CULTURAL HERITAGE WEEK AT OTOČEC PRIMARY SCHOOL: WATER – USEFUL AND BEAUTIFUL (25TH SEPTEMBER 2017 – 30TH SEPTEMBER 2017) The project Cultural Heritage Week coincides with the Days of European Cultural Heritage, which are a joint action undertaken every year by numerous European countries under the auspices of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The aim of this week is to strengthen the citizens' feeling of a common identity and to spread the awareness of the meaning of cultural heritage among the young. Otočec is a settlement on the left riverbank of the river Krka. It has existed as a market town called Šentpeter for several centuries. Otočec experienced a rapid development in the 1970s and 1980s and then it grew furthermore in the 1990s to become an urbanised countryside settlement. It has also become an important tourist centre with a rich natural and cultural heritage. During the Cultural Heritage Week both teachers and students of Otočec Primary School will join the common European topic for 2017, which is dedicated to water. By means of organizing varied activities during the Cultural Heritage Week we intend to encourage our students and citizens of Otočec to include more contents from the field of cultural and natural heritage protection in educational processes both in formal as well as informal education. The two aims we are going to pursue during the Cultural Heritage Week are to:  Acquaint the students with the basics of recognizing, discovering, conserving and protecting our heritage and  Teach them how, where and from whom to acquire basic information regarding our cultural and natural heritage. At Otočec Primary School, project activities are going to take place between Monday, 25 September 2017 and Saturday, 30 September 2017. On Monday, they are going to be carried out during regular classes with elements of cross-curricular connections and through various Activities Days in the remaining part of the week. The Activities Days, which will take place in the form of Technical Day, Natural Science Day, Cultural Day and Sports Day, will run vertically through all nine grades of primary school. Our students will get to know and explore all the areas connected with water under the guidance of their mentors at school, the help of the local community Otočec and various societies and external associates. The activities of the project week will commence at school where Grade 1–5 form teachers will prepare and carry out various subject-specific topic-based workshops in accordance with the curriculum and topic areas specified by it. Teachers of specific subjects at the upper-primary level will prepare different workshops within their subjects to a joint topic, corresponding with the curriculum. Groups of students are going to rotate at these workshops. On the first day, special attention will be placed on cross-curricular connections of one specific single topic. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, Technical and Natural Science Days will be carried out for all students of our school. At these occasions, they will make model boats, ships, mills, bridges, houses, castles etc. that will be put to a test on a nearby stream. We will also explore natural heritage and living beings in different habitats such as a stream, a pond and a waterfall. The students will also participate in excursions where they will visit and explore water mills and the life and work of millers, the workings of a hydro-electric power plant and the spring of the river Krka. On Thursday a Cultural Day, dedicated entirely to cultural heritage, will be organised for all students. Together with the students we will create materials in connection with traditional everyday chores, folk songs, folk dances, fountains, mills and furthermore. Our Cultural Heritage Week will end with a special School Day on Saturday, 30 September 2017, with our 2nd traditional charity walking tour in the vicinity of the school. Both local citizens and senior citizens, acquainted with knowledge about how our town has changed and evolved, as well as students – in the role of tour guides, who will inform the participants of the hike about the sights, such as monuments by the water, streams, mills, water reservoirs, ponds, dams and wells – will be invited to participate at the walking tour. It is expected that all the activities will start at 8.20 am and end at 12.40 pm. The excursions will begin at 8 o'clock with the departure from school and arrival back home in the late afternoon. On Saturday, the programme of the day will begin with a cultural event and exhibition, where visitors and guests will be able to see the models and other products the students will have created all week long. After the cultural event, the 2nd traditional charity walking tour will take place. Our findings and discoveries will be presented on the one hand at the final cultural event at School Day and at information points along the route of the traditional walking tour in the vicinity of the school and by water sources on the other hand. Last but not least, all the findings and experiences will be summarized and published in a brochure once the Cultural Heritage Week finishes. Project coordinator at the school: Melita Turk Translator: mag. Marija Sedmak