We are in the second decade of the 21st century and in a time of great change, both in terms of how we learn and how we work. New and powerful technologies are changing the ways we learn and interact and engage with each other. These technologies, along with the increasing mobility of workers and industries, are also impacting on work practices and patterns. We have to provide an education that is relevant not just in static and local contexts – but in 21st century and international contexts. We are engaging in this Strategic Partnership to ensure that our schools are adapting to these great changes in our societies. Our school communities are comprised of pupils from many different cultures and ethnic groupings, with many different needs. Raising the self-esteem of these pupils is particularly important. Factors that raise this self-esteem are success and achievement. We believe that a European project featuring global citizenship will utilise these strengths to develop ideals of citizenship within our school communities, and to give a voice to those who are seldom heard. Pupils will learn about climate change, social justice, sustainable development, diversity, migration and globalisation. They will express their opinions more confidently, think more critically, and learn to respect others and to resolve conflict. They will reinforce their sense of identity, enhance their self-esteem, engage and participate in society, and learn that they too can make a difference. We need to constantly develop the professional skills of our teachers. The possibility of engaging and networking with other teachers at an international level has the potential to be a life-changing experience, creating new dimensions and perspectives that will impact on teaching practices. We want teachers to utilise technologies that will benefit the pupils in our classrooms, to adopt best practices, to use creative and innovative methodologies to teach, and to constantly reflect on and evaluate their work. We need to improve the ICT and digital competences of pupils. We live in a technological world and pupils are very familiar with many technologies. We will be taking more advantage of these existing skills and creating opportunities for pupils to communicate and collaborate, to use technology to improve their learning outcomes, to enhance the presentation of their work, and to be creative and expressive. We need to further engage the parents and the local community with our school. We can avail of the expertise of parents and their support will also act as a motivating factor for pupils. Through engaging and participating with the wider community we develop the citizenship skills of the pupils and enhance their sense of self-esteem. We believe that participation in this Strategic Partnership will be a critical catalyst in moving our schools forward and in addressing these needs.
While our Strategic School Partnership had the acronym, "Global Citizenship Steps in Europe", its formal title was, "Raising Expectations through Erasmus+". We wanted our pupils to work through a cross-curricular project featuring four modules: Climate Change, Sustainability, Migration and Citizenship. These modules would inform pupils about major issues that our world faces and how human behaviour impacts on these issues. And through this modular work we wanted to deliver specific objectives. These objectives included: improving the attainment of pupils, and especially of those deemed to be at risk of dropping out of the education system; improving the attainment of pupils who struggled with literacy and numeracy; seeing cultural diversity and cultural heritage as strengths, and utilising these strengths to develop ideals of global citizenship within our school communities; improving the ICT and digital competences of pupils; developing the professional skills of teachers and further engaging the parents and local communities with our schools. Seven strong experienced partners participated in this project, some of whom we had previously worked with - Portugal, Hellenic Republic, Germany, Spain and Sweden. They were more than willing to participate again. We also sourced a school from Slovakia with a very strong work ethic and with a strong interest in environmental issues. The Portuguese partner was, in fact, a group of schools ranging from pre-school to upper second level school, and the Swedish partner had two schools involved. The age of pupils ranged from 3-17 and in total over 1500 pupils were involved. We agreed on this cross-curricular theme that we believed could be adapted to include pupils of all abilities. In our plan we put a strong emphasis on pupil participation and attainment, and on teacher development. Over the two years of the project we worked through our four modules of work: sustainability, citizenship, climate change and migration. Each partner used this shared template but had the flexibility to adapt the module to suit the needs of its pupils. The module topics were integrated to school curricula, they appealed to pupils and constantly featured in news bulletins. Thus pupils engaged and participated readily in the project. Schools created garden. Pupils sowed seeds and harvested the crops. Schools participated in "The Crocus Project" to remind pupils of the child victims of the Holocaust. Each school created a nature trail and partners collaborated to create an online nature trail. Pupils discovered that the climate change might be directly linked to sustainability or migration. We published collaborative newsletters on each module with partners contributing articles to all newsletters. We created a dedicated project website, a project logo, a two-year project calendar, and a project song. Pupils have learned about Scratch coding. In working through these modules pupils have gained knowledge and have enhanced their understandings of climate change, social justice, sustainable development, diversity, migration and globalisation. They have developed skills of expression, of thinking critically, of respecting others and resolving conflict. They have reinforced their sense of identity, enhanced their self-esteem, and engaged and participated in discussion and debate. They have learned that they too can make a difference at local levels. They understand that their behaviour can have impacts on others and on their environments. This knowledge makes them aware of each individual’s importance in relation to the environment and sustainability. If many people take small steps together they can make significant impacts. This partnership has served to raise not just pupils' expectations of themselves, but their expectations of a better environment. Pupils now understand and appreciate the role that they can play in creating such an environment. The introduction of coding has been very successful. Pupils really enjoyed coding. It allowed them to be creative and helped them to collaborate and to communicate more effectively. It enabled them to develop their problem solving skills. And they have the possibility of accessing and working on their Scratch projects outside of school. Partners will continue with coding after the project concludes. The voice of pupils has become stronger with many partners establishing pupil councils. This project has yielded dividends and will leave a lasting legacy for its stakeholders.