STAFF and pupils from Thomas Keble School welcomed students and teachers from five other European countries recently.

Pupils from schools in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Slovakia arrived at the school in Eastcombe on Wednesday, May 22 to start work on the final phase of a two-year Comenius project.

The Comenius programme is a European Union educational project which aims to develop knowledge and understanding among young people and education staff of the diversity of European cultures and languages, and the value of this diversity.

Pupils and staff from the six different schools all work on one project together over a two year period and during this period pupils involved in the project meet with each other four times to share ideas.

"As Thomas Keble is the host school of the project everyone has travelled to us to complete the final stage of this project," said Jo Richter, the schools international co-ordinator.

The theme of the current project is PLACE - people, leisure, architecture, communication and employment.

"All the schools have been looking at how people and the physical environment has changed in recent history and have come up with ideas of what they think the future will look like," said Mrs Richter.

"There is not that much diversity in Stroud so it is really good for the children's social skills to be mixing with people from different places."

The pupils travelled back to their own schools on the Saturday after the three day conference.

"Although it is the end of this project Thomas Keble has already started applying to be involved in another Comenius project in a years time as we feel it is so great for the children to learn about what is going on in other countries," said Mrs Richter.