AN ABERGAVENNY school is taking part in a European lifelong learning programme which see representative visit five countries to develop and enhance its teaching.

Deri View School and the Acorn Centre is the first school in Monmouthshire to be awarded British Council European funding enabling it to be partners in a comenious project.

Head teacher, Maggie Teague and the Acorn Centre head of early years, Annette Melmoth are partners in the comenious project which will see them visit Romania, Turkey, Finland, Spain and Germany.

Over the next two years both the staff from the Acorn centre and the school will be working with teachers from these countries on a joint project.

They were invited to be part of the project by the Munich education department following a visit in 2007 to talk to early years educators on the work done on family learning.

A range of activities is planned including PE and art and crafts which will be delivered in the partnership schools and the outcomes will be discussed at meetings at the participating countries.

As part of the project they will visit one country every three months, the first being Munich on November 24 to discuss PE, accompanied by year six teachers Jo Mayo, and Louse Clarke along with Acorn representative, language and play leader Tony Flemming - who also has a qualification in early years gymnastics.

The children and staff of Deri View will be involved in the work and it is hoped this way the children will learn about other countries as well as develop their cultural diversity.

All the children will be involved from participating to the project to linking together with other school on the project.

Head teacher Maggie Teague said, "I am particularly excited about our trip to Helsinki to see the early years education as Deri View is an early start school for the foundation phase.

"The foundation phase in Wales designed on good European practice and I will be very interested for us to learn more about the early years provision in Finland."

Acorn Centre head of early years Annette Melmoth adds, "When we visited Munich in 2007 we learnt so much from that one visit that enhanced my practice. I can't wait to visit the other countries, the whole project is so exciting and motivating."

The project will be concluded in Autumn 2010 when all the countries will visit Deri View and the Acorn Centre.