1. Year 2 - Primary Wales and Ireland

2.  Two primary schools-Ysgol Gynradd Aberteifi in Wales and Glenasmole School in Ireland- took part in this video conference.  The schools were well known to one another having worked on the successful Comenius project “ Six pieces of a European Jigsaw” set up at the Roots and Wings Cardiff conference in 2006.  A case study on the above project giving further details can be found here: http://www.wideminds.eu/moodle/course/vie w.php?id=4

3.  Laptops with webcams were used in both schools. The images were projected onto a huge screen in Wales to allow the whole school to participate  Skype was chosen as both schools had used it successfully before and were familiar with it  Tests had been carried out earlier in the week to ensure all would run smoothly

4.  In Wales, the whole school ( 288 pupils + staff ) saw the video conference as it took place during one of their daily assemblies.

5.  This video conference took place on Dec 13, 2010.  As it was so near to Christmas, an Advent theme was chosen  Year 4 pupils in Wales had created an Advent Calendar.  2 pupils held this up to the webcam for the Irish pupils to choose the date on the door they would like to “open”.  Pairs of Welsh pupils then came up and mimed the picture behind the relevant door for their Irish friends to guess.  Once the Irish had made a correct guess, they were shown the calendar again and the picture behind the relevant door.

7. Bell ringers Snow Kissing under the mistletoe!

9.  This video conference ended with the Irish school singing a song and the Welsh school singing a carol you can hear here:  Both schools then wished one another a happy Christmas

10.  This was an ambitious idea especially as it involved the whole school but it really worked well due to thorough preparation beforehand!  The idea of an Advent Calendar was familiar to all the pupils involved and was well chosen. The excitement to discover what could be behind the door kept pupils well focused at all times.  It took a little while for the schools to be able to both see and hear each other but once this problem had been overcome, both sound and picture quality were good.

11.  All the pupils interviewed stressed that they had really enjoyed the video conference and said that they would like to do another.  Here is a short interview with some of the Welsh children who took part: Many thanks to Dyfi Jones, Mary McColgan, staff and pupils in both schools for their hard work in making this such a success.