various workshops. During these workshops they elaborated all the information they had collected from their visits to the companies forming it into presentation material. Also, they completed the leaflets about Dos and Don’ts for a job interview. The leaflets are available here at the twinspace of our project.
At noon, when students had finished preparing their presentations, they gathered along with the teachers at school and presented their works.
After that, we had to evaluate the meeting in two ways. First, we filled in the usual questionnaire of assessment and then, we used a more interactive way which was targeted at everyone leaving his/her mark on the evaluation sheet!
In the afternoon, we were invited to the program’s closing ceremony, which was attended by many representatives of the local authorities such as the local education officer, the mayor etc. We received our certificates of participation in the meeting and we said goodbye in an emotionally charged atmosphere.
Saturday 1st October 2016
National teams left Konskie for Warsaw and from there flew back to their countries.
The programme of the meeting