Week Four – Professional Development

Ik hoop dat je veel leesplezier.

It is hard to believe we are living our Belgium lives for a month now, the saying ‘time flies when you are enjoying yourself’ really is true so I am going to make the most of this experience to develop me both personally and professionally. “Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.” J.Randolph, (1821).

Overall in my Erasmus experience I am feeling at home with the friendly people I have got to know and even by the same clothes shops in which I am familiar with but within the education system in Belgium I don’t feel many connections to home. This week we visited the Europaschool, a primary school, in Genk. 88% of the pupils have the Turkish language as their mother tongue rather than Dutch as Genk was a famous coalmining town from 1901 until it was closed down in 1966. This attracted a lot of different nationalities to settle here over the years which are mostly Turkish. This primary school caters for children from the age of two and a half years old up until the age of twelve.

Although I am studying secondary teaching this primary school gave me a large insight in good teaching methods which will benefit me professionally. The school priority aim is the pupils ‘feeling good at school’ and I really believe this aim is carried out to the best of the schools ability. There are a few important points which stick out in my mind, the biggest one being in August the class teachers visit the homes of their new pupils individually, to give them in insight to their home life, background and meet them personally before school commences. This gets a lot of positive feedback from both the parents and the pupils as they feel more at ease overall on school life. The school also provides night courses for the parents to learn Dutch or English, lets the pupils themselves make large art pieces to decorate the school inside and outside, the school outdoor playing facilities are opened to be used by the community as most of them live in small flats with no playing space, there are Turkish teachers to assist the pupils in communicating and the parents are allowed to visit or take part in the school day when they wish.

Professionally this school will be one I will remember mostly as I feel the personal touch of all the staff and teachers will come a long way for the pupils and the parents. The school had both a good learning environment and a playing environment which is needed for the pupils of these ages. 

                                             Art work made by the pupils of the Europaschool, Genk.

Week four also brought us to visit the Yunus Emre Mosque which is the first time Adam, Stewart and I have visited one and in my opinion it will also be the last. Although I did find it an interesting and intriguing experience to get an insight into this way of Muslim living, personally I felt out of place and uncomfortable. The building itself was magnificent both outside and inside and the Muslim people attending were clearly very passionate about praying here.

Outside of the Mosque

Inside of the Mosque

When praying the Muslims kneel on the Red carpet 

We decided that we would plan a trip to Bruges at the weekend as a lot of people were talking about the city and how beautiful it is.

"Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection." Lawrence Durrell (1973).

It took us two and a half hours to travel across the country of Belgium to arrive in Bruges, which is a city I have always wished to visit since seeing the outstanding scenery featured in the movie ‘In Bruges’. Of course it lived up to my expectations and was an amazing city. Of course as usual our trip didn’t go as planned, we ended up getting lost after departing the train, which resulted in many things being closed shortly after we arrived, which was a great disappointment but also an excuse to visit the city again soon. We explored the city as much as possible, tasted the amazing Bruges chocolate which is the best in the whole of Belgium which made it an enjoyable trip overall – even though we did not get to go on the canal boat trip which I wished to do.

Bruges Canals

Treating ourselves to some well earned hot chocolate.

Heb een leuke week.