Project ,, Knowing You Knowing Me is a partnership with six schools for different part of Europe: UK, Romania, Greece, Hungary and Turkey- partners and France- coordinator. This project emerged from the common needs of students and teachers from partner schools to address the issue of violence in schools, reduce absenteeism and dropout. On the other hand after the needs analysis, there was a institutional need motivating students to develop Key Competences, in accordance with the implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy, and special to develop English language. In this context, partner schools found religion as a common theme of interest to attract students to school and participation in project activities, motivating learning of English for communication between partners. As a mirror of society, school is directly concerned with the question of the place of religion in public life. The partnership will conduct an exploration of beliefs and values currently held across European countries and Turkey and a comparison between holidays, festivals, tradition and customs. The target group is: students 13-15 years old, teachers, parents. The concrete objectives of the project are:- reduce violence in school, dropout and absenteeism- develop basic skills, particularly language skills: mother tongue and English- to create an environment favorable to enhance the European intercultural dialogue among the partners of the project;- to promote and develop creativity among the participants in the project, both teachers and students; - to create a favorable atmosphere for an inclusive education at the level of the partner schools;- to make all the students have equal chances for self development with no discrimination.- to promote common European values, such as: tolerance, respect for other people’ culture and traditions, multiculturalism and linguistic diversity. Subjects to be addressed: - Beliefs and values currently held by participants, their peers and extended families- Practices within religions, and the reasons for them. - The importance of festivals within religious communities, their adoption by non-believers for secular celebrations. Food, clothing and music on these occasions.- The lives and standing of Saints (national and local) within communities. Are there modern day saints and martyrs? - The impact of political regimes on the ability of individuals to practise their faith. Workshop driven underground and how faith survives despite repression- Ancient myths and legends, their continued place / importance in a nation’s culture- social networks as a substitute of religious practicesApproach:- Pupils will be given a high degree of responsibility to develop the project and their own learning. They will be encouraged to use questionnaires, converse with appropriate guests, hold debates, visit faith buildings, and conduct research- They will collaborate to discuss, plan and develop their ideas of how to present the information. They will be encouraged to use as many different formats as possible including electronic, published, 2 and 3 dimensional, dramatic and musical forms.- Pupils will be actively involved in the plans for mobilities and will conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation. To ensure the quality of our project, the management team has established a strategy for dissemination and exploitation, a periodic and permanent evaluation strategy, initial evaluation, evaluation of progress and final evaluation and monitoring plan where prepared a set of tools and methods .Results:- Site and project poster- Newsletter- Dictionary of religious terms in English and partner languages- E- book Traditions of religious holidays- Guide methodical teaching World Religions History- Collection of popular myths and legends- Tourist Guide with important religious buildings and monuments in each countryIntellectual output:- Curricula Intercultural Education for a inclusive school and E- book Blooming Flowers in FestivalsConference: Religion and its impact on child development We believe that the project fits into the strategic priorities and meet its objectives about students, will give a a better involvement of parents as active partners in the structuring, development and evaluation of the project activities, will create a good opportunity for each school for organization local partnerships with Churches, Religion institutions, Museums, Libraries, Art Galleries, Houses of Culture, for the realization and implementation of each year’s end–products, will generate a close collaboration with the local mass–media: magazines, newspapers, strong partnerhips with the Council Authorities and National Ministery of Education to organize the international seminars and conference.
Project ,,Knowing You, Knowing Me" was a partnership with five schools for different part of Europe: UK, Romania, Hungary and Turkey- partners and France- coordinator. This project emerged from the common needs of students and teachers from partner schools to address the issue of violence in schools, reduce absenteeism and dropout. On the other hand after the needs analysis, there was a institutional need motivating students to develop Key Competences, in accordance with the implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy, and special to develop English language. In this context, partner schools found religion as a common theme of interest to attract students to school and participation in project activities, motivating learning of English for communication between partners. As a mirror of society, school was directly concerned with the question of the place of religion in public life. The partnership conducted an exploration of beliefs and values currently held across European countries and Turkey and a comparison between holidays, festivals, tradition and customs. The target group was students 13-15 years old, teachers, parents. The concrete objectives of the project was: - reduce violence in school, dropout and absenteeism - develop basic skills, particularly language skills: mother tongue and English - to create an environment favorable to enhance the European intercultural dialogue among the partners of the project; - to promote and develop creativity among the participants in the project, both teachers and students; - to create a favorable atmosphere for an inclusive education at the level of the partner schools; - to make all the students have equal chances for self development with no discrimination; - to promote common European values, such as: tolerance, respect for other people’s culture and traditions, multiculturalism and linguistic diversity. Subjects who was addressed: - Beliefs and values currently held by participants, their peers and extended families; - Practices within religions, and the reasons for them; - The importance of festivals within religious communities, their adoption by non-believers for secular celebrations; food, clothing and music on these occasions; - The lives and standing of Saints (national and local) within communities. Are there modern day saints and martyrs? - The impact of political regimes on the ability of individuals to practice their faith. Workshop driven underground and how faith survives despite repression - Ancient myths and legends, their continued place / importance in a nation’s culture; - Social networks as a substitute of religious practices. Approach:- Pupils was given a high degree of responsibility to develop the project and their own learning. They was encouraged to use questionnaires, converse with appropriate guests, hold debates, visit faith buildings, and conduct research. They collaborated to discuss, plan and develop their ideas of how to present the information. They was encouraged to use as many different formats as possible including electronic, published, 2 and 3 dimensional, dramatic and musical forms. Students was actively involved in the plans for mobilities and this conducted ongoing monitoring and evaluation. To ensure the quality of our project, the management team had established a strategy for dissemination and exploitation, a periodic and permanent evaluation strategy, initial evaluation, evaluation of progress and final evaluation and monitoring plan where prepared a set of tools and methods. Mobilities: - 80 mobilities for students ( in Romania, Hungary and France). - 69 mobilities for teachers Results: - Site and project poster , logo - 8 Newsletters - Dictionary of religious terms in English and partner languages - E- book Traditions of religious holidays - Guide methodical teaching World Religions - Collection of popular myths and legends - E- book Blooming Flowers in Festivals - Tourist Guide with important religious buildings and monuments in each country. Intellectual output: - Curricula Intercultural Education for a inclusive school and - E- book Guide methodical teaching World Religions - Conference: ,,Religion and its impact on child development"- Bernay, France We believe that the implementation of this project has led to a reduction in the number of school dropouts and the risk of early school leaving, reducing the number of acts of violence, increasing the motivation of pupils to come to school, and better school outcomes at national exams and competitions, increased the degree of inclusion of pupils with special and special needs and increased the self-esteem of students and teachers, as well as the European dimension of the school. Our project has achieved all its objectives, has made more mobility than budgeted, and has made real progress at the partnership level, providing prerequisites for collaborating in other Erasmus Plus projects in the future.