The SAFTAS partnership was imagined in order to foster a strong motivation to learn for our students and a dynamic incentive to create for our teachers. The schools involved in the partnership face the same challenges eventhough geographically we belong to different worlds. Some of us are inner city schools others are located in smaller towns, but our students are all the same, and as teachers we all try to create innovative ways to help them learn and be ready for the world of tomorrow. We have in common a passion for creative learning and we strongly believe that students need to build strong interpersonal skills and find ways to think clearly and express themselves and their individualities at the best of their possibilities. This is why we have imagined a three year project developped around two areas of expertise which will provide for learners opportunities for self expression, critical thinking, careful research and discovery, combined with the challenge of a competition. Cinematography and drama will provide a secure framework for our students to develop reading, writing, listening and speaking in a foreign language. They will thus develop communication skills in English first of all, but also in a second foreign language. Languages and multiculturality are indeed at the heart of our project. What's more, our students will build technical and professional skills around those two areas of expertise. They will have to apply for the opportunity to be part of the mobility projects, write letters of motivation, they will meet and work with professionals, interview them, organise festivals and plan for visits, they will design promotional campaigns and work on post production. The students will be in charge of inviting a famous actor or director to be the President of the festival. The students who won't take part in the mobilities will nonetheless contribute to the project in each school of the partnership as each partner has built a team of teachers who will contribute to the project in so far as they will organise their own festival inside their respective schools. The students who will take part in the project will be carefully selected amongs the diverse backgrounds that every school contains. Students with learning difficulties or disabilities will have the same opportunities as high achievers as the criterias for participation will revolve around motivation and involvement in all the different activities of the project. The participating schools come from various backgrounds. Some are urban highschools, eg our partners from Istanbul and Naples, with inner city students from a diversity of social and ethnic backgrounds while others are semi rural smaller highschools, eg our partners from Nea Peramos in Greece or Moana in Spain. North will meet South in this partnership, and our students will learn about the diversity that exists at the heart of Europe. They will understand that European citizenship comes from ancient history thanks to the cultural background they will acquire thanks to the careful researches they will conduct to perform the different tasks attached to the project. The activities will revolve around cinematography and the theater, leading to creating material and performances of the highest possible quality in order to compete at the final SAFTAS Festival. The students will be actors, directors, technicians, writers, journalists, project mananagers, and producers. They will build the festivals from A to Z and work for three years towards a professional level of skills in this area of expertise. The results, if we succeed, will be of high quality productions and the festival will be fit to sustain itself beyond the three years of partnership. The impacts will be important on local communities as this will contribute to including all cultural actors around the schools communities. We aim to sustain the relationships between the partner schools as well, as we believe that building international bonds will contribute to improving our students skills as well as our teachers’ incentive to innovate tirelessly in order to make their teaching curriculums meet the students’ needs in all areas of development.
The SAFTAS partnership was imagined in order to foster a strong motivation to learn for our students and a dynamic incentive to create for our teachers. The schools involved in the partnership face the same challenges eventhough geographically we belong to different worlds. Some of us are inner city schools others are located in smaller towns, but our students are all the same, and as teachers we all try to create innovative ways to help them learn and be ready for the world of tomorrow. We have in common a passion for creative learning and we strongly believe that students need to build strong interpersonal skills and find ways to think clearly and express themselves and their individualities at the best of their possibilities. Our three year project developped around two areas of expertise had as a main objective to provide for learners opportunities for self expression, critical thinking, careful research and discovery, combined with the challenge of a competition. Cinematography and drama would provide a secure framework for our students to develop reading, writing, listening and speaking in a foreign language. They could thus develop communication skills in English first of all, but also in a second foreign language as they would have the opportunity to share ideas, work together, be hosted in European families and experience memorable moments together . Languages and multiculturality were indeed at the heart of our project. What's more, our students would build technical and professional skills around those two areas of expertise. The partnership included six schools from six different countries were part of the SAFTAS project : - LPO d'Estournelles de Constant, general, technological and vocational highschool situated in the semi-rural town of La Flèche - pop15241 - located in the rural area of Sarthe, in the west of France. There are 1350 students in total who come from all the neighbouring villages and towns. Most students come from modest families where they cannot afford international travel. - Fatin Rüstü Zorlu Anadolu Lisesi, a high school founded in 1994. It is located in Kartal district of İstanbul, Turkey. It has around 700 students, 40 teachers, 3 administrators and a principal. Although they are academically successful, most students come from poor districts where they cannot afford to join international activities. - Istituto Superiore Gentileschi, Artemisia Gentileschi is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Naples, Italy. It sits in the midst of Naples bustling metropolitan area. There are currently approximately 900 pupils aged 14-19 in the school, 89 teachers,20 assistants, and 5 support staff, all from different cultural, social and religious backgrounds - IES As Barxas, secondary school formed by 48 teachers who teach 526 students , aged 12-18 and distributed in 21 groups. One of them being Sport Vocational Training Studies and all the rest Secondary school, with 4 groups of A levels. The school is situated in a rural area by the sea, 15 km. away from Vigo, the most important city in the south of Galicia. - Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących nr 4 in Bydgoszcz is a public, pre-secondary and secondary school for pupils aged between 13-18 years old. It is located in the Kuyavian - Pomeranian district of Poland. There are 377 students and 42 teachers. The curriculum covers different areas, It also tenders individual tutoring for students with special needs. - Nea Peramos Senior High School (Geniko Lykeio Neas Peramou) is a State General Education School offering students a three-year curriculum of both general education subjects and orientation subjects in Humanities, Science and Technology. - The students had to apply for the opportunity to be part of the mobility projects, write letters of motivation. - They learnt to become jury members for a festival. - They met and worked with professionals, interviewed them. - They designed promotional campaigns and worked on post production. - They interviewed and invited Costa-Gavras to be the President of the final festival in La Flèche. - They organized the final festival in France, planned the activities. - They performed their plays in competitions. - They showed their films in competitions. - They made films together with their European partners. - They staged plays with their European partners. - They participated in learning mobilities with their European partners. - They attended workshops and visited theaters. - They took part in working with professionals. - Some students were offered work opportunities in the field of cinema. The students who didn't take part in the mobilities contributed to the project in each school of the partnership as each partner had built a team of teachers who contributed to the project in the individual schools. Students with disabilities or those who were in danger of leaving school early were included.