Fourth (and final) short-term exchange of pupils
Place: Bydgoszcz, Poland
Date: 8 - 16 March 2019
Venue: Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących nr 6
Address: ul. Staszica 4, 85-014 Bydgoszcz, Polska
From 8th to 16th March 2019 ZSO No. 6 hosted the students and teachers of our partner schools from Germany, Italy and Slovenia. It was the final, fourth youth exchange organized as part of the Erasmus+ "Speak up, even if your voice shakes" project. The culminating event marking the end of our one hundred people strong project team's two-year work was "Musketeers of Words" Polish High School Oxford Debate Championships in English.
Our preparations for the competition started in January 2019 and they involved work on the Speak Up Debating Society Twinspace and extra classes at all schools.
Our guest speaker in Bydgoszcz was Mr Miha Andrič, an international debate coach and adjudicator from Slovenia, who gave a lecture on debates and savoir-vivre. He also conducted a series of workshops on argumentation and debate case building. Ms Monika Izbaner ran workshops on debate assessment and role fulfillment.
During the "Musketeers of Words 2019" tournament Erasmus+ and Speak up were represented by four national and one international team. All of them demonstrated excellent debating skills and the team of Gimnazija Bežigrad: Peter Kenda, Eva Zagoričnik, Urša Štefan and Lea Bernik, we are delighted to announce, won the championships. We are also immensely happy with the fourth place of the Italian team, Paolo Palladio, Antonio Giulio De Simone, Armando Somma and Emilia Alessandra Di Vuolo as well as the achievements of Patryk Jankowski - the best speaker of the tournament, Antonio Giulio De Simone - award for the progress he made in debating over the two days and Katharina Kirchner for delicate but at the same time witty rebuttal. Congrats to all the debating teams and their coaches!
The stay in Bydgoszcz was not all about learning and public speaking though. In their free time the participants enjoyed the numerous attractions of our city. To promote Polish cultural heritage we also oganized two trips, to Gdańsk, Sopot and Toruń. We listened to an organ concert at Oliwa Cathedral, we visited the Nicholas Copernicus House and the Museum of Toruń Gingerbread.
The mobility in Bydgoszcz closes our project, so we would like to thank all the students and teachers we shared the last two years with. It was an amazing adventure and a huge thank you to you all!