« Architecture and heritage, for a pluridisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration between European partners for the success of the students » is part of an opening context, in agreement with the European motto « United in diversity ». School dropout depends on several factors and is connected to multiple causes. Three European countries : Spain, Macedonia and Reunion Island have decided to work together to find a solution that would help to cope with different situations. The three partners will lean on three axis : exchange of teaching practices, sharing learning questions, bringing tools for classes (digital) ; give parents a real place in the success of their children; create a cultural project that includes the students in their school journey. Then, through mobility improve their linguistic skills and favour intercultural dialogue. The two vocational high schools ( IES Cartuja in Spain and LP Vue Belle in Reunion Island) and Josip Broz Tito high school in Macedonia have identical profiles of students : underprivileged classes, fragile public and multiculturalism. The teachers from IES Cartuja focus on digital innovation and relationships with the business world. The link between the parents and school is an essential part in the students' success. This link has been a priority for Josip Broz Tito high school.The educational community of Vue Belle high school focuses on detecting students who could dropout from school and it tries to offer adapted solutions. They are 28, aged from 16 to 18 years old, studying Administration and Management in Baccalauréat (the French diploma of Secondary Education ). With the help of accompanying teachers (7), they will make a comparative study on the houses and the traditional gardens in Reunion Island, in Spain (Grenade) and in Macedonia in order to identify their characteristics, their place in society and their evolution. With teaching aids like Etwinning, Skype, the search updating, the preparation, the exchanges, everything will be centralized on these platforms and will be at the disposal of all groups. This enquiry will lead to the publication of a collaborative booklet meaning to increase awareness of traditional housing preservation in these countries, and a common exhibition will be held during the European Week of Languages. In a word, it will be the development, the outcome of a transnational and interdisciplinary team work. All these factors combined will lead to a higher implication of the students in their training, most of all in their school performance, and it will add to the influence and to the reputation of the school at every level. This project will pave the way for the development of a long term partnership with European schools, leading to a more intensive geographical mobility of the students and the teachers as part of their all life long training. Thirty Macedonian students accompanied by six teachers and nine Spanish high school students, supervised by two teachers will participate in this innovative cultural educational adventure designed to lead them to success. With this transdisciplinary and transnational teamwork, all these contributors want the students to get to work on activities that are based on the mastery of school knowledege as well as know-how. Using a pedagogy of success in order to restore the students' self-esteem and thus open the field of all possible. A major challenge of this project is that, beyond the developpment of the practice of the foreign language, this virtual and truly experienced mobility of all these learners and trainers will allow them to discover other cultures, other school systems, to become aware of what Europe represents on a daily basis.
Vue Belle Vocational High School is situated in a rural area with students who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Our school is confronted with a lot of dropouts. So our first priority is to reduce the number of students who want to leave school and to help them succeed. It was an innovative multidisciplinary project on a European scale whose primary objective was to make students succeed in their exams. Thanks to this project the students had the opportunity to develop and validate general and professional skills in concrete situations. Firstly we wanted to reduce school dropouts through a motivating project, to ensure that students become active participants in their education, to help them understand what it means to be a European citizen, to develop their general, professional and intercultural skills, in collaborating with european partners. On the other hand we would not only like to develop and exchange our professional and educational practices but also to increase interdisciplinary work with our European colleagues. We decided to involve parents in this project in order to create links with them. So the three countries have worked together over one year to develop a collaborative exhibition "Traditional houses and gardens of Reunion Island, Spain and Macedonia". All the spanish, french and macedonian students took part in this exhibition for the languages week in April on Reunion Island. Our spanish partner is IES Cartuja of Granada. As this school has similar features to Vue Belle vocational school, we could exchange and compare our educational pratices. The city of Granada is rich in architecture so we were able to compare it to the architecture of Reunion Island. Our macedonian partner is Lycée Broz Tito of Bitola. It is one of the best high schools in Macedonia. This partnership brought diversity to the exchange because the students were different and came from different origins. So we wanted to learn from their practices in order to find the keys to success for our students especially through ensuring that parents are more involved in their education. The first collaborative work was designing the logos and then voting to choose an appropriate logo for the project. The first contact between the students was the collaboration on the twinspace. The first transnational meeting took place on Reunion Island. During this meeting we had the opportunity to communicate with our european colleagues about the project and its organisation. We created a twinspace named "Traditional houses and gardens of Reunion Island, Spain and Macedonia". When they met in Macedonia, the partners took notice of the different activities set up by Lycée Broz Tito and the important involvement of parents in education. The second transnational meeting took place in Spain. We had the opportunity to visit IES Cartuja and to know more about our spanish colleagues way to work. We also have followed up on the project. The training on Reunion Island in February was about dropout. We compared the structures and the actions that exist to fight school dropout on each school. Our students went to Spain on March to work with the spanish students for the exhibition and for the brochure to make aware of saving our heritage. During the third transnational meeting in Spain the partners finalized the preparation for the last mobility on Reunion Island during which we were going to celebrate the week of languages and to share our work and culture. This project resulted in several productions : a training report about educational practices by Lycée Broz Tito, games about plants and traditional houses, a logo, an exhibition, travel books, an awareness brochure to save our heritage, videos, online intercultural journals, Twinspaces. This project resulted in partnerships on upcoming european projects, in learning new TIC, and acquiring new professional linguistic and intercultural skills. 93 % of french students succeeded in their exams. Thanks to this project, the students gained maturity autonomy and responsability. They were able to communicate into several languages. They have overcome the fear of mobility. They have become rich with these different cultures and have gained self esteem. They have realized that they are European citizens. They are now more ambitious. The teachers want to keep in collaborate and to learn more about educational practices. The schools were be able to improve their attractiveness and they plan to work together on other projects.