Our Erasmus Plus KA2 project , « Latin languages and cultures : diversity, encounters and international branching out for successful integration » is based on an important specificity in our school-cultural, economic, and social diversity. Cultural diversity is not necessarily taken into account in our school, which entails difficulties when it comes to living together, begets some kind of communitarianism and dropping out of school altogether. The concerned secondary school is located in Clermont-Ferrand, Puy de Dôme, in France’s Auvergne region. Our school currently welcomes 450 students- divided in 19 forms, from Year 6 to Year 10- 53 per cent of which originate from underprivileged socio- professional groups. 35% of our students have already repeated a year-the rate for Clermont-Ferrand Academy being 15.2%. Also, the specificity of Lucie Aubrac secondary school is a growing number of foreign students from the Mediterranean Basin enrolling in its two French as a Foreign Language classes. In the face of the constant rise in foreign student body, the teaching staff is trying to develop quality learning tools and practices, with genuine involvement in worldwide opening, working effectively towards giving the students a true sense of belonging to a wider learning community, beyond their individual and identitarian selves. It is worth noting that Lucie Aubrac Secondary School is the only school in Clermont-Ferrand Academy offering students a wide range of choices as regards second foreign languages , including Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German, all pertaining to academic success. In that respect, our school has chosen to make Latin compulsory for all Year 7 students. The team committed to that project is composed of teachers of 5 different subjects ( French Literature / Latin, History / Geography, Spanish, Italian,and Portuguese). All have already worked on internationally oriented projects, among them 2 Erasmus Plus projects plus action key 1 ( one was completed and the other submitted). The idea that intercultural exchanges have a positive impact on learning, integration, and the construction of a cultural identity is a paramount notion that the candidates have already given thought to, since they already submitted a KA1 project entitled « Mondo Latino, Latin culture and languages, diversity, encounters and international branching out, in a context of academic failure » in February 2017. Reflection upon this first project has fostered a desire to go further, and to offer custom-made school partnerships, tailored to meet the needs of each individual school. The chosen partners are Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Each participant has already had an experience in European partnership, and is working on problematics centered on the improvement of language skills, multi/interculturality, European citizenship, integration and professional orientation. The objectives could be defined as follows : partners will define teaching techniques together, in order to teach these four languages comprehensively- Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese- to enable students to be confronted to someone else’s culture, be it traditional/ancient or contemporary, in order to fight stereotypes, to improve language skills in each language, to ensure a more solid professional orientation, and to develop students’ sense of belonging to the E.U to favor inclusion. Activities will include a transnational meeting and international work meetings in order to elaborate common teaching tools , along with students’ visits to 3 countries (Spain, Portugal, and France), the outcome being common projects, such as creating videos, comics, the logo of the project, skits, recipe books and flashmobs. Also the students will immerse in another cultural and linguistic environment. In the short and medium term, this project will have a positive impact on the students’ ability to live together, to envision others in a more serene and empathic way, leading to successful school and social inclusion , within the neighborhood, and improved language skills in four languages. In the long run, this project will have a positive external impact on the schools’ image, both locally and regionally, better orientation at the end of secondary school, along with continued virtual exchanges and an opening on to other potential partners, such as Romania.
Our project is based on an important specificity of our school, which is social, economic, but also cultural diversity. This entails difficulties when it comes to living together, begets some kind of communitarianism and, to some extent, students dropping out. In the face of the constant rise in foreign student body, the teaching staff has sought to develop quality learning tools and practices, with genuine involvement in worldwide opening, working effectively towards giving the students a true sense of belonging to a wider European community. With a view to bettering our students’ performances, Lucie Aubrac is to this day the only school within the Clermont-Ferrand area to offer a wide variety of second languages – Spanish, Portuguese, italian and German. Unfortunately as of next September, Portuguese will no longer be taught at our school, as per the School Board of Education. The decision was made on February 2nd and lessens our educational offer and the work that has been carried out for years. The project started out with 5 teachers of different subjects. This changed as the Latin teacher was assigned to another school and the History and Geography teacher had to come in on a couple of occasions. The three language teachers- Spanish, Portuguese and Italian have carried out the project from beginning to end. Each participant had had a prior experience with European partnerships, and has worked out problems concerning improving language proficiency, inclusion and career orientation. We have created the “Mondo Latino” workshop, one hour per week for all Year 7 students who took part in the Project. There were 17 of them under the supervision of the 3 Foreign language professors. About the activities: in October 2018 a transnational event in Messina allowed us to draw the conclusions of the 2017/2018 school year , map out the activities for 2019 and, back in our school in 2019, the details of French student travels. We have met our starter targets all along the project, even adding extra activities, such as ads for the logo and our motto, avatars and language games. We have made sure to keep in touch with all the partners before adding or altering an activity and and kept them informed via different platforms. All the work that had been scheduled was carried out before the two trips which were to take place in March and May 2020 in Spain and Portugal. Sadly both trips were postponed then cancelled owing to Covid 19, which meant that not all the prepared activities actually took place. The pandemic and the lockdown have made it hard for the project to be implemented in its third year , however we were able to come up with ways to keep in touch during that time, mostly through videoconferences. Mostly, this has been a very positive experience, even if we wish more colleagues had participated in the project. What was especially positive was the synergy created within the school by language teachers. Also positive was the high level of commitment demonstrated by our students who were involved in work and exchanges before and after the pandemic. Their language skills were greatly improved as they realized how important and useful being able to communicate in another language is. Other students were also able to demonstrate their language skills and gain more self-confidence in a positive dynamic, especially as we welcomed our foreign partners. This project sensitized them to other people mainly by working on stereotypes and it showed them a different Europe, closer to their own experiences. Parents – through their delegates on the schoolboard-have expressed how pleased they were with the project and how much they hoped for future Erasmus projects. It goes without saying that we teachers and our students were bitterly disappointed at not being able to take the planned trips to Spain and Portugal. But contacts and bonds were created, and despite the lockdown exchanges continued for students and teachers. The project was awarded with the European Initiatives Prize and received the Euroscol label.