C5 - “Europe Tastes Festival” 23 – 27/05/2022, Valencia, Spain

 C5 - “Europe Tastes Festival”

23 – 27/05/2022, Valencia, Spain

 Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils

        The educational purpose of this LTTA mobility in Spain was to provide an efficient training to the participants (teachers and students) in terms of acquiring knowledge related to Mediterranean diet, local food, healthy habits, and to improve their skills, identify new different tastes and flavours in collaboration with local partners. During the 5 days of the training period, participants shared their experiences participating in country mixed groups. They also practiced communication in English, improving their communication skills.

            The week started with an official opening on Monday 23rd of May 2022 at 9 o’clock at the Petxina complex of sports and education. We had special guests from the City Hall and Local educational authorities. Valencian tradition and culture were shown to the assistants. We played the game “Who is who” for teachers and students. This icebreaking game show the participants the importance of knowing their special abilities that make us all feel special. 

 During the evening, teachers of 5th and 6th grades organized the workshop “Interactive groups”. This is one of the international successful educational actions of the research project named INCLUDE-ED, Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education. Every class was divided in 4 groups. Every group had at least one teacher. 

        Tuesday, 24th MAY 2022, started with a Masterc hef contest at school canteen. The four groups (red, yellow, blue and green) had to prepare two healthy breakfasts. In a second row the groups had 20 minutes to follow, step by step, one apple cake recipe. 

After midmorning break, we participated in a seminar by the Valencia football club doctor Mr. Antonio Fernández Gere. At 15:30 hours all the participants went to the close Turia river park to participate in a photographic gymkhana. There were 4 different routes set with 10 pictures every. 

On Wednesday, 25th MAY 2022, we visited a craftsmen place where the “Fallas” monuments are made. The guides told us every step of the process, from the first draft ideas to the painting time. 

After lunch we visited the Valencia Fallas Craftmen Museum. All of us enjoyed watching a videopresentation about Fallas local festival (recognized by the UNESCO as World Heritage Festival). Finally, we saw some figures that craftsmen saved from Fallas from many years ago.

    On Thursday, 26th MAY 2022, the session was dedicated to visit the Oceanogràfic Aquarium. The Erasmus visitors could appreciate the worldwide wildlife of the oceans. From lunchtime on, all the groups had free time to enjoy the Valencia city center.

On Friday, 27th MAY 2022, the Farewell ceremony took place at school. Certifications and signature time for all the participants. After a break, Spanish school students performed a “mascletà” with plastic bottles of water and sand. Before and after that, a musical group “charanga” played some Valencian typical songs while all the participants from Spanish school and Erasmus danced together.

The current training event was totally designed by Spanish Erasmus team with the aim of making all the participants interact since the first to the last minute. Each participant got a customized identity card with their name and team colour. And all the activities were set based on team-coloured groups. We also selected 40 Spanish students (who had been very active participating in the project) and mixed with our Erasmus participants, in order to help them know each other better and earlier. During this mobility we build further on the cooperation basis and the valuable experience we created in the previous mobilities.