The project “Young Writers Club” is a 24 month Project and the coordinating school is The Durham Federation in United Kingdom and the partner schools are; Sincan Aksemsettin Ilkokulu-Turkey, 2th Primary School of Drapetsona-Greece, The Tildy Zoltán Primary School, Elementary Institution of Teaching Arts-Hungary, Mieszko I Primary School Number 5-Poland and Voksen School-Norway. The aims of the project are increasing 10 to 13 years students’ writing competence and its relevance in their learning process, thinking writing as a habit rather than an obligation, ensuring our children become active European citizens, strengthening the link between their education and their future jobs. We firmly believe that well trained pupils are certainly linked to well trained teachers that’s why we have designed teacher training courses at the beginning and at the end of the Project. The courses will be focused on leading writing and evaluating writing competences of the pupils. The topics of the teacher trainings will be: READING&WRITING STRATEGIES FOR YOUNG LEARNERS and ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION IN WRITING . The students from 10 to 13 years will prepare bookmarks, make posters of the books, illustrate comic strips, be informed about the partner countries’ authors and books, write postcards, short letters and stories and role play in their stories in Project time. Each meeting will have a topic: Reading for fun, fun for reading, Love For Library, Children Literature and Digital Storytelling. Pupils will work together, share, learn about other countries, develop strong communication links, foster European spirit, develop greater understanding and respect and create a deep impact both in the partner schools and in their environment. We, six partners are public schools where only the Hungarian is a writing centered school which we believe will have big contributions to the project with their national methods on writing. In Project time, pupils will partcipate in a lot of attractive activities which we believe they will love to do. Students will be encouraged to show their creativity, work in cooperation and avoid gender discrimination. We’ll do all the activities at the same time and present the outcomes at the meetings. Consequently,all the partners will provide innovation and active learning. By this Project students will become more tolerant, more creative and young writers who write creatively more with the help of what they've learnt throughout the project. The activities will assist them improve in art, literature and culture. The products of the Project will be: logo, slogan, webpage, social media groups, Etwinning twinspace group, posters, ecards, postcards, letters, short stories, theatre plays and an ebook. Although the students and the teachers will be involved directly in the project, the administators, the parents, the schools nearby will be in the project's dissemination plan. Keeping in touch with all the Project participants will enlarge the Project influence’s beyond school to local community. Writing will be thought as a habit rather than an obligation in all the involvers’ minds.
The aims of the project were linked to increasing the writing competencies of students aged between 10 and 13. We also sought to develop a love of writing and which allowed students to see writing as a habit rather than an obligation. Throughout the project we encouraged the sharing of good reading reading habits as we acknowledged the significant role reading had in developing the love of writing in our pupils. The project also set out to ensure our children became active European citizens, and we worked hard to ensure we were strengthening the link between their education and their future jobs. The project was also aimed at supporting staff development and as such, each mobility was designed to facilitate specific teacher training courses. This was in addition to the two specific staff events which bookmarked our project. The collaborative staff activities focused on leading writing and evaluating writing competences of the pupils. This encouraged the sharing of good practice, through which we explored the differing approaches to reading and writing in outr education systems and the way that we evaluate these activities. We also took the opportunity to observe these policies in action through shared observations. The findings of these activities are available in the minutes of our meetings and on the shared website. The students were encouraged to work at school in preparation of our mobilities to develop resources to share on their visits. This included bookmarks, book review posters, illustrated comic strips and presentations about the partner countries’ authors and books. In addition, pupils stayed in contact through the writing of postcards, short letters and stories. This communication was facilitated through the use of e-twinning and our projects social media profile. Each meeting then took on a key topic linked to the development of writing as follows; Reading for fun, fun for reading, Love For Library, Children's Literature and Digital Storytelling. In working face to face, pupils were able to work collaboratively to learn about other countries, develop strong communication links, foster a greater understanding of what it means to be European and develop a greater understanding and respect for the culture in both the partner schools and in their environment. The project time was well managed and utilised to provide pupils with the opportunity to participate in a range of activities to support their love of writing. Students were exposed to a range of strategies to develop these skills and this included visits to libraries, museums and historical monuments. Participation in drama, dance and music workshops. Paper making and calligraphy lessons. Collaborative storytelling. Immersion into the school life and reading and writing lessons. Using digital media to promote storytelling. Collaborative writing. Again, results of these workshops and activities have been shared on our project website and across e-twinning. It was the aim of the project to ensure that students were exposed to innovation and creativity in their learning. Student feedback highlights that this has been achieved as well as students demonstrating tolerance, and an ability to be more creative and descriptive in their writing. In my own school, we have implemented strategies explored in our partner schools into our whole school Literacy Policy. The activities were designed to be cross curricular and as search the project has transcended a range of subjects including art, literature and culture. The products of the Project are proudly displayed on our website and take the form of a logo, slogan, webpage, social media groups, Etwinning twinspace group, posters, ecards, postcards, letters, short stories, theatre plays and an ebook. It was also important to ensure the engagement of the local community and as such, the project has been shared with parent's local educators, the local public and small business. This has been crucial to the effective dissemination of our project. Despite the challenges of moving the last two mobilities to a blended delivery, we are confident that the integrity of the activities has not been compromised and that the students have successfully been able to meet the aims and goals of the project as outlined above. Staff training and communication has been crucial and through our project we have been able to develop collaborative partnerships which will extend beyond the end of the project and we look forward to continued collaboration with our partners.