Sandy Twinning Association - Summer Schools in Poland

Published: 6th March 2007 10:29

Early developments

In early 1996 three severe-looking, grey-suited Polish gentlemen came to the small town of Sandy in Bedfordshire, following initial exchanges of greetings and information by letter and phone, with a view to establishing possible community links. Their opening remarks to the reception committee in the Town Council offices said much about initial expectations: ‘We are very happy to be here in your country and we hope someone in Sandy can repair the boilers in our Town Hall!'. Since the opening up of Eastern Europe the demand for ties between former Iron Curtain countries and communities in the UK and Ireland has been enormous, but invariably such links, where they have prospered, have required careful thought and planning into the mutual benefits available.

Leaving aside the inevitable tourist opportunities and gourmet delights it soon became apparent that the number one criterion on the Polish side would be simple access to English language and culture. An initial return visit to Pomerania later in '95 confirmed both need and opportunities. Going to our link town of Skarszewy for the first time was rather like going back in time some 30 or so years. Prices seemed ridiculously low, as compared to the UK, and much of the town's infrastructure was brittle to say the least.  No one spoke any English, the language was not taught in any of the local schools and the culture was still strongly dominated by German and Russian influences. This part of Poland had not only endured dreadful suffering throughout World War II it had also changed little throughout the Cold War period and it was not until the Solidarity movement of the late 80s that a new era began to dawn.

Birth of the Summer Schools

What was immediately apparent in Skarszewy was that the desire to learn English as opposed to traditional German and Russian was overwhelming. This led to the idea of an English summer school. Post A-level students from the local Upper School were recruited to go to Poland, initially for four weeks and with the first venture in 1996, to undertake conversation classes with Polish children aged between 10-20. During the following few years the local Council even offered to pay the students the princely sum of £20 a week, at that time not far removed from what actual qualified teachers in Poland were earning, and provided free board and lodging. The students held classes five day a week mornings only. Afternoons were free and excursions to places of interest such as old Gdansk, Baltic resorts and Marlbork organised at weekends. There was also the humbling experience of a guided tour of Stuttowo, Northern Poland's equivalent of Auschwitz, as well as social gatherings and barbecues in delightful settings.

Nine years on the summer schools are still going strong. More than 150 English students have now taken part and an increase in numbers in recent years has permitted another summer school to be opened in the neighbouring County town of Starogard Gdanski. Well over 500 Polish students have take part and benefited, as well as a good number of Lithuanian ‘guests', and the initiative has won national acclaim and even been brought to the attention of none other than Lech Walesa himself. The students are no longer ‘paid' and the schools now only last for just over two weeks instead of four, but otherwise little has changed organisationally.

The ‘Classes'

The so-called conversation classes themselves have not proved as ‘scary' a prospect for totally untrained sixth formers as might have been feared, ‘though they have required a degree of planning and there has been an element of TEFL support in the pre-visit briefings with those students taking part. The Polish students have invariably been divided up according to competence in English and group sizes have tended to vary between 10-15. The atmosphere in the groups is totally relaxed, many classes have taken place outdoors, especially in hot weather, and this has included walks down to the local lido for swimming and beach games. Almost anything goes as far as lesson content is concerned; the walks include descriptions of flora and fauna, traffic vocabulary, shops and signs etc. There are lots of word games, mimes and poems and a few students have taken their guitars to teach nursery rhymes and topical songs. The Polish children come armed with their own writing materials and many of the classroom-based activities are focussed on themes similar to those taught in language GCSE courses: colours, weather, telling the time, fruit and vegetables are obvious examples. With the older students, many of who's English has turned out to be remarkably advanced, discussions tend to focus on typical teenage preferences such as sport, fashion and pop music. ‘Hello' magazine always generates plenty of interest. Other areas of discussion include contrasting the education systems of England and Poland, comparing the East Midlands with Central Pomerania and this particular summer students have wanted information about the 2012 Olympics, the G8 summit, the terrorist outrages in London, and perhaps predictably ‘ opportunities for coming to work in England'.

There has always been an expectation on all sides that the classes will have a real impact. Polish parents pay to enrol their children (the equivalent of £7-8 for the two weeks) and on the very last day there are presentations by all the classes in front of an audience of parents, friends and local dignitaries. Songs, sketches, playlets all feature prominently. The Polish youngsters do undeniably enjoy themselves. Some of the older ones, the same age or even older than their English ‘teachers', have established lasting friendships with their visitors. The vast majority of the English students have coped remarkably well with the lesson demands and several have returned for a second helping.

The Impact

The cumulative effects of the summer schools have been dramatic for the culture of the district. It is not an exaggeration to state that virtually all young children from about 12 years upwards can now hold some kind of conversation in English and remarkably the language is now being taught in every single local school from Primary upwards. Many of those actually teaching can hardly be deemed fluent; in may cases they are simply students ‘recycled' from the summer schools, but such is the demand to learn English no one is unduly concerned. Polish children generally are spending an increasing amount of time either watching Sky television or surfing the net. Many know far more about Premiership football and the top 40 than children in the UK. The older generation too is taking an increased interest in these developments albeit with a degree of wariness. A women's club, a relatively new innovation in Poland, has set up English evening classes and established a cultural link with Canada. Individual business links have been tried, with a modicum of success it has to be said, and regional television in Northern Poland even came and filmed a two-part documentary about the Sandy district in the late 90s. Local farming methods, the RSPB and the Shuttleworth collection proved particular attractions.

Further enrichment

Regular community visits in addition to the summer schools have also enabled numbers of Polish youngsters as well as Sandy citizens to get their first experiences of one another's countries. For many of the Polish children this was a dream come true and the Town Council has been happy to subsidise the cost of the 30-hour coach journey. Youth football teams, dance groups and choirs have all performed alongside their English hosts, whilst the adults have tended to concentrate more on cultural activities. Travel between the two destinations, almost exactly 1000 miles apart, has not been straightforward or cheap until the last year or so. However the advent of budget airlines and direct links between Gdansk and London Luton has dramatically changed both costs and expectations. Back in 1995 a return air fare to Northern Poland wo0uld set you back around £360, and that included a change at Warsaw. This year the summer school, students paid less than £80 for the direct return trip with the total journey time between Sandy and Skarszewy now down to less than 6 hours.

This latest development is wildly exciting for Polish people who can start to afford the airfares. A good handful of 18 year-old Polish students are spending much of this summer with local families with the prime aim of perfecting their English. Some are doing babysitting and a couple working part-time. This trend will surely increase and does of course mirror the national picture. Statistics tell us that since the latest batch of countries joined the EU the UK has admitted around 170,000 migrant workers from former eastern bloc countries and more than 110,000 of these have come from Poland with another sizeable contingent from Lithuania, many of these of Polish origin. Many of the new arrivals are living with relatives who have been here since the end of the last war and who are well integrated into English society. With unemployment high back home large numbers of Polish students see a wonderful opportunity in spending a year or two in the UK and saving enough money to go back home and buy themselves a flat and car etc. They will also return home with near perfect English giving them an additional much needed skill. They can afford to be optimistic.

Future trends

What of the future? English summer schools are now widespread throughout former Eastern bloc countries and will doubtless continue to proliferate. For many Polish children they are still one of the highlights of their year, give them access to real English speakers in a setting far removed from what is still a very formal, educational set-up and an enjoyable diversion during their long summer holiday. For the English students there is the opportunity to visit a developing country, to see truly beautiful and unpolluted landscapes and visit very interesting historical and cultural sites as well as enjoy prices for food, drink and specialities such as cut glass, silver and amber ware etc., which are still remarkably low by our standards. Now is the time to really enjoy such countries. If one looks at how much has changed over the past ten years and to what extent the English language has swept across like a tornado, it is difficult to imagine what will be the picture ten years hence.

 

Contact Sandy Twinning Association:

Chairman: Max Hill
21 The Green,
Beeston,
Sandy,
Bedfordshire,
SG19 1PE
Telephone: 01767 681469

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