On May 29th our Primary School 5th and 6th graders spent a wonderful day in Gernika. It was worth getting up early to enjoy the whole day.

Araba and Olabide “A” played the Final of the Alava Championship. Despite a good start by Olabide the Araba team got back into the game and ended up playing the better football and winning the match.

At the School Fête come and visit the “TRIBUDENDA” that the Primary 6th grade students have prepared.

From 7th to 14th may three teachers and four pupils from 6th grade went to Pilisivörösvár in Hungary on a Comenius meeting.

At Easter 5 of our football teams took part in an international tournament in Palencia, where we enjoyed 4 days of sport and being together.

Sam Howard says:
Llegamos en Vitoria el 17 de abril, después de viajar veinticuatro horas. Las familias nos encontraron en la estación de autobuses.

On April, 17th 9 students from New York arrived at Vitoria-Gasteiz to make an Exchange with our students from 4º ESO. They are staying with us till April, 24th. Ikastola has organized an interesting program for them and we hope that both American students and our students learn a lot, and have fun!

Last January 21st Olabide Ikastola received the Comenius plaque from Mrs Mª Luisa Gurrutxaga, Head of Innovation, in recognition of their participation in Multilateral Associations.

In the Comenius project we are preparing a poster calendar for 2011 with 12 photos. Our school provides the 3 photos for autumn.

As we do every year at Christmas we held football technique sessions in the holidays, from December 28th to 30th. There were specialist individual training sessions for each position.

The championship organised by the ACB (Spanish Professional League) gets under way on January 15th. The girls will play Corazonistas and the boys against Ekialde. We hope lots of people will go as there is always a good atmosphere at these games, with music, cheerleaders, Djs, etc.

The students researched information in Internet about Spain’s Natural Parks in order to prepare murals. We agreed on what type of information should appear: the name of the Region, the name of the Park, its area and special flora and fauna. When they had finished each group presented their work to the rest of the class and we put the murals up in the corridor.

Our four 3rd grade classes went on different days to the Centre for Environmental Studies in Vitoria-Gasteiz, which the teachers visited during the meeting here. The weather was very bad so half the activity was done indoors. The children studied the different animals which live in the protected area. They were given clues and, working in groups, had to find the animals using the books available there. They then filled in worksheets about them. After that they went outside and each group was given a map. With its help they had to find photos of the animals hidden in the area.

We went to the Gorbeia Natural Park. When we arrived we saw a video about the flora and fauna in the Park. Then we went on a walk and were given a booklet to fill in. With the help of the booklet the guides explained things about the Park and Nature.

We made 4 groups to work on 4 topics:
What is a Natural Park?
Natural Parks in The Basque Country
Natural parks in Alava
The Gorbeia Natural Park

Each group researched the information at home in magazines, on the Internet and finding posters. We then collated the information and made draft murals. After that each group made their final mural and presented it to the rest of the class before we put them in the school corridor.

We have had a very busy term in our Comenius NEAR project.
We held our meeting in Turkey, our pupils have had stays in Lurraska, they visited Izki and Urkiola Natural Parks...

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The NEAR project presently being carried out in the Primary School has held its third meeting, in Turkey.

Nerea Viana, Nuria Almazán and Malcolm Davison met up with teachers from the other 3 schools from Finland, Hungary and Turkey.

On September 2nd some of our Sixth Form students went to Wurzen in Germany and wrote from there.

Our partners in Hungary created and maintain our Comenius project web page. In Hungary there is a prize for the best Comenius web page in the country and we have won first prize. Congratulations! This is the second project we have done with them and in the previous project we also won the prize. Look up the good work at www.near.cjb.hu

Erkide, the Cooperative Federation, organised a visit to schools in the Netherlands. Iñaki Zubeldia and Andone Ruiz attended as representatives of Olabide Ikastola, from March 1st to 8th.

On February 27th Naturgas Energia, Fundación Euskadi and Olabide Ikastola signed an accord to promote the use of the bicycle as a means of travelling to school. The news appeared in various media.

On February 20th a group of Sixth Form pupils went to the Chemistry Faculty for a practical experience organised by the Basque Country University. Our teacher Azucena went with us.

The work we undertook in 2005 to win the Silver Quality award has led to even better results.
Olabide Ikastola has achieved the Golden "Q "award.

Four Olabide students have won grants from the Basque Government Education Department to study language courses abroad:

Mikel Eguiluz, Nahia Ispizua and Ainhoa Mujika of the 3rd year Secondary (all three in the U.K.) and Oier Penacho of the Lower Sixth (in Ireland)

On the 2nd and 3rd December our Comenius Project coordinator, Malcolm Davison, attended the 2nd National Meeting of Association Coordinators.

At the weekend we toured the medieval quarter of the city, Lekeitio, Oma wood and Gernika.

Luis Gaisan (4th grade Secondary) won a prize in the photography competition of the “Science Week” and will receive a laptop computer in the marquee in the Arriaga, Bilbao.

The weekend of 18th-19th October our Primary 3rd grade students took part in a football and basketball tournament in Barria. The weather was good and the programme was varied. We’d like to thank the students, relatives and coaches of Olabide Ikastola and San Prudencio Ikastetxea for coming along on the Sunday morning.

We aren’t going to publish the results because we can’t remember them – all we remember is having a really great time practising sport.

Thank you to all those involved!

From 12th to 25th September we receive the visit of our German exchange students.

On 2nd and 3rd September Aitziber Itxisoa attended a conference on Education for Peace, in Belfast.

CONGRATULATIONS NURIA!

Our under-14 football team qualified for
the Basque school championship
in San Sebastian.
They won one, drew one
and lost (2-3) one match in the finals.

Our 2nd year Secondary students entered Portugalete’s 22nd Comic Competition.

We had 3 finalists: Andrés Gamiz, Jorge Sendra and Juan Latorre.

Juan won the first prize. 

              Congratulations !

From May 1st to 5th the School Choir went to Barcelona and Gerona as part of an exchange visit with two local choirs. We mixed tourism, cultural visits, a meal together and concerts of singing and dancing. We had a great time and made good friends.

On April 24th Ahotsu, our mascot for promoting the use of the Basque language, CAME down and our Primary students celebrated with a festive programme.

On April 20th we organised our first Outdoor Activities excursion.
We travelled to Uribe Kosta in Bizkaia and went climbing,
on an aerial runway and to Butrón Castle.
There we went horse-riding and canoeing – 7km of fun,
but we all arrived safe and sound!

On March 8th there was an Aerobic and Gymnastics Day in the San Andres sports centre.
It was open to clubs and schools and our groups took part.
They were nervous at first but ended up enjoying themselves, as you can see in the photos.
Congratulations girls !
Next stop Broadway !

During the Easter holidays
the Primary 6th grade
and Secondary 2nd grade
football teams went to Palencia
to take part in
the “Palencia Cup”
international football tournament.