Introducing Leandro...

Introducing Leandro from Escola Professor Mourão Filho...

How did you learn about this opportunity?

“I learned about the project from Luciana, who is a teacher at E.M. Londres.”

Is English hard to teach in Brazil?

“I think so. Unfortunately education is hardly seen as priority and most Brazilian students do not see any good reason to learn English.”

What were your initial thoughts on this new project?

“Honestly, my initial thought was that it would not work out since most students do not really care about learning English. However, as being a teacher involves believing and not giving up easily, I have decided to give it a chance.”

How do you think having the opportunity to interact with a school in Brazil and England help your school?

“I think that will help a lot, as having this interaction will encourage all the staff to embrace the project.”

What are the children most looking forward too?

“I guess they are most looking forward to chatting with and sending letters to the students in England.”

How will this project effect the children in your school?

“I think that will open their minds to the real importance of learning English.”

What is the impact of this project on other teachers in your school?

“I hope this project will encourage other teachers to take part and help the English teachers implement the project.”

What hope do you have for the future with this project?

“I hope this project will be well availed and that this be the first of many projects in my school.”

Introducing Rio de Janeiro...

Introducing Wladilene from Escola Municipal Ministro Gama Filho...

How did you learn about this opportunity?

“A friend of mine, Luciana Oliveira, told me about this project.”

Is English hard to teach in Brazil?

“In public schools, it is hard to teach English because most of the students are not aware about the importance of learning a second language.”

What were your initial thoughts on this new project?

“I thought it would be a good way for them to be familiar with the English language.”

How do you think having the opportunity to interact with a school in Brazil and England help your school?

“In my opinion, the contact with others will encourage them to interact in English because they will see other Brazilian students doing it from Curitiba.”  

What are the children most looking forward too?

“When I told them about this project, they became interested in meeting the people from England and they started to ask questions about the country.”

How will this project effect the children in your school?

“I think it will spark student’s desire to explore a world that they do not know that exists.”

What is the impact of this project on other teachers in your school?

“I believe it will have a great impact on them. I have not had time to talk to them yet as I have just talked to my directors and they are really excited about it.”

What hope do you have for the future with this project?

“Firstly, I hope the children become more interested in learning a second language. Secondly, that they explore, investigate and understand their world and the wider world.”

Introducing...

Welcome to Escola Municipal Londres in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil...

We caught up with teacher Luciana as she discussed how her school came about to be involved in this opportunity and her hopes for the future...

How did you learn about this opportunity?

“I received an email from Craig asking if I would like to join Project Curitiba after he was given my details from the British Council. I then spoke to my school and entered into the schools partnership.”

Is English hard to teach in Brazil?

“It is a little bit hard to teach English because we do not always have the necessary equipment to teach. We have a lot of students with around 35 in each class and they only have one hour per week to study English. In better conditions it would be easier.”

What were your initial thoughts on this new project?

“My initial thoughts were how they opportunity would increase my student interest in the English language and in one month I already have students who are joining the English courses because of this project. They are motivated to speak English with new friends”

How do you think having the opportunity to interact with a school in Brazil and England help your school?

“I feel very excited to learn from teachers and students from a different part of the world and another city from our country. I believe that it will help my school to enlarge the children’s vision of the world and to see that their life can be so much more than they currently imagine.”

What are the children most looking forward too?

“The children are most looking forward to meeting the other children through Skype and show them a piece of their own lives. They feel very important because someone from a place so far away wants to know more about them and cares about their life.”

How will this project effect the children in your school?

“It has already had an effect as children are motivated to study English and more have enrolled in the English courses at my school.”

What is the impact of this project on other teachers in your school? “The other teachers see the impact on their students, they feel the same excitement and also motivation to learn English as well”

What hope do you have for the future with this project?

“I hope that my students will realise how English can change their lives and open their eyes and ideas about the world. I truly believe that this project will provide a new perspective of life to my students.”

Project Rio - Graphic

Project Rio

We will be introducing the three new Rio de Janeiro schools who will form the international schools cluster over the next few weeks.

You can see a simple infographic below which highlights this education project!

Road to Brazil II

It's been a while since the last post so might just do a wrap up on the last few months. To be honest the Brazil journey pretty much just continues in our mind as we are not living the experiences daily. Of course we keep in contact with friends in Curitiba/Brazil and Thad has a group of volunteers continuing the legacy in the city.

The teachers from England will travel to Curitiba on Saturday October 17th to stay for 10 days, 5 of which will be with their partner school. Its a really big opportunity for them to understand more of the culture and be able to share that with the children back in Newcastle. They already share information via email, but this real life interaction will bring the project to life.

We spoke to the Prefeitura and they are working on a plan for when they arrive. There is media interest both in Brazil and the UK about this exchange which should hopefully bring a bit of positivity about the World Cup legacy. We had the chance to meet with Gustavo Fruet last year and he remains interested in the project so the teachers will have the opportunity to meet him in a few months as well.

The teachers from Brazil will visit Newcastle on Saturday November 14th for 10 days where they will interact with the schools. They are extremely excited, for many of them its the first time out of Brazil, but they are interested to know more about education in the UK.

We got a message from an American lad who was visiting Curitiba recently and keen to volunteer. We put him in contact with Thad (a fellow American). He had a brilliant time with Thad in the communities and it does go to show the power of social media.

Good news as the Jogos da Amizade returns to Curitiba in November 2015 with the support of the Prefeitura de Curitiba. A video will be released closer to the time reflecting the event last year and a reminder of the World Cup mashed into one.

We had an idea back in March regarding August 2016, its a work in progress, but the next two weeks could put the wheels in motion.

A little bit of...Everything

The World Cup is over and Germany are the champions. However we continue the Lionsraw work in Curitiba delivering English lessons, delivering football coaching sessions and learning how to lay blocks on the build site in Cajuru for the education facility.

I guess the World Cup continues for us, but with a different focus about leaving a lasting legacy in Curitiba. Our English lessons are starting to utilize the resource given to us by Premier Skills, which follows the story of Josh Jones and his quest to play for Big City United. The first chapters are focused on dreams and goals so as part of the lesson at Maria Augusta Jouve we asked the children what their's were. It's hard to take in everything, especially in another language, but among the football player and musician we had some heartbreaking responses like wanting to know their father or for their parents to be back together. Some of the young people's goal is to teach their family English so they can help at home and for employment. We are not just teaching English at the school, but it seems like we are becoming an example of something positive for them to look up to. We explained our dreams were to be football players when younger and although that didn't happen it hasn't turned out to bad for us!

The football project at Pinhais is on a two week break as they have some much needed work done on the premises which has been a bit of a risk. We are also starting the donations that will help supply each child with a gift this Christmas as £100 has been raised so far to help to project deliver this year. Almirante and Cajuru are continuing steadily with an increased number of young people attending totalling around 100 young people involved each week.

We visited two of the local professional teams stadiums and training facilities (Atletico PR and Coritiba). They have been superb with us allowing us to see how they operate here in Brazil and learn from some of their coaching staff for personal development. We were taken on tours of the stadiums, including the Arena da Baixada and a little pit stop on the pitch which had been used only a few weeks before for the big event. A massive thank you to all those involved in supporting us and allowing us the privilege to visit.

I also visited a local hospital in Curitiba as I picked up an infection in my leg. I hadn't noticed until prior to a football session and after the session my leg had swollen to almost twice the size. It was an experience and slightly worrying as although the doctor tried to communicate in English it was mainly in Portuguese. I'm not sure what caused the infection, but after 5 days of medication and rest I can return to school tomorrow. The rest has coincided with some unbelievable weather here so I can't complain too much!

Along with my return the Brasileiro has returned and we watched Coritiba play against Corinthians yesterday. The game finished 0-0, but we did get a sun tan as we watched both teams cancel each other out. It is very difficult to judge Brazilian football as before we came it was assumed it would be amazing. The atmosphere is breath taking, at times during the game we will just watch the crowd and prior to kick off they do a fantastic show of banners. However when the football starts you almost wish the teams could deliver for the supporters as the game is drawn out by poor passing, long balls, needless free kicks, yellow cards and very little continued possession. The game is slow and you will rarely see a quick counter attack or a team break away. There are some individually talented players who can perform in spells, but general team play has left a lot to be desired. We want the teams to be brilliant and maybe they have hit a rough patch, but the Premier League is leading for us at the moment.

A huge group of our volunteers left over the last week so it was a pleasure to meet and get to know you all. Hope you all got back safely and have a blast with your family and friends!

Finally we will visit Uruguay to collect our visa to enable us to stay until December. A very long process, but eventually we look like we will be able to continue the legacy that was set out for us this year.

Brazil Day!

Our first Brazil Day has been completed at Holystone Primary and what a day it was. It left me quite speechless because after all the planning and organising for the event I don't think it could have went any better.


The idea of a Brazil Day came as an opportunity to share our NewcastletoBrazil aim and thankfully schools have taken the idea on to help support us and the project. Sadly the weather was typical North East England weather with a cool wind and rain, but the enthusiasm and excitement from pupils made this a day to remember. Just before the day we prepared a presentation which explained the purpose behind the day, but actually made us minor celebrities as children recognised us as we passed through the school.

As we approached the school to setup for the day they proudly had a Brazil flag on show next to a union jack flag. We delivered futsal tricks with an inflatable pitch, they school organised WorldBeaters to come in and teach pupils music. We managed to have some Brazilian students come along and meet pupils to give them the opportunity to ask question, learn some phrases and culture.

Overall the 480 pupils were absolutely fantastic and really took to the day helping to raise £383. I can't thank them enough for the support and hope to create a link between a school in Curitiba for them. The carnival they finished with was brilliant and hopefully we should have a video appearing soon.

The main thing was for pupils to enjoy the day and two quotes stick in the mind "we should do this every Friday" and "best day ever!"