Our project is related to Health and Sports with a trans-disciplinary impact as it involves English, Spanish, Physical Education and Biology while encompassing a cross cultural outlook. The students are aged between 12 to 13 and are in year 9 in all the schools involved. Our project stemmed from a common observation that most of our teenagers felt stressed, depressed, moody and lacked the concentration to achieve in class. Furthermore we also found that most of the underacheivers of this age group came from poor environments with a low family incomes and few opportunities to exercise or have a healthy lifestyle. This project is also a manner to acheive greater social inclusion of students with special educational needs and /or in poor environments. It consists in developing awareness in health and sports by endorsing regular execise and having a well balanced diet and lifestyle which will encourage underachievers but also other students to improve their mood, concentration, sleep habits, reduce their daily stress, maintain a healthy diet while boosting their self confidence and sense of leadership. With greater mental health and happiness the students would engage themselves differently in and out of school. In order to reach these objectives a series of challenges will be created (Take 10000 steps a day, Ride your bike or Scoot to school, No soda day, no waste day, No screen day...) within each partner school to make the students realise how they can all alter their habits, cooperate with one another so as to reach self fulfillment and a greater sense of achievement. EDMODO which is an interactive pedagogical network will allows the students, teachers and even parents to connect and safely collaborate, get and stay organized, access assignments, grades, and school messages not only in their local school but also with the fellow partner schools. Other high tech devices such as digital tablets, smart phones and digital tools (padlets, quizlets and learning apps) will also be used in and out of class to broaden our working techniques and reverse the top down teaching scheme and enable the students to have a hands on approach to their learning models. The project is also designed to enhance european citizenship as the partner schools will be all practising the same sports over the time period and will ultimately enable the students and teachers involved to design, promote and organise an Olympic venue in the height of the Olympics 2020 whereby each student/ teacher would be involved in a different sport event (basket ball, badminton, athletics, handball…) thus reinvesting the skills developped throughout the two year period of the project. The sports will be interchanged with those typically practised in the partner countries. Throughout this project, we promote equal opportunities among our students, that is why we consider of vital importance the participation in these programmes and projects not only locally but also internationally. Both the teachers and the students will be able to participate in short mobility programmes that will allow them to share and cooperate culturally, linguistically and physically. The project shall be regularly assessed every semester so as to see if our action has had an impact for each student on the above mentioned criteras : mood, concentration, sleep habits, daily stress, healthy diet, self confidence ,leadership. The results will be taken into account and special attention will be allocated to help the students to progress. Furthermore the project will also pave the for greater cooperation from the parents who will also play an active role in supporting our project both in and out of school by checking on the sleeping patterns of their children, monitoring the use of their digital tablets and smart phones, encouraging them to exercise regularly and having a well balanced diet. The local authorities will also be involved as activities could be organized by the city council to ascertain greater awareness in the public opinion and perhaps they could allow for more cycle paths to be built. Finally, we would invite other schools ( primary , other secondary schools) to follow on our footsteps.
The initial context of the project was based on an urgent need for the students to 'get out of their social environment' and to become fully involved in their health and well-being. Indeed, the initial observation had revealed that the so-called “dropouts” and / or less successful pupils in the establishments did not benefit or hardly benefited from a socio-cultural environment which could promote self-development. There was a dual aim for project: - make our students more responsible and active in their health by engaging them in actions that benefit them and those around them , - offer activities in the form of challenges (running challenge, 10,000 step challenge, sophrology challenge, No Screen Day , No soda day , No waste day , etc.) to relieve stress and focus better in class. In order to achieve these goals, the coordinating teachers devised a series of activities in the guise of challenges that the students would take up to better understand the impact of these actions on their everyday lives and therefore, on their way of learning. The endorsement of the challenges would be done in a united and simultaneous manner in each participating school, thus developing a feeling of cooperation within the class group, the school and more widely with other schools taking part in the project. This European awareness could make it possible to give concrete reality to the concept of European citizenship. The project spanned from September 2018 to August 2020 and its implementation encountered difficulties relating to: - the composition of the groups: was it necessary to choose pupils at random or, on the contrary, to select motivated pupils? - on the schedule: was it necessary to impose a schedule on the establishments or allow more flexibility in meeting the challenges? - the content of the activities: should the content of the challenges be fixed unilaterally or could we allow greater flexibility or even leave the possibility for the students to make suggestions? - the disparity of digital resources in establishments: how to carry out virtual exchanges when the establishments had neither TNI / NAV nor enough computers at their disposal. The project necessarily had to evolve to better adapt to the difficulties encountered. The calendar of activities was made more flexible to better take into account the educational constraints of each establishment. The content was enriched with new challenges suggested by the students (fight against bullying, sophrology sessions to fight against stress). The attempts at virtual exchanges on EDMODO and E twinning were replaced by penpal exchanges that were reallyappreciated by the students. Diagnostic and summative assessments were carried out to measure the effects of the project on students, and in particular on dropouts. At the end of the project, the students all appreciated the activities and especially the mobilities because they gave a concrete reality to the project and made it possible to offer a real identity to the very ambiguous notion, which is that of European citizenship. The students thus realized the impact that their sleep, their diet, the number of hours spent in front of screens and their physical activity could have on their physical and mental well-being. Finally, the annual review carried out revealed that the number of hours of detentions and penalties had significantly decreased and the students had clearly gained in working autonomy even if their school results had not altered much. The dropouts also had very positive and encouraging results since the students suffering from school phobias regularly come to class and the others obtained the desired professional orientation and global had a better self esteem. The disappointment was great during the health crisis because the project was aborted and the mobilities planned could not take place. It was very difficult to regain motivation and new energy to extend the already substantial work done by the participants. Additional challenges were proposed (production of a video on the barrier gestures broadcast on LUMNI television broadcasts ...) during this period but fears of a second wave as well as the risks of future contamination worried teachers and parents alike. The project was therefore stopped by mutual consent in August 2020. When designing the project, the coordinating teachers imagined that the project would spread to other schools (primary ...) in the area. But this was not the case because few colleagues wanted to take part and get involved in the project fearing to step out of their work comfort zone and / or to bear too much work. This could be the purpose of a future ERASMUS PLUS project for the years to come. In the meantime the teachers will pursue the grounds of their task and you can consult this link that retraces the steps of the work carried out: https://fr.padlet.com/sandrinevuhoang/erasmus