Germany

Conclusion of Erasmus+ "Europe me!" in Furth

When, after months of planning, the weather throws a spanner in the works in the form of unprecedented amounts of snow, it's time to stay calm, react flexibly and not lose the joy of the project!

This is what happened during our project days as part of the Erasmus+ project "Europe me!" funded by the European Union. Together with the students, who have been working on this project since the beginning of the last school year, we had prepared a varied stay in Germany that was in line with the theme. Then the snow came and all the plans changed every 5 minutes.

We were particularly saddened by the fact that our friends from Croatia, who we had planned to visit in January 2023, were unable to come at all due to all the snow. Their German partners had been really looking forward to showing them their home country and their school. Of course, we want to do everything we can to make up for this visit and hope we succeed.

Despite everything, we were delighted that our Spanish friends from Albacete were able to visit us. We carried out a very slimmed-down version of the originally planned program with them; unfortunately, the trips to Munich with a visit to the Bavarian State Chancellery and the excursion to Regensburg to the House of Bavarian History had to be cancelled completely as there were simply no reliable train connections. At least the project day was able to take place at the school, with Bavarian veal sausages, pretzels and schnitzel, but above all with a joint craft activity on the topic: "What do you wish Europe for Christmas?" The pupils made beautiful European stars, which will soon be hung up in the canteen, and added their good wishes to them.

We are now hoping for a visit from our friends from Croatia soon, when it will hopefully not snow so much!

Catch-up Erasmus+ visit by the guests from Croatia

The last and final project trip of our Erasmus+ project "Europe me!" was actually supposed to take place in December 2023 - well, actually, if the massive snowfall in Bavaria at the beginning of December hadn't thwarted our plans. As only our friends from Spain were able to visit us a few months ago, the Croatian group's visit was simply postponed until March and, lo and behold, this time everything worked out and the mobility was a huge success!

The "Europe me!" project, in which our Year 7 and 8 pupils researched the workings of the European Union together with our partner schools from Albacete in Spain and Brodarica/Šibenik in Croatia, interviewed European politicians, became aware of their own identity as European citizens and, most importantly, realized why lasting peace can only be achieved in the European community, has thus come to an end.

Travel educates. Travel connects.

This is precisely the simple idea behind Erasmus+: the European Union generously supports projects that promote the exchange of young people and teachers and motivate pupils to take the "extra step" of dedicating themselves intensively to joint project work and thereby becoming aware of the importance of the European Union. Maristen-Gymnasium Furth, an accredited Erasmus+ school, has been taking this "extra step", which of course involves a lot of effort, for many years and has the right to draw on financial resources from the European Union's Erasmus+ fund every year.

We naturally wanted to return the warm welcome we received on our trips to Croatia and Spain and so it was a matter of course for the Maristen-Gymnasium to welcome our Croatian partners and the organizing teachers, including the principal of the Osnovna skola in Brodarica/Šibenik, to our school. We had also come up with a very special highlight for the program, namely a visit to the Bavarian State Chancellery in Munich. None other than the Head of the State Chancellery, Dr. Florian Herrmann, welcomed us there personally and talked to everyone involved. Although he has a very busy schedule, Dr. Herrmann took the time to inform himself about our Erasmus+ project and praised the Maristen-Gymnasium Furth for its European commitment. He told the pupils from Croatia and Bavaria never to lose sight of the European idea, but to always strive for cohesion.

There was also a project day at Maristen-Gymnasium, where the students reflected on their impressions and created a photo book together on the "Europe me!" project. Meanwhile, the Croatian teachers exchanged ideas with the German teachers of the "Team International", who have already participated or are currently participating in our Erasmus+ job shadowing programs and the "#ifnotnow" project. Meanwhile, Headmaster Müller talked to Croatian Headmistress Maja Morić Kulušić about different school systems in Bavaria and Croatia.