“A Europe Revue: Music and theatre in the European perspective“ – according to this title, we aim to bring both schools from Germany and Portugal on stage. With the help of their teachers, students and coaches from the cooperation partner Music University in Lübeck we want to create a music and theatre show with a European topic. The project is implemented in the emerging partnerships of both municipalities. An official cooperation agreement should take place in the context of this exchange and presentations. Additionally, both schools wish to utilize the synergy effects to implement a music-profile system in their schools by creating a related project topic: Students in Lagoa/Portugal have the possibility to choose the “Articulado” (a music course with an appropriate specialisation and cooperation with the local music school “ARTIS”). Students in Pönitz/Germany have the ability to join the new established upper secondary school level with a musical and esthetic focus. The first-time access to the newly established upper secondary school level should be enriched by the European focus, language development und the creative and artistic initiative. Coincidently, also students from other schools might get aware of our upper secondary school level and its merits. Together with their four teachers of the music department and the department of performing arts and with the help of coaches of the Music University in Lübeck, respectively 16 students from Portugal and Germany simultaneously develop the musical and theatrical content at their school. Thereby, the students from the Music University in Lübeck gain important practical experience for their teacher training. Two learning, teaching and training activities that focus on advanced teachers’ education enable the teachers in the first year of the project to become acquainted, to exchange and to acquire knowledge in methodology and educational content within the scope of different workshops. In turn, this knowledge will be deployed at both schools together with their students. In this regard, students of both schools in Portugal and Germany should be partly involved in these activities in order to enrich the common teachers’ educational program. The methodology of teachers’ preparation and the subsequent student exchanges should provide the project with the necessary stringency and demand orientation. Together, this will facilitate the project goal attainment and the compliance with the quality criteria. At both rural based schools, we aim to provide students with the unique possibility to gain intercultural experience by physically and virtually connecting to students of the same age from another country and working together on a common project with the help of innovative methodology and content: digitality, creativity as well as self-competence in the context of presentations on stage are only examples of the measures with which the attendees are realising their own project. The added value on the European level is already defined: Two schools that collaborate on a creative and innovative European project and create a school intern and extern framework are internationally connected and give the European perspective a new dimension. In this framework, the municipality partnership is accompanied, and the own implementation of the upper secondary school level is enabled. In the context of the continuous impact and the (digital) spreading (e. g. by publishing the video recordings online), this project will be recognized school intern as well as extern thorough its diversity as well as its regional and transregional relevance and will be sustainably available. The multidisciplinary collaboration between music and performing arts, the inclusion of language development in English as well as the steadily cooperation in teams will enable teachers and students to gain important experience and increase their competences beyond the regular school lessons. In particular, following the prioritisation that the basic competences and key skills are promoted, the music theory and practice on the one hand and the theatrical presentations and creative writing on the other hand provide substance for the students in order to gain the targeted increase of competences which enable expert knowledge for a more intensive and a finally succeeded passage to the upper secondary school level. In combination with the development of new (school) partnerships and joint collaboration as well as the steady communication in German, Portuguese and English in particular, this application presents an innovative and individual approach that follows the demand analysis to accomplish a realistic project of highest quality.
"A European Revue: Music and Theatre in a European Perspective" - according to this title, both schools from Portugal and Germany wanted to bring a show of music and theatre with a European theme to the stages of both countries with their teachers, pupils and also the coaches of the cooperation partner Lübeck University of Music. This project was also embedded in the beginning town twinning of the two towns - an official cooperation agreement was already signed in the first year of the project in the context of these school encounters and presentations. In addition, both schools successfully used the synergy effects of creating a transition to a music profile system through a uniform project theme: In Lagoa/Portugal, the pupils choose the so-called "Articulado", a music course with corresponding specialisation and cooperation with the local music school "ARTIS". The pupils in Pönitz/Germany are to be given the opportunity to make the transition to the newly created upper school and to a profile with a musical-aesthetic orientation. The first entry into the newly established upper secondary school is to be enriched by means of a European thematic focus, language education and creative-artistic initiative, so that external students also become aware of our upper secondary school and its advantages. Sixteen pupils from Portugal and Germany with their teachers from the departments of music and design/performing arts, as well as students from the University of Music Lübeck, who acted as coaches and thus gained valuable practical experience as part of their teacher training, worked on the musical and theatrical content in parallel at their respective locations. Two learning, teaching and training activities focused on teacher training were originally intended to give the teachers in the first year of the project the opportunity to get to know each other at both locations, to exchange ideas and to develop methods and teaching content in the context of various workshops, which in turn would be used with the pupils at both locations. The respective involvement of the pupils living in Portugal and Germany was planned within the framework of these activities, but due to the approaching Corona pandemic and also the premature official establishment of the town twinning, all pupils were involved in the first year of the project and a performance was developed. Nevertheless, the preparations took place on a smaller scale: Project meetings as well as virtual/digital communication nevertheless gave the project the necessary stringency and needs orientation and ensured that the project goals were achieved together and that the quality criteria were met. At both rural locations, we offered the students the unique opportunity to gain intercultural experience, to physically and virtually exchange with peers from another country and to work on a joint project with innovative methods and content: Digitality, creativity as well as self-competence in the context of the presentations on the stages are just some of the means by which the participants realise their own project. The added value at EU level has already been defined: Two schools working on a creative, innovative European project, as well as creating a framework both internally and externally to the school, in which both a town twinning is accompanied and their own transition to a further school level takes place, network internationally and give a new dimension to the European perspective. In the context of the continuing impact and (digital) dissemination (including the publication of the video recordings), this project will be noticed and sustainably available both within and outside the school due to its diversity and regional as well as supra-regional relevance. In particular, following the prioritisation that basic competences and key skills are also promoted, music theory and practice on the one hand, as well as acting presentation and creative writing on the other hand, provide important content to achieve a targeted gain in competence and to intensify subject knowledge. Due to the onset of the Corona pandemic, no physical meeting could take place in the second project year, but intensive virtual work continued in order to be able to catch up on a joint meeting in 2022 if necessary. At both locations, the ensembles were able to prepare at least small performances and the teachers also continued to network intensively.