Six schools from across the EU (Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Poland, Macedonia and Bulgaria) partnered up to organise four different Youth European School Parliament (YESP) events. Every event focuses on a different theme, and on a different specific skill. In these events, students from five international schools will visit one school, where they are placed in a committee of their choice. These committees are based on actual EU committees, and students are challenged to come up with a new law. At the end of the week, each committee has to present their law in a General Assembly, and after a debate among all students, a vote will take place on whether the law is passed. During the week, workshops are given by experts from (inter)national and local governments, as well as by NGOs. In these workshops, important and relevant EU-topics are addressed, and they will provide students with the right skills to write and debate their new laws. Laws which pass the student General Assembly are even send to EU officials in Brussels! Several social and cultural activities are included in a YESP-week as well. Moreover, hosting schools will give workshops to staff from the incoming schools to teach their best practices to them. In this way, not only pupils acquire useful, international skills, but the best school practices from across the EU are exchanged as well. Outcomes and experiences of the events are published on a website, so even schools not involved can learn from the project, and from the exchanged good practices of each school!
During the duration of the project, we closely followed each planned step in the development of the project and carefully planned the activities through communication at the partnership and project team level. We maintained daily contact with other partners via email and WhatsApp. We reviewed the process and results of the activities described in the application form (meetings P1 – P3) We held regular meetings of the project team to monitor and evaluate the development of all activities, tasks and products as defined in the biennial plan. project meeting we organized a meeting of the coordinator with the whole project team to assess not only the meetings but also the progress at the international level. The development of the project Connecting Schools Across Borders was organized and the team successfully analyzed all forms, activities and products in the original project. (P1 and P2) In the 1st year and until the middle of the 2nd everything went according to the original plan. We succeeded in organizing P1 and P2 organizational meetings in the Netherlands and Germany. We had the ground rules for work and project teams We organized the C1 meeting in the Netherlands. We created a project website (www.csab2018.webnode.com, Facebook profiles and actively prepared the students for the different mobilities on the project page in eTwinning. We made proposals for the logo of the project. We successfully organized a C2 meeting in Sofia, we prepared and implemented C3 mobility in Spain. Unfortunately in early 2020. The Cov19 pandemic broke out and our plans for the development of the project changed. The planned mobilities in North Macedonia (C4) and the P4 coordination meeting in Poland were not carried out on time. During the pandemic, we held a P3 virtual video conference for assessment of C2 and C3, as well as for planning activities during the pandemic. Due to the Cov19 pandemic, the project was extended by 12 months, until 31.08.2021. At the end of the 2020/2021 school year we decided to hold C4 in North Macedonia and to virtually evaluate the project in Poland (P4). The meeting in North Macedonia was attended by 105 students and 22 teachers. These changes were necessary due to the ongoing Cov19 pandemic and the inability to travel. There is no budget in the main project form for the coordination meetings P1, P2 and P4, and they were financed by the management and organization budget . P4 in Poland was not realized with travel due to Covid pandemics. Only one group, the Polish team, was able to have a real physical meeting in Ohrid (NMK). Therefore they both applied for the virtual mobility in the mobility tool March 2021) and a physical one (C6) in august 2021. We created a project page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Erasmus-KA229-2018-2020-Connecting-Schools-Across-Borders-219267205415823), a closed group of all project teachers working on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034559899911450), project site (https://csab2018.webnode.com), and we have updated the project page in Twinspace (https://live.etwinning.net/projects/project/179129, https://twinspace.etwinning.net/75291/home) and Google drive. On these channels we uploaded presentations, materials, lectures and information about the project activities, the mobility and the progress of the project as a whole. So actually we carried out the project as stipulated in the original application: we 1. Undertook all mobilities with the students accordingly (except C4) 2. Managed to organize three transnational teachers meetings for monitoring and adjusting 3. Managed to organize meetings for a SWOT-analysis of or schools and took these results and the knowledge learned in the different workshops we offered to each other during the teachers workshops during the P-meetings and C-meetings (sometimes teachers had a different program or a part of the teacher’s team) back to our school boards with the request to be implemented in one way or another 4. Managed to involve several governmental and non governmental organisations to involve our students in their work, the problems in the world’s society they encounter / try to battle and learned or students some debating skils. For both students and organisations this was interesting and worthwhile, because he students could use the contents of the workshops of these (N)GO’s for their committee work (in which they had to make a new “European law” or proposal) and on the other hand these organisations had (ofcourse) a platform (which was probably different from what they were normally used to) 5. Improved the English language and debating skills of our students and colleagues. At the end of the project, the improvement of the communication and language skills of all members of the project team, directly involved in the execution of the tasks and activities of the project, as well as in the travel and daily communication with colleagues from the partner schools was strengthened 6. Improved the knowledge and general acceptance towards the EU (-institutions) of the students and teachers involved 7. Improved the idea that debate and compromise (even between people with a total different linguistic and cultural background) works and is more important then winning your point of view. 8. Improved the student’s organizational and social skills (as being part f a self regulating committee that needs to “produce” according to rules, regulations,bt without a constant superview of a normal classroom situation. to present students in an unpopular environment by putting them in the role of politicians in the European Youth Parliament, developing skills for foreign language debate, defending a point of view through preliminary analysis of information and different points of view , through which many contacts were made with children from the partner countries. 9. Improved the collaboration between different subjects in the involved schools, such as debating (languages), with history, social studies and a more global / international focus of the subjects in these matters 10. Improved the already existing international focus of the involved schools in continuing outlining their international curriculum and strategy (such as further applying for Erasmus Plus or other related) international collaboration and partnerships. The project required the participation of many more students than in other projects, which was challenging for the lead teachers, but also provided us with invaluable organizational experience. At the end of the project, we are very ambitious to continue working in this area. Main objectives: The main objective of the project was to develop skills and competences of students. Participating students learned about the EU, especially about the issues the real-life counterpart of their committee had to face, and how to deal with them. Moreover, they learned debating skills from politicians (EU, national and/or local) and representatives of NGO's such as Amnesty International, who have real life experience in debating these topics. For a short while, students were in the role of politicians, and they had to reflect on their responsibilities, possibilities and their limits. During the process, the international character of all committees encouraged development of social and intercultural skills, and improved the English language skills of the students in reading, writing, speaking and listening. The six schools are geographically spread across the EU to ensure diversity of students, cultures and practices. Topics which are addressed in the YESP-week were, among others: expanding the EU borders, economic challenges, (youth) unemployment, climate change, dealing with separatism, migration challenges, and the role and importance of the EU. The workshops, GA and cultural activities link the event to the objectives "Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences" and "Social and educational value of European cultural heritage". All six involved schools listed their five strongest and five weakest points, and during the YESP week, the host schools gave workshops to the visiting school staff in order to pass on their knowledge to other schools. In total, four YESP-events will take place over the course of two years,with different students. For this project, it is important that the visiting staff has strong connections with the management of their school, in order to ensure that good practices are actually embedded in the school strategy. The schools in Netherlands, Bulgaria, Spain and Macedonia organised a YESP week and therefore gave the workshops. The other two schools however (Germany and Poland) organized their workshops during the mid-term and final evaluations. In this way, every school had a chance to learn too, and learn from others. Topics of the workshops were for example: improving the level of English for students and/or staff, improving internationalization strategy of a school on a low budget. This links this activity to the objective "Promoting the acquisition of skills and competences". Concrete results are a website on which the outcomes of the committees are shared publicly. Resolutions which receive a majority in the student-GA could even be sent to representatives of the EU in Brussels.These resolutions can also be used as input for Euroscola events in Strasbourg. Other concrete results is the implementation of good practices of one school at the other schools in the project, and an improvement of student's knowledge about and attitude towards the EU. Expected longer-term benefits: DEVELOPING SOCIAL SKILLS AND DIFFERENT COMPETENCES OF STUDENTS 1) Students learned about the EU, especially about the issues the real-life counterpart of their committees has to face and how to deal with them. 2) Students developed their debating skills by attending workshops with politicians (EU, national, and / or local) and representatives of NGO's. 3) Being in the roles of debating politicians students learned to take responsibility and care for others, improved their intercultural skills and developed their English skills in listening, reading, speaking and writing. SWOT ANALYSIS AND EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE BETWEEN SCHOOLS 1) Before the start of the project each school determined 5 strong and weak points. During each YESP-week, staff of the hosting school presented incoming staff their strengths and illustrated their good practices. 2) Schools' good practices corresponded their previous weak points and showed the ways how schools can cope with them and improve their weaknesses. ENHANCEMENT OF STUDENTS' SELFAWARNESS ABOUT THE MOST CRUCIAL EUROPEAN ISSUES 1) The project gave students insight in the tasks and responsibilities of different European committees by debating present-day issues and by presenting resolutions. 2) In the YESP-week, students, supervised by teachers, discussed, among others, such issues as expanding the EU borders, economic challenges, (youth) unemployment, climate change, dealing with separatism, migration challenges and the importance of the European Union. REDEFINING COOPERATION 1) Our project redefined international cooperation by actively involving both teachers and students. 2) The six partnership schools, which are geographically spread across the EU, wanted to ensure diversity of students, cultures and practices. IMPROVING INTERCULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS 1) The project improved relationships between students and schools from the main parts of Europe. 2) In each mobility or in each of four YESP-events different students were involved to offer equal chances for everybody and enhance intercultural relationships and experience exchange between students. 3) To achieve these goals, schools organized social and cultural events as well as excursions to the places believed to be the best evidence of their cultural heritage. ACHIEVING TWO / THREE HARD RESULTS OF THE PROJECT 1) a website was created and provided with the actual content and images to indicate that the outcomes of the committees were shared publicly. 2) The resolutions which passed in the student General Assembly were to be sent to representatives of the EU in Brussels. (Or using them as an input for Euroscola events in Strasbourg). 3) Dissemination of good practices from one school to the other schools in the project. A NEW RESOLUTION DEVELOPMENT 1) Students worked in 6 different international committees consisting of representatives of all the countries engaged: Committee on Culture and Education, Committee on Economic Affairs, Committee on Industry, Research & Energy, Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. 2) They worked on new resolutions in their respective fields. EXCHANGING AND REINFORCING GOOD PRACTICES 1) It affected respective schools, not only teachers and students. 2) The project made it possible to visiting staff to have strong connections with the management of their schools in order to ensure that good practices were actually embedded in the school strategy. 3) Four schools (the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Spain, North Macedonia) organized the YESP-week while the rest two (Germany, Poland) organizes workshops during the mid-term and final evaluations. The topics chosen to discuss were: improving the level of English for students and / or staff, improving European dimension on a low budget.