Goals for internationalization in general.

Students

• offering education that enables young people to gain a good starting position in a community that is increasingly international.

• offering education that makes young people conscious and makes them feel safe with the international character of this living and work community.

• an active and positive attitude towards other countries and cultures by promoting insight in each others culture and cultural heritage.

• reflection and awareness of ones own culture and breaking through prejudicial attitudes and stereotypes

• a less prejudicial attitude towards other cultures

• development and improvement of social skills

• increasing motivation

School

• Raising the quality of education by exchanging content and didactical approaches of the subjects involved.

• More specific for the modern foreign languages

• Promotion of the insight that the use of foreign languages is inescapable in a community that is increasingly international.

• Promotion of the quality of education in modern foreign languages by offering a “natural environment” for language learning during international exchanges.

Starting points for exchange programmes.

Home and away

Within the exchange there will be visits and receptions for the same group.

Goals

• Getting into contact with each other’s culture/heritage/habits/traditions/daily and school life as intensively as possible.

• Raising the quality of education by direct contacts that can add substantially to subjects at school.

• Target group: class 4 or higher (corresponding to secondary high).

Selection

• Motivational letter/interview.

• Positiv contribution to the groupproces.

• Stay at a host family/ act as a host family.

• Presence at preparation meetings/ proper preparation of the trip and the National Presentation.

About the program:

• Duration: minimum time of stay: 8 days.

• Types of education:  cooperative learning

• Participants will be working in small groups of mixed nationality.

• The assignments demand intensive cooperation.

• The assignments require positive mutual dependency amongst the group members.

• The assignments are challenging and demand high standards of the participants.

Fixed parts of the programme

The emphasis is focused on the educational notion of the programme. The intensity of the programme adds to the experience of the participants. Recreational parts of the programme should be in line with the theme of the exchange.

Beforehand

• Preparational meetings/introduction/teambuilding

• A well prepared National Presentation: a short presentation in which countries introduce themselves, explain what is typical for that country etc. A fixed part is a promotional movie of the school.

• Preparation meeting with parents. Talk about the programme, the agreements, the travel arrangements etc. As extra practice the National Presentation will be shown to the parents.

During the exchange

• National Presentation for all parents and participants during the first couple of days.

• National Consultation: a fixed daily meeting of 30 minutes in which participants and accompaniment exchange experiences to help them reflect on what they go through and encounter any problems that might occur.

• Joining in a regular school day with lessons.

• Informal assignments next to the theme which contribute to show similarities and differences in culture.

• Final presentation: Participants will work towards a clear end result that they can be proud of. This result will be presented to parents, teachers and each other.

• Maintaining a Facebook page for all participants and those otherwise involved: Containing reports, photos, videos, etc.

After visit

• Reünion/ parents’ meeting. Short evaluation, feedback and repeat of the final presentation (if held abroad)

• Different forms of sharing the results to expand the foundation and understanding.

• Sharing the results, experiences outside of school

• Sustaining the embodiment of the programme within the curriculum.