After the Culture United project had begun, the world was put on hold due to the Coronavirus, including Erasmus+ project activities. However, this did not stop everyone completely. Teachers and students of the Culture United project wanted to keep the connections they had made and therefore decided to start a pen-pal project.
“The students were very enthusiastic writing their letters, but they had to manage their expectations and practice their patience while waiting for responses,” said one teacher from Scotland. The partner teacher from Ireland also expressed that they were very surprised to see the students writing so neatly, as they understood that their letters would be read by other students. This is such a great example of interdisciplinary learning: by writing these letters they practice not only language and writing, but also storytelling and heritage, as pupils were telling about their local heritage such as the poet Robert Burns, Harry Potter and the Irish Saint Bridgid.
Although the pandemic is not affecting our lives as much, and almost everything has been opened again the pen-pal project has continued. It will also be expanding to include another primary school from the Netherlands. “It’s a great initiative inspired and sprung from the Culture United project, and I’m happy to see that we are continuing to impact the lives of students and teachers across Europe,” said Hester, a project manager of the Culture United Project.