November 11, 2009

Dia de S. Martinho (St. Martin Day)

Today we celebrated Dia de São Martinho (Saint Martin Day).
But who was São Martinho? The legend says that Martinho was a Roman soldier who was caught, on a dreadful winter day, in a snowstorm with only his cape to protect him. While riding to get out of the storm he was approached by a beggar; Martinho cut his cloak in half to share with the beggar and save him from dying. When Martinho did it, the clouds drifted and beams of sun lit up the sky.
That night Martin dreamed that Jesus was wearing the half-cloak he had given away to the beggar and heard a voice saying, “Every time you do a good deed for your less fortunate and unprotected brothers, you are doing it to me”.
From this day on, he began looking at and treating people differently and was later canonized as a saint.
São Martinho is celebrated throughout Europe on this day, and in Portugal it is celebrated doing good deeds, eating roasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper or old phone book pages (sometimes also dry figs and walnuts), and drinking the first wine of this year crops, called água-pé (literally "foot water", made by adding water to the juice which is pressed out of the grapes with bare feet ) or jeropiga (a sweet liquor).
But in our school we didn’t drink água-pé or jeropiga; we only ate roasted chestnuts and drank orange juice!

November 02, 2009

Halloween at FORAVE

Halloween isn’t a Portuguese tradition, but in our school it has been celebrated for several years. So, we can say it´s a tradition at FORAVE.
During the day the students and the teachers carve Jack-o’-lanterns and decorate the school with witches, graveyards, bats, skeletons, coffins, …
At night we have a parade through the streets of Lousado, our village; we also have a ball and a Jack-o’-lantern contest.

It’s a great day!
Diogo and Sílvia













September 15, 2009

Lousado’s traditional festivity in honour of Santa Marinha

Last weekend we went to Lousado’s traditional festivity in honour of Santa Marinha.For three days there were some activities which brought a lot of visitors to our village and Lousado was decorated with colourful arches and lights.During those days, visitors had the opportunity to watch some music shows with famous singers and performances by traditional folk groups. There were also some stands that sold pastries, shoes, clothes, toys, CDs and other things and some merry-go-rounds where we spent all our money and had a great time!The last day was dedicated to a religious procession with horses, boyscouts and people dressed up as angels, saints and other religious figures.This annual festivity ended with an amazing firework that could be seen from the nearby villages.We spent a lovely time there with our friends.See ya!

Andreia, Diogo and Tiago (TG 07/10)






Presentation done by our students

Here is a presentation about FORAVE done by the students.

September 14, 2009

Our school


FORAVE –ASSOCIAÇÃO PARA A EDUCAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL DO VALE DO AVE is a vocational/technical private school located in the North of Portugal.
Established in 1990, FORAVE has level III courses (equivalent to upper secondary school) and level II courses (equivalent to lower secondary school) and our main aim is the preparation of qualified youngsters for active life. We have always given a great importance to an individualized education, with a strong emphasis given to professional traineeships.
There are also EFA courses, included in the longlife learning national education plan, through which adult students have voluntarily returned to school and are trying to improve or acquire skills and school certificates they didn’t have the opportunity of getting when they were supposed to and when they were in a regular school.
Forave is also an active partner of the enterprises, the community and the local associations.
At this moment there are four different level III courses at our school, a Technical Course in Management, a Technical Course in Industrial Maintenance, a Technical Course in Electronics, Automation and Control and a Technical Course in Food Quality Control.
The Level II courses are related Electricity and Social Services.
Our school is situated in the Ave Valley, a geographical region greatly affected by the economical crisis of the textile companies, once its great source of wealth. Most of our students belong to families with very low incomes and at risk of giving up school. So,
our main aim is the preparation of qualified youngsters, who can answer to the demands of the market and who can live creative, fruitful and successful lives in this new world.

September 13, 2009

H(E)UNGARIAN PIE

H(E)UNGARIAN PIE is a youth exchange carried out with EU support in Kőszeg, Hungary with participation of Hungarian, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish youngsters. Its main themes are cultural diversity, dialogue between cultures and generations, and European awareness.
During the project time, students and teachers from FORAVE will be involved in several activities and all their products will be disseminated here.