6.11. Final teachers evaluation

For many years our school has been part of the Erasmus program. From the very beginning of our cooperation we have appreciated the effects on our school life and on our strategy to build up a network of various relationships to European partners. So at first we can point out that the recent project tightened the existing connections to the schools involved. Personal and institutional contacts have been deepened. That’s why we think that we are very well prepared to continue our participation and to extend our contacts as well.

Secondly, the program has offered a lot of opportunities to make the classes more interesting and more diverse. Students and teachers have repeatedly learned that a special subject can be seen from different points of view depending on different experiences made within different countries. Insights into mindfulness, nutrition and physical fitness have shown that no matter what our national preferences concerning food and drink are or what words we use to describe breathing techniques or physical exercises, we all share the same problems and work together to find solutions. Despite our different preconditions and different ways of thinking we have a lot in common. In that way the program has helped us to try for a better diet or more awareness, and to strengthen not only our bodies but also the feeling of European togetherness both among students and their families and staff.

On a local level the project was successful in establishing contacts between students and local institutions catering for a healthy lifestyle. The students spent an afternoon in the local gym where they were introduced to the different workout classes and fitness options on offer and given an introduction into the usefulness of a special diet for building muscles and staying fit. Another afternoon was dedicated to cooking and eating a three course meal at an institution called "Kochschule" run by a former Michelin-star-chef, who between the courses also presented information about the so-called superfoods and their locally grown and more environmentally friendly equivalents. These contacts our school hopes to continue both as an enrichment to regular lessons and for extracurricular activities once life will return to normal after the Pandemic.

Thirdly, while working together in the project students realised the enormous importance of language skills. They recognised that the ability of communicating with people from different countries is one of the core competences to adjust to a globalised world. This gives an enormous boost to their commitment in language classes.

For the future, the school management is going to support every further step to continue and to intensify all efforts to keep the Erasmus program a decisive part of our school life.

Our school has shared the objectives the Erasmus + programme pursues since we started our educational project in 2010. Contributing to create a sense of belonging to the European Community has been our goal since we decided to apply and work together with other partner schools from all around Europe: showing our students what being European citizens means has always been our major commitment. For all these years, we have been eager to collaborate with other partners thus creating a bond among different schools which is still alive. The inclusion of novel associates has broadened our boundaries as their views on the different aspects of the project have brought freshness to our already consolidated relationship with one of the partner schools.

The programme provides schools with a new path to approach knowledge: traditional teaching methods are transformed into more dynamic ways of learning for students and teachers. Being able to share our ideas on what having a Healthy Lifestyle means from different perspectives has offered our pupils a wider range of options to improve their well-being. Our tendency to consider diet and physical activity the basis for being healthy makes us forget another very important factor which contributes to wellness: mental well-being. Therefore, the inclusion of this key aspect together with the more traditional ones has rounded the main aim of our project. We have had the chance to prove that we share the same patterns in reference to health with little variations according to our cultural differences: this is what creates a feeling of belonging to Europe.

At a local level, the project has come to reinforce the relationships we already have with our institutions. Our school is in permanent contact with our Town Hall and the local Health Service which support us in several initiatives: they collaborate with us by offering lectures on health aspects as well as in sustainability actions carried out by our students. The fact that we are a school in a rural area contributes to the development of activities in which local food sources, the Mediterranean diet, physical activity and mental well-being have their specific importance.

Language skills and ICT competence boosting have also been a key factor during the project: the opportunity the project offered our students to communicate with their mates is clearly linked to the aims stated by the EU in an increasingly globalized world. Language and technology have contributed to enhance the participation in language and ICT classes as they have been able to perceive their importance in real contexts.

As a school with a European spirit, our goal is to continue working, in the future, on Erasmus projects which provide our pupils with chances to improve their competences for the “real” world.

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