Smart up Europe for an Optimistic Future

Participating Organisations

The Johann Comenius Schule

is a secondary school in a rural area in the North of Germany not far from Hamelin home of the famous legend of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”. The school has about 330 students aged between 11 and 16 years and around 30 teachers. When the students leave our school after grade 10 they either start an apprenticeship (which the school promotes very much) or continue at a vocational school. As we are in a rural area and the school has a manageable size the world here is still very much as it should be. We are familiar with the problems of the big cities but so far we have only very little experience in this respect. The JCs has a long tradition with Europe, students exchange and international projects. Over the last fifteen years the school has successfully managed four Comenius/Erasmus projects as coordinating school and we are highly motivated to start the fifth one. Besides we have student exchanges with Poland, Sweden and Italy some originating from former projects and other go back to the initiative of teachers or people from the community. Parents and students very much link our school to pan-European cooperation and the chances to go abroad in a student exchange while engaged in project work. The staff of JCs feels very much obliged to continue these activities because they have experienced the benefits of European cooperation in former projects. The school has got an efficient Erasmus team with long experience and even so the long-time coordinator is retiring this year there is already a successor who has been able to collect experience in past projects to take over. The principals’ attitude towards project work is very positive so that we get all the support we need. The school and the Erasmus team have a lot of expertise in operating projects so they can be a great support for the partner schools especially those that are new in the Erasmus business like the Finnish school. Besides our school has a focus on volunteering and we have close contact with the local economy which is very helpful for us whenever support is needed as to factory tours or the provision of goods or other facilities.

Kangasniemen lukio (Kangasniemi secondary school)

Kangasniemen lukio (Kangasniemi secondary school) is a secondary school offering all-round education for three years, after which there is a matriculation examination. The school is relatively small in size; approximately 70 students, 14 teachers, one headmaster and a school secretary. Our high school is situated on a rural but valuable lake district and surrounded by versatile nature. The international project is very valuable to us as our students have few opportunities for international contact. We have neither multicultural families nor students in our school or in the region. That said, we wish to further and respect cultural variety and equality in our school community. By multicultural co-operation, we will strengthen students’ intercultural education and reduce social integration. The project offers a valuable opportunity for teachers to innovate and exchange best practices in teaching. Our school, being part of a network of sport-related schools, emphasizes well-being, sports training and health education in the curriculum. Ecological awareness is a compulsory part of the curriculum. Our strength to this project lies in this area. A range of languages such as English, Swedish, German and French are studied in our school. Yet, it is capital that the students profit further in their use of languages by cultural exchange. Our school takes advantage of the information technology in our pedagogy. All students have their own laptops and at the moment we are changing our matriculation examination electronic. The use of electronic material is the pedagogical strengths of our teachers. Our school has got an Erasmus team that is dealing with all the activities and planning the work that has to be done. The team meets regularly and is managed by the Erasmus coordinator. As all team members are directly involved in the Erasmus work it will not be a problem that one of the members will take responsibility if the coordinator has resign for any reason.

Paralimni Lyceum

Paralimni Lyceum is a general school found in the area of Paralimni in Famagusta, a coastal city of Cyprus. It is a school of 650 students aged 15-17 years old and of about 100 teachers. The current education system is based upon an instructional approach that aims to prepare school graduates to face new situations and new opportunities broadmindedly. There are many courses offered in the school curriculum that are designed to help the students become more competitive within the contemporary job market. Cyprus is a nation of voluntary activity. More specifically, students in the project will deal with issues of volunteerism by helping fellow citizens who happen to be jobless as a result of the economic crisis in Cyprus. Consequently,they will boost their skills for employability issues. An idea regarding the project and has been discussed has to do with painting and decorating a poor child’s bedroom. Working as part of a team will help students improve not only communication skills but also problem solving skills. Altruism, expressions of kindness and “helping one another” have been features of Cypriot society since ancient times and still feature to this day. Economic crisis has sensitized many people to volunteer and give to those in need. Voluntary work in Paralimni Lyceum teaches young people to interact with others in social situations and make a difference in someone else’s life. The school’s motivation in the project is that it primarily aims to create opportunities for social interaction by fostering intercultural dialogue among young people from different countries, helping them to develop mutual understanding. What’s more, all the activities that Cyprus students are planning to get involved in, are activities that will help them gain valuable lifeskills and experience in order to develop personally, professionally and academically and to succeed in today’s world. The two supervising teachers in charge of the project are Eleni Rossidou (Teacher of English) and Christakis Efstathiou (Teacher of Religion). In the case that the two aforementioned teachers leave school or their post in the future, Theodora Matrou (Teacher of Physics) will take over. The school has participated many times before in European programmes as it is believed that such projects always create opportunities for social interaction by fostering intercultural dialogue among young people from different countries. The participating teachers come from different areas of expertise and will provide their guidance and support so that students will make an invaluable contribution to the Erasmus programme. Although we are not a technical school, we have courses designed to develop skills and knowledge required to do painting or decorating work. Specifically, we have Technology-experienced teachers who can guide students in the construction of small furniture and Art teachers who can develop students’ skills in painting and decorating.

The Institute of Secondary Education Santo Domingo

The Institute of Secondary Education Santo Domingo is in El Puerto de Santa María, a city of 80,000 inhabitants in the extreme south of Spain, near the Strait of Gibraltar. We are 64 teachers and about 1000 students, of which about 400 come in the morning and the rest are adults and come to school in the evening. In the morning we teach classes of compulsory secondary education and of baccalaureate of sciences of the health, technology, humanities and social sciences. In the afternoon and evening classes are given for adults of secondary education, baccalaureate and professional training in the area of vitivini culture and the manufacture of olive oil. The project seems very interesting for three reasons mainly: • The exchange of educational experiences with different European countries. • Offer our students the possibility of knowing other realities and establishing relationships with students from other countries. • Work in the area of volunteering, assistance to the disadvantaged population and exploitation of new resources while respecting the environment. These are topics in which we usually work in our school. The key people for the project will be: Jesús Zafra, professor of Philosophy. His work is directed to volunteer activities collaborating with different local organizations, accompanying patients without family in hospital admissions and to the development of a neuroscience program applied in the classroom. Victoria García, professor of Biology. Her work is directed to the use of algae as a food resource. Francisco Luque, Counselor and responsible for coexistence. He develops a volunteer program in a beneficial dining and a home for Alzheimer's patients with conflicting students who are punished for their behavior. He also organizes sports activities with conflicting students as motivation to modify their behavior. The three teachers will remain at the school and will be there all the time that the project lasts. They have experience from former projects and a change in coordination will be possible if the currant coordinator Francisco Luque had to quit although this is extremely unlikely.

The “Agrupamento de Escolas de Murça”

The “Agrupamento de Escolas de Murça” is a group of two schools composed by “Escola Básica e secundária de Murça”(middle school and secondary school) and “Centro Escolar de Murça” ( preschool and primary school). The Agrupamento de Escolas de Murça have around 660 students and 90 teachers. The school is a full time school, and there are some offers of activities and clubs students can attend on voluntary basis. The school has no refugees’ situations, but there are some migrant students (from Luxembourg, France and China) and some social problems, poverty is increasing in the region and around 45% of students are helped by social supports on school material and alimentation at school. We have around 45 students with special needs, some with multiple disabilities, hyperactivity and other disorders not so sever. There is a team working and supporting these students on their daily life at school. The school is situated in the small town of Murça, in the north of Portugal, about 37Km from Vila Real and 130Km from Porto to the interior in the mountain area. Murça still keeps a rural character living essentially from the production of wine (Porto Wine) and Olive oil. There is no industry and the population is quite isolated from the big decision centers and cities so we can consider that the school is in a disadvantaged area. The main goals of the Agrupamento de escolas de Murça’s Educational Project are to value a culture of responsible citizenship; value the culture of work, effort and requirement; valuing the institution of which we are part, seeing us as actors and constructors of their future; breaking insulation and linking us to the various centers of knowledge production. Our students must develop the following requirements: mastery of languages and digital competences, willingness to learn and broaden horizons and be prepared to lifelong learning. In order to achieve the goals of our Educational Project, it is necessary to mobilize the entire school community to: Create situations that provide students with experiences that favour their civic and socio-affective maturity; Provide situations that lead students to reflect and question their actions; encourage activities that allow students to develop scientifically and culturally; improve school outcomes; Promote collaboration with different educational partners; Promote attitudes of sharing and respect among the educational community in Europe. All the staff are motivated, prepared and trained to prosecute these goals and particularly the teachers who are directly involved in this project (key persons involved) are familiarised with collaborative work and project management. All of them have previous participation in national or European projects and they intend to promote activities to pursuit the topics of this project. They would like to learn more with the partners and share their experiences to face the 21st century challenges of Europe and the EU.

Istituto Superiore” Gemelli Careri” Oppido Mamertina

Istituto Superiore” Gemelli Careri” Oppido Mamertina is a secondary school with five different specializations : IT, agriculture , business /marketing , surveyors , and a Lyceum. The school is located in Oppido Mamertina and Taurianova, small towns in Calabria ( South Italy). It has 703 students and 113 teachers. A lot of students live in rural areas and school is often the only meeting place for most of them. The subjects taught are: Latin, Physics, Math, History, English, Electronics, IT, Business Administration…. The school offers students also the opportunity to improve their skills in some subjects with afternoon activities to get certifications in English( PET; FIRST) IT ( ECDL), Maths , Chemistry, Historical traditions . Our students are creative and successful, have strong moral values such as friendship, tolerance, respect and care for the whole planet and its people . Our school is very successful in IT area , it is a ECDL and a CISCO center. 60 % of our students are from the neighboring villages( Delianuova, Molochio ; Varapodio, Cosoleto), and more than 90 % of them uses public transport to attend school. Our school is located in the Aspromonte mountains area and is half an hour from the seaside and half an hour from the mountains. The nearest biggest towns are Gioia Tauro , Palmi. The nearest airports are Reggio Calabria and Lamezia Terme. In Italy school’s activities start around the 15 of September and finish around the 10 of June; then our final classes take exams until the mid of July. Our relevant areas in the project are: IT skills, volunteering and migration. A section of our school is specialized in IT, so our students are able to design, install and operate websites; they can give advice about safe handling of websites and the Internet in general. They use the different operating systems, network technologies, they create apps for companies, they plan, install and handle with databases. Istituto Istruzione Superiore “Gemelli Careri” has a number of activities to develop students’ fund raising skills and to encourage students to become active citizens in their local community and beyond. Nowadays people get caught up in their own life, between studies, scholarship search, extracurricular tasks and, of course, avid social life. As everyone knows, in the last few years Europe and in particular Italy is facing the sad problem of migration: hundreds of people from different Countries cross the Mediterranean on old boats and in unhealthy and unsafe conditions and land in Calabria. The students visit regularly a homeless shelter in Reggio Calabria; collect some food, clothes and shoes to bring there, so they know how volunteers help vulnerable migrants to feel informed, protected and safe. The school has got a well-functioning Erasmus team with lots of experience from the last project. The team members are all involved in project work so that the position of the coordinator is interconvertible.

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