I think she has learnt more about searching on the Internet, finding relevant information and using websites and the interactive applications found on the websites, from this project than from any other previous projects or years of ICT lessons combined. She has learnt things about the three countries she didn’t know anything about and have read about places of interests and towns unknown to her, which has broaden her mind and interest in the world around her.

But that’s not all, she also had to figure out how much the different packages she is offering in her group’s travel agency cost and which airplanes fly from Malaysia to these countries as well as inbound travel between USA and Canada for instance and how much that cost. She has gone through websites to find this flight information by herself and calculated the cost of 2 people traveling together.

I have supported her initially to show her how to use keywords in Google to find good websites and her teacher has given her tips, but after this initial support, she has been on her own and managed quite well, although it has been challenging at times, as it is quite a mouthful for a 10 year old to having to think of all these components to be compiled and figured out, but also very educational and she has learnt a lot from it.

I am so happy that Tenby International School has implemented IPC fully as it really makes a huge difference in how the children learn and the excitement they feel from doing work that is taken from the real world around them. It makes it much more interesting for them to keep up the excitement about the project, as they are obtaining information that is relevant and they are learning skills that they can use again and again, skills my daughter will never forget and which will come in handy in near future when she is doing her next project. But it has also given her the ability to organise her own holidays in future, as she now knows how and where to find the right information, how to calculate the costs involved in traveling, tours and accommodation, look for places she is interested in visiting and plan her holiday down to every detail taking into consideration how to get there, accommodation, weather etc.

This is what education is about, teaching children thinking skills, how and where to find information and how to select, compile, sort and organise it in such a way that it can be used constructively and creatively in real life scenarios. And then making it fun and exciting at the same time, while offering the right guidance for the students to achieve the best outcome and learning objectives.

Imagine the many areas the students are covering from this project, from group work, to searching for information on the internet, compiling, selecting and organising, communicating their ideas and findings, thinking creatively how to present their holiday packages and market them, learning about other countries, calculating costs and so much more. It’s pretty amazing what can be done when the will is there.

Her first impression of her new school was that the teachers and students are very friendly and welcoming and she noticed how her fellow students voiced their opinions and thoughts without being afraid of the teacher’s response.

On the very first day of school, she was informed that the IPC topic for the term was people migration, so to capture the children’s interest, she and her classmates got an interesting assignment to do at home in the evening or the next day before going to school. They had to imagine that there had been an earthquake and they had to leave their home in 5 minutes and the parents had to time them. They were given only 5 minutes to find and pack the most necessary things to bring with them to give them the sense of urgency. My daughter rushed around the house to find the things she thought she needed on her journey and had lots of fun doing it. She packed it all in a bag and brought it to school. At school during the IPC lesson, the children were asked to pair up and set up a camp in the classroom and use the things they had brought along. For example they had a cloth, so they could built a shelter. My daughter came home and said she and the other children had so much fun doing it that none of them wanted to finish the lesson, but wanted to carry on.

Another thing my daughter found really cool was the interactive whiteboards in all the classrooms. During the lessons the teacher would show them videos and pictures from the internet and visit websites with educational games and tools and as the whiteboard is a touch screen as well, the children can interact with it by dragging and dropping the answers from one place to another over the whiteboard, as they would be able to with a mouse or a mousepad on a computer, while playing a game. 

My daughter is also excited about the art lessons, as in her old school she had been used to just draw and paint pictures, which she found very boring. In Tenby she is currently working on a piece of artwork using different fabrics, materials and designs, which will be sown and pasted onto a cloth, and she can’t wait for her next art lesson to finish her artwork.

Also the PE lesson was exciting for my daughter, as she is learning to play basketball properly and was taught the rules of the game, special techniques and the skills required to play basketball well. 

On Friday the school’s Principal invited all the students to participate in a competition to design the logos for the 4 different houses, and the winning entries will be printed on the PE shirts in future. The students were told that they were allowed to submit designs for all 4 houses and not only their own house. They have 2 weeks to submit their ideas.

Every day the students have a break for half an hour and lunch for one hour and they are encouraged to try and finish their classwork during the breaks, so they don’t have to spent time after school finishing their homework. They are allowed to go to the library during the break or lunch, where it is quiet, to finish their work, and my daughter explained to me that it’s easy to concentrate on doing her work in the library, because it is so quiet. They are not allowed to speak in the library and the librarian will ask them to keep quiet, if they make noise, which I remember the librarians did in my school many years ago, and is therefore a welcoming concept, as it teaches the students to pay respect for the establishment and learn to study quietly, which are good virtues and skills.

My daughter also told me enthusiastically about the student council. One girl and one boy from each class had been selected by the students during a vote and they were now representatives of the whole class. This means that every student in the class can make suggestions and present ideas that the student councillors will bring to their school council meetings for discussions and report back to their class what had been discussed and decided at the meetings. 

After only one week in Tenby, my daughter has made many new friends who are very nice to her and she likes all her new teachers, who are very friendly and understanding and she is looking forward very much to start her second week.