Celebrations as local teacher wins top award
Carol Duffy receives her award for third place in the photography category of the British Council and Ecorys competition for participants of the Lifelong Learning Programme and Youth in Action from Althea Warner from the Department for Education.
THERE were celebrations for Lisburn teacher Carol Duffy last month when she was selected as one of the winners of the British Council and Ecorys Lifelong Learning Programme and Youth in Action Competition 2011, entitled 'Your Story'.
Hundreds of people from across the UK took part in the competition and shared their fascinating stories and images of how the programmes have helped them to broaden their horizons.
Brownlee Primary School teacher Carol, who travelled to the British Council in London on November 24 for the awards announcement with fellow Brownlee teacher Laura Woods, was selected as the Comenius Photo Competition 3rd prize winner.
Explaining how she became involved with the competition, Carol said: "In July 2011 a colleague and I went to Madrid for one week to take part in a Comenius teaching course 'Interacting in Madrid' where teaching professionals from across Europe shared experiences of teaching in their countries and trained together. The focus was 'Teaching and learning strategies using games and drama activities'. We would then return to our host country and use these new strategies to enhance the learning experiences for our pupils."
Having heard about the competition, Carol decided to enter, she said: "I thought it was a good way to share the great opportunities there are for teachers through programmes like Comenius."
Carol added: "Since returning to Brownlee we have been using some of these new teaching and learning strategies in our classes and in our school Drama Club."
Simon Williams, Head of EU Programmes at the British Council commented, "Both the Lifelong Learning Programme and Youth in Action Programme provide fantastic opportunities for organisations and individuals involved in education and training, or in youth and community work, to collaborate, learn from each others' expertise, and widen their experience of other cultures and languages. This competition gives us all the chance to have a glimpse of the life-changing experiences that they can enjoy. Their words, films and photographs provide an insight into the benefits of the programme and its impact on the lives of those who take part. We hope their stories will encourage many others to get involved.
Ulster Star
09/12/2011
