Liverpool International Nordic Community
125 Years - Gustaf Adolf Kyrka Church
Schools
Scandinavian Heritage
outreach in schools
The participating schools are St Patrick’s and St Vincent de Paul’s Catholic primary schools. So far the pupils have familiarised themselves with Scandinavia and Scandinavian countries in terms of their location, geography, cloimate and nature. They are also learning at how Scandinavian schools are similar or different to schools in the UK and how their own lives are similar or different to the lives of Scandinavian children.
The pupils already have a fair understanding of what Scandinavia is, where it is and who Scandinavians are. It is now possible to build up this understanding and to introduce them to the idea of Scandinavians in Liverpool and Scandinavian Liverpool. The implications of the Vikings and the 19th century emigration to Liverpool is explored with a view to looking at the present state of the Scandinavian commiunity in Liverpool. This study is augmented with fun activities such as traditional Swedish music (Svart Kaffe, crafts (Dala horses ) and sports such as Finnish baseball.
To assist in visual imaging of what Scandinavia looks like the pupils have created a wall display with each of the five countries covered with different natural elements such as forest, mountains, lakes etc. This is to be expanded with images of Vikings, animals, sports, traditions, emigrant ships and travel routes. In this the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Church the pupils will visit the church and explore why it was built and how it works as a cultural centre for the Scandinavian community in Liverpool.
Friendship schools
It is also intended to create friendship schools in the individual countries. To this end, European Union funded Socrates/Comenius links will be created with the aim to have three schools from each of the five nations participating in this Comenius project. In Finland the friendship school will be a small school in Karkkla near Helsinki Liverpool Culture Company have kindly agreed to let this community project use the community exhibition areas at St George’s Hall to display the work the schools have produced during this Project. The dates for the Exhibition are 18 August 19 September 2008. The exhibition will be held at the Dickens Gallery, opening times can be found on the St Georges Hall website.
