“PROMOTING THE SOCIAL INCLUSION OF OUR DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS, THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE RICH EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGES/HISTORY”

Project summary

The main aims and objectives of this partnership, consisting of a large group of ten European schools with significant numbers of disadvantaged in various ways students, derived respectively from nine European countries with very rich cultures/history, are: -To assist in the cultural richness of Europe and to enhance our students’ cultural awareness and increase the volume of partnerships between schools in different Member States. -To promote the social inclusion of our disadvantaged students and to promote diversity and equality, in school education and in our schools, in order to be enhanced and supported as regards with the disadvantaged students, who are most affected from the negative impact racism, discrimination and xenophobia which have on them and because of these situations and due to their speciallity, sometimes they tend to leave school prematurely. Taking into consideration our aims/objectives, we will work on a variety of activities that will be adjusted for elaboration from our disadvantaged and our younger students, in order to introduce our cultural values, not only to each partner school involved but to the wider European community as well. While studying and reintroducing our own values/culture, we will have the opportunity to find out the differences and similarities among the different European Countries. We want to make all applicants, relevant people, parents and students, conscious of these beauties and to increase their awareness by including them in our activities and by giving them a very active role to the implementation of all activities. During the three years’ period of cooperation in this project, all partner teachers and students will elaborate specific common project activities, exchange work and contact one another through e-mail communication and scheduled project meetings and Learning/Teaching activities. Our activities and our project results have been focused on the cultural theme of our project and are also linked with the promotion of the social inclusion of our disadvantaged students through the knowledge of the rich cultural heritages/history of participating European countries. The methodology applied to the whole project will be active and participatory with equal distribution of responsibilities and actions among the participants. Adequate communication, cooperation and collaboration will facilitate our organizations and all the organizational decisions will be shared under the guidance of the coordinating school. As final results, which will be produced from relevant activities, we will have books with traditions/celebrations, books with traditional recipes of all partner countries and mother tongue language books. We will construct a project’s calendar, CD’s of local traditional songs and music, DVD’s on our schools, hometowns, DVD’s on presentations of cultures of hosting countries during meetings and DVD’s with language lesson and with local traditional dancing and cooking sessions, during learning/teaching activities. We will also establish yearly exhibitions at each school, with final products of activities. The main envisaged impact on the participants will be cultural conscious and awareness. Our students and especially our disadvantaged students will become more outgoing and their horizons will be broadened, by giving them the opportunity to be introduced to different cultures and communities. The teachers may develop a renewed enthusiasm for teaching, exchange of experiences, direct knowledge of the other institutions and about their educational systems, knowledge of the language of other countries in the group, knowledge of the different methods of teaching within the different schools in the group etc. While working on this project, our students, teachers and educational authorities will learn more about Europe and appreciate the differences and similarities of the cultural background, schooling and local diversities, exchange significant experiences and accept cultural and linguistic differences, raising a positive attitude to the united Europe. Generally, every person involved with this project will have some longer term benefits because he/she will be able to come closer and understand more of the world beyond his/her local community and will finally manage to develop a very positive attitude towards a more intensive cooperation and awareness that we all live and cooperate in the same continent without giving the opportunity of racism and xenophobia to become restraining factors in their progress and in their future lives. Finally, due to their participation on this project and its positive impact, our schools would look for students who will be reaping the rewards of good school experience that become the basis of a successful secondary level education?