HCA NEWS The Flying Suitcase ready for take off in Ireland

This week, 829 educational 'Flying Suitcases' are ready for take off and dispatch to just as many 5th grade classes in Ireland. As part of the Hans Christian Andersen bicentenary Year 5 class teachers in Ireland and the UK have been invited to register for a free Hans Christian Andersen classroom resource "The Flying Suitcase" and to enter a competition to win a trip to Denmark.

By jso - H.C. Andersen 2005 - 21 February 2005

The suitcase, named after one of Andersen's tales, is an ideal way to introduce Irish and British youngsters to the famous Danish writer and an excellent cross-curricular resource produced by VisitDenmark in London. It contains a generous selection of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, a DVD with an animated version of Andersen's "The Flying Suitcase", a classroom poster, a map and brochure about Denmark, background information about the writer and useful teacher's notes and guidelines.

"We are very pleased that the "Flying Suitcase" school project has received such a warm welcome in both countries", says the Director of VisitDenmark UK & Ireland, Mr. Henrik Kahn. "No less than 829 or 25 percent of all Irish primary schools have applied for our educational suitcase in 6 weeks only, which is a very fine result. Up next is market UK; already some 950 suitcases are earmarked for English, Welsh and Scottish primary schools and for the English public library authorities. We've still got a few hundred suitcases left and closing date for applying in the UK is not until early April, although we do operate on a 'first come, first served-basis", Mr. Kahn continues.

The Flying Suitcase school competition invites Irish and British children from the 5th grade to write and illustrate a fairytale storyboard based on one of Andersen's classics. The winning class in Ireland and the UK respectively, is up for an all-inclusive 4-day school journey to Denmark to visit places like Copenhagen and Odense, where Andersen spent much of his life.

Background information
The "Flying Suitcase" is a non-commercial school project developed by VisitDenmark UK & Ireland and backed by the HCA2005 Foundation, the Department for Education and Skills' TeacherNet in the UK, the Department of Education and Science in Ireland, The British Library, Penguin Books, SAS, Novasol and Statoil Ireland Ltd.

For further informationvisit: www.visitdenmark.com/flyingsuitcase.


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