Today's school programs are focused on achieving high educational results and raise test scores, not paying enough attention to the well-being and mental health of their students. There are some alarming trends such as increased school violence, depression, bullying, loneliness, teen suicides, and high level of stress among students which suggest that happiness in schools should be one of the most important areas for the future of education. Furthermore, this lack of social and emotional wellbeing has a profound negative effect on our societies and European community. Our project, “Addicted to happiness”, involves 6 partner schools from: Poland, Turkey, Spain, Croatia, Italy and Portugal, and focuses on health and well-being. With this project we wish to empower our students, families and communities to create happier, more meaningful lives. We also want to create life-long links across Europe and raise participants’ awareness of the richness and diversity of European culture. The main aim of our project is to educate our students to discover what makes them happy, teach how to create lasting happiness in their lives and discover how to share happiness with others. We aim to work out common actions to raise pupils` awareness of them being responsible for living a happy and responsible life. We believe that by teaching young people techniques enhancing well-being, we will protect them from early school leaving and enable them to achieve great school success. Moreover, our project aims to promote pupils´ interest in foreign languages, develop their ICT skills, and to improve their communication in mother tongue, since all these competences are basic for personal development of young people and for their future career. In the first year of our international cooperation we will design questionnaires on what makes young people happy and measure how happy or unhappy they feel themselves. This will be extended by looking at other studies in order to compare happiness in different countries world-wide. Using these ideas, project participants will look for ways of improving their own happiness and learn how to deal with stress. The first fields where they can find happiness will be: family, music, dance and literature. In the second year, project participants in cooperation with local communities will focus on other factors that have a huge impact on teenagers well-being: sport, health, art and volunteering. They will organize many actions and events related to those topics, such as: Sports Fun Day, Happy Art and Photo exhibitions, healthy dishes workshop, charitable events, etc. There will be 6 project meetings in total. During the first transnational meeting for teachers in Portugal participants will take part in a training on “Productivity Tools – Cloud Computing and Mobile Devices”. In five of the project meetings the main participants will be students who will have certain tasks related to the theme of the project to perform. The project is addressed to the community of students and teachers of partner schools, taking into account those who for various reasons (racial, religious, physical, cultural, economic, disability) are at risk of social exclusion. Participation in the project is also important for teachers to acquire new skills and develop working methods to prevent early school leaving and to create calm learning environment for our students. We will cooperate with local authorities and organizations, other schools, the representatives of educational departments, providing them with information about the project, its objectives, actions and results. In the implementation of activities we will use various methods: brainstorming, workshops, lectures, problem method in the search for solutions to the problems addressed by the project, educational games and relaxation exercises, sporting and volunteering activities, presentations etc. The final product of our project will be e-magazine sent regularly to the local authorities, organizations, educational departments, parents, other schools, media etc. All e-magazines created in each partner countries and a booklet for teachers „Three minutes to a happier YOU” with activities related to happiness and well-being will be published at the national project website and e-Twinning platform. Materials developed in the project will be made available to teachers of partner schools, to other local and regional schools and community organizations that may be interested in the project`s theme – happiness and to local representatives by publishing them on the project website, e-Twinning platform and Facebook. We are convinced that thanks to our international cooperation we`ll make our schools happier and more exciting places to be and to learn new things. That way we will encourage our students to stay longer at school and finish their education.
Today's school programs are focused on achieving high educational results, not paying enough attention to the well-being and mental health of their students. There are some alarming trends such as increased school violence, depression, teen suicides, and high level of stress among students which suggest that happiness in schools should be one of the most important areas for the future of education. Furthermore, this lack of social and emotional wellbeing has a profound negative effect on our European community. Our project, “Get addicted to happiness”, involved 6 partner schools from: Poland, Turkey, Spain, Croatia, Italy and Portugal. Its main goal was to promote wellbeing and mental health, as well as to show their great impact on happy family and social life. By taking actions, we wanted to improve the quality of life, functioning and well-being of students, school workers and the local society. In addition, the purpose of the project was to improve the use of English. By interacting with peers and teachers from partner schools, our students learned about the culture, customs and traditions of other countries, and developed their skills in using computer-based information technology. In the first year of the project, an Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was conducted to test the level of happiness of students and teachers in partner schools. The results had shown that all schools needed work on improving school atmosphere. Our search for happiness started in the family and then continued in sport, health and literature. In connection with the above mentioned topics, we organized the celebration of the "World Smile Day", "Thank You" event, Sports Fun Day, the meeting with the dietician, combined with the exhibition of posters promoting healthy lifestyle. We wrote "A little book of happiness", "Happy Stories", as well as organized a recitation contest "Happiness is everywhere". Teachers had developed a booklet with relaxing exercises for students "3 minutes to happier YOU". In the second year, participants focused on the most important factors influencing the well-being of young people, such as art, music, dance and volunteering. The following actions were taken: "Happiness in Art" exhibition, a three-generation karaoke festival, writing letters to seriously ill children, organizing a Kindness Day, writing happiness recipes, "Happy dance" workshop. The pupils and teachers took part in four short-term exchanges of groups of pupils, during which the activities concerning the sources of happiness were taken up. It was also an opportunity to improve communication skills in English and to learn about different traditions and cultures. The most important result achieved during the project is the increase of happiness in all partner schools, measured at the beginning and in the end of the project (Oxford Happiness Questionnaire). Our project has raised interest in partner countries, increased tolerance for cultural differences, and has contributed to the strengthening of the attitude of the European citizen. Language tests had shown a significant increase in students` communicative competences. Through daily contact with peers from partner countries and international meetings, our pupils had developed their IT skills. The need to work in an international team fostered the development of youth's social skills, such as tolerance, co-operation, leadership etc. The participation of teachers in the project and international meetings increased their ability to communicate in English, and also ICT. Due to our broader educational offer and international cooperation, our schools have become more attractive for students. There has also been a greater integration of the local societies with the schools. Project activities were also an excellent tool for the promotion of partner schools on the international level. The final product of our project is an e-magazine. It was published once in a semester and sent to local authorities, institutions, parents, schools, the media, etc. In addition, members of Erasmus Clubs ran a project website in English, and two Facebook groups: "Get addicted to happiness" and "Happiness Hunters”. They also published their achievements on the e-twinning platform. Our project was awarded the European Quality Label. We are confident that thanks to international co-operation within our project, we have made our schools happier and more exciting places where students will be happy to continue their education.