English

Dear Visitor

Location

First of all some geographical information about Belgium.

Belgium is a small country where three languages are spoken.

The northern part is Flanders where they speak Flemish (Dutch).

The southern part of Belgium is the Walloon country where people speak French.

The barrier between the Flemish and Walloon part is named « the language border » but this is only an imaginary border.

The third language is German which is spoken in a small eastern part of the Walloon country.

In Brussels, our capital and the capital of Europe, they speak French and Flemish.

Belgium is divided into ten provinces.

One of them is Limburg. The capital of Limburg is Hasselt.

Our village Viversel is located in Limburg, near Hasselt.

Limburg is situated in the northeastern part of Belgium, near the Dutch and German border.

So, cities such as Eindhoven and Maastricht in the Netherlands

and Aachen in Germany are very near.

If you have read all of the above, you can figure out that we speak Flemish (Dutch).

Viversel is very small and therefore probably not situated on a geographical map.

Viversel is a parish (a hamlet, a small part) of Zolder.

Zolder is one part of the fusion town Heusden-Zolder.

And Heusden-Zolder is situated on every map of Belgium( near Hasselt).

How to get in Viversel ?

By plane

·        to Brussels                                                                          (about 70 – 75 km from Zolder)

·        to Brussels-South (Charleroi) : Ryanair, Wizzair              (about 90 –100km from Zolder)

·        to Eindhoven :  Ryanair                                                      (only 67 km from Zolder)

·        to Maastricht-Aachen Airport                                             (50 km from Zolder)

Trains

·        from Brussels to Hasselt  (direct connection)

·        from Charleroi over Brussels to Hasselt    (combi-ticket bus + train to Brussels,  afterwards train Brussels – Hasselt)

·        from Eindhoven to Hasselt  (very difficult indirect connection : journey 3 hours)

·        from Maastricht to Hasselt  (difficult indirect connection : longer than 2 hours)

Bus

·        from Hasselt to Zolder (Viversel) : bus 23 leaves in front of the railwaystation in Hasselt.

·        from Maastricht to Hasselt : bus 45 or 20 a, afterwards bus 23 to Zolder.

·        From Eindhoven airport to Eindhoven station : bus to Lommel, and then a bus to Hasselt.

Car

·        route E314 (Brussels – Aachen), exit 27 (Zolder-Terlaemen)

About our school

In Belgium there are three establishments or institutions which organize education :

1. The State        2. The Municipality       3. The religious (catholic) authority

So, you have public schools (state), municipal schools and the free schools (former known as catholic (parish) schools )

Our school is the « Sint Jan Berchmansschool ». The word « Sint » means « Saint » which already declares that we are a catholic or free school. The education programmes of the three education networks are almost the same, just slight differences.

Our school is a basic school :

basic means that the kindergarten and primary school are integrated.

In the kindergarten the teachers work around 11 development aspects :

The education programme in primary school provides lessons in

·        language (Dutch)

·        second language (French) : in the fifth and sixth class

·        mathematics

·        religion

·        world oriëntation (contains geography, history, biology, natural science in an initial phase, in an initial stage)

·        gymnastics

·        plastic arts : handicraft, drawing, painting, …

·        music & (musical) expression : drama

Address of our school

Gesubsidieerde vrije basisschool St.-Jan Berchmans

Poothof 4                3550 Heusden-Zolder

Telephone:    011/42 95 87                  from abroad   (0032/11 42 95 87)

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Hours:

Morning : from 9 till 12.10 
Wednesday : from 9 till 12u.15

Afternoon: from 13.10 tot 15.35

DirectorFlipkens Peter

About our town

Viversel is a small town, located in a nice green environment, but also with some industry.

Viversel has a busy corporate life.

There is the music harmony, the theatre society, the local footballclub, …

And of course there is the race circuit of Zolder which is located in Viversel.

Between 1973 and 1984, the circuit hosted the Formula 1 races several times.

Those were the highdays of the circuit. Because the Formule 1 races moved to another circuit in Belgium, the circuit of Zolder started to organize other events: different kinds of car-racing (touring car competition, 24 hours endurance , truck-racing, historical cars)  and events such as motorcross, cycle-racing, … Every year about 700,000 spectators visit the circuit.

About Comenius

The European Community (Council & Parliament) grounded an action programme in het field of education with the name SOCRATES.

The objectives of Socrates are:  (short version)

·        to strenghten the European dimension in education

·        to promote the knowledge of languages

·        to promote cooperation and mobility in the field of education

·        to encourage innnovation in the development of educational practices and materials and to explore matters of common policy interest in the field of education.

There are 8 actions within SOCRATES to accomplish these objectives.

One of these actions is COMENIUS.

The Sint Jan Berchmansschool of Viversel has comitted to the Comenius programme because

Comenius seeks to enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of school education by encouraging transnational cooperation between schools and contributing to improved professional development of staff directly involved in the school education sector, and to promote the learning of languages and intercultural awareness.

Partnership with schools from

·        Valencia (Spain)

·        York (England)

·        Rome (Italy)

·        Iasi (Rumania)

We worked about different kind of art for a period of three years.

2. Comenius Action-1 2006 - 2009 : “Myths, legends and fairytales”

Partnership with schools from

·        Vila Real (Portugal)

·        Thisted (Denmark)

·        Livorno (Italy)

·        Villaviciosa de Odon (Spain)

·        Athens (Greece)

·        Lefkozia (Cyprus)

3. Comenius Action-1 project 2010-2012 : “Go green, Go clean … Act now!”

Partnership with schools from

• Vila Real (Portugal)
• Thisted (Portugal)
• Livorno (Italy)
• Athens (Greece)
• Aradippou (Cyprus)
• Iasi (Romania)
• Bydgosczc (Poland)

http://2clean2green.wordpress.com

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