Perm Gymnasium No. 6 in Sicily

In October 2015 a group of students of the Perm Gymnasium No. 6 paid a visit to Sicily. This visit was planned as a part of the culturological and educational project of co-operation between two gymnasia – in Perm and Raffadali (Province of Agrigento). Until recently, their co-operation was embodied in correspondence as well as in the visits of the Perm delegation to the festival “Perm Culture Days in Sicily” in summer. Perm children plunged into Italian culture and language: together with their Italian friends, they’ve been studying Italian, seeing the most interesting tours around the ancient Sicilian cities.

During the visit, there were meetings with Italian families and project organizers. Among the most interesting events of the visit – Perm delegation has attended a children’s concert at Raffadali Communal school, and Italian partners met Perm teachers and their pupils. Young Italians learnt and sang the famous “Kalinka” in Russian. Perm delegation received a warm welcome from the Mayor of Raffadali. Italian TV channels not once transmitted their accounts of Perm children’s visit.

Perm gymnasium’s teachers conducted English lesson talking about Russia for Italian pupils, and Perm students have shown Perm city’s presentation they created themselves. Joint lessons were interesting and captivating: double cross-presentations, warm-up exercises, group exercises, joint staging of a Russian folk tale “Kolobok”.

Young Perm residents will remember fascinating excursions: to Sant’Angelo Muxaro, a small medieval town of the XIV century, to the pottery town of Caltagirone, to a pottery shop where they learned to make ceramic bowls, visits of a Catholic church, Olivia’s Cathedral, cheese dairy, oil mill, antiquities museum, Agrigento’s ruins, seashore with limestone rocks, a tour around Raffadali, a reception in the town hall and many other attractions. The last day of the visit was marked with a wonderful concert in honour of Perm guests.

Now the Gymnasium No. 6 is preparing to host Italian teachers and students from Sicily in May 2016.

Besides friendly visits, the exchange program includes different enthralling events: “Let Us Be Friends” correspondence, exchange of “do-it-himself” Christmas-tree decorations, Children’s drawings festival “My Sicily” and “My Urals”, photo exhibition “Tell Me About You”, TV space bridge “Perm – Raffadali” and other not less interesting events.