The project's title "A school of democracy - we know our rights and duties" refers to the most important European value - democracy. The project aims at young students, whose awareness of social concepts on an intellectual level has just begun. The world of politics seems to them very distant and strange. They do not understand the world around them with all these political issues that are too difficult and abstract for young students who are 11- 15 years old. This project will help them to widen their horizons and gain knowledge very useful in their future education and careers. The project will last for two years and its main objective is to increase the students' interest in their local social and political life starting with their school surrounding where they can face the basic rules of democracy observing the schools' governments. Another important objective is to develope the students' fluency in English and digital competences. Four European schools - from Poland, Portugal, Croatia and Italy - will carry out the project refering to the European citizenship. All the partners in the project are local schools interested in offering the European level of education to their students. The tasks and duties will be divided and shared equally. Each school will be responsible for one LTT activity. Moreover the Polish school will coordinate the project work, the Portuguese school will create and maintain the project website, the schools from Croatia and Italy will host the transnational meetings. The four LTT activities dealing with lingual, social, historic, and cultural integration, will give young people opportunities that the single schools would not able to offer. Eight students from each partner school will participate in the LTT activities that will last for five days. The project work will be divided in two parts: the work during the LTT activities and the work in partner schools. The students will focus their attention on two areas. The first one is their school life with the school government. The second one is the region they live in, its social, politicalical, and structural characteristics. The activities will lead the students to deeper knowledge of their nearest surrounding and wider understanding of their role in the school and local society. They will have a possibility to realize what their rights and duties are. The students will also learn how to discuss, present their point of view, negotiate and achieve a consensus. All the students will receive the Europass certificates. The main advantage is that the students will be able to work in international groups, using and developing their language and IT skills to fulfill the tasks. Some complex transversal skills will be developed when the students experience a new situation that will demand new skills. This complex approach can also be seen in activities that will be based on the process of finding information. The methods used in this project will lead the students to self-reliance and responsibility for making decisions and choices. These methods will stimulate group work and encourage the students to create a new value through different activities. They will learn how to discuss, negotiate, write a petition or take part in a debate. Such skills will prepare them to their future roles in politics or will be crucial in their future professional lives. The project will produce four final results: a website, a calendar, a glossary and a film. The website will be created at the very beginning of the project and all intermediate results will be collected there. The calendar will contain the students' designs and disseminate the project. The glossary will contain new words and expressions explained in four languages so it will be used in the partner schools for teaching new vocabulary. The film will document all the activities and it will be used during English classes in the partner schools and beyond. All the final results will be available on the project website. The impact of the project will be seen in the short-time perspective as the progress in developing the students' skills and knowledge. The project will also influence the school life with the students' awareness of their rights and duties. Nevertheless the potential longer term beneficiaries of this project will be the students equiped with knowledge and skills very important in their future lives as responsible citizens of their towns, regions, countries and the European Union. The experience in the project may lead to their involvment in the local affairs or political careers. Social and educational value of European cultural heritage will increase the students' EU awareness and understanding of the idea of democracy, will shape their future role in the society that may lead to economic growth and social cohesion of their towns and regions. The value of their education on the European level will result in economic growth and social cohesion of their towns and regions.
The project started in October 2019 with the email contacts of the teachers involved in the project. In all parter schools the project was announced to the students of the age of 11 -15 and some of them decided to join it. As the formal issues – signing the Grant Agreement, transfering the money – took some time, the teachers decided to postpone the C1 LTT activites and meet in the Croatian partner school in March 2020. Such a change gave the students more time to prepare presentations about the partner schools and about the towns where they live, concentrating on the question: Who rules in your school? In your town? All the students were very well prepared for the C1 LTT activities and they did their best to fulfill the tasks. Making their presentations they broadened their knowledge about the small societies they are part of, understood their role in them and realised what responsible citizenship means. Answering the two questions in their presentations they could see how important in every society democracy is. Moreover the students could observe some events connected with the presidential election in Croatia, which was another lesson of democracy. Unfortunately after the C1 LTT activities we could not continue the project because of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown. The project coordinator applied for an additional year to implement the project and to achieve its objectives. The additional year was accepted but the project could not be restarted immediately. The restrictions caused by the pademic did not allow the students to travel to the partner schools. Waiting for better conditions the teachers tried to rebuilt the project potential as the students involved in the C1 LTT activities had left the school. New groups were invited and introduced to the main objectives and tasks of the project. As the restrictions caused by the pandemic were not lifted, the partner schools decided to continue the project with the virtual C2 LTT activities, organized by the coordinating school in Poland in March 2022. The tasks planned for this part of the project had to be modified and adjusted to new conditions. The teachers chose Teams as a platform useful for the project. The Croatian and Polish students had already experienced activities on Teams while learning online but this platform was new for the Italian and Portuguese groups, so they needed some additional activities to get used to it. The programme of the C2 activities was implemented in such a way that the students worked in their schools for 2-3 hours on such topics as campaign and election in their schools. Then presented their results on Teams, discussed and exchanged ideas. Despite some small technical difficulties at the very beginning the students worked very effectively. Nevertheless they missed the real contacts with students from the partner schools. Soon after the C2 activities the pandemic was over and to the students‘ delight we could continue the project with real meetings. The teachers decided to act very quickly and the C3 LTT activities were organized in the Portuguese school in April 2022. The project work started on 25th April, a very important day in the history of Portugal. On this day the Portuguese people celebrated the 48th anniversary of Revolução dos Cravos, the revolution that brought democracy to Portugal. It was another lesson of history and a picture of the nation fighting for democracy. The main tasks of the C3 LTT activities were designing the area around the school and write a petition addressed to the local authorities. During the meeting with the Mayor of Braga the petition was handed and the students could take part in the real democratic activity and feel like active citizens. The first day of the C4 LTT activities was 23rd May, a very important date of remembrence and recollection of great personalities of Italian Magistrature: Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two extraordianary men fighting for democracy and legality. There was another meeting organized, this time with the Mayor of Bagheria and the students‘ petition was about the school canteen. The main task planned for this phase of the project was a debate. After a very clear preparation the students presented excellent work and the debate taught them how to solve problems in a democratic way. In June 2022 additional LTT activities were organized in the Polish partner school as a complement to the virual C2 LTT activities. On 28th June the students went to Poznań. It was 66th anniversary of protests against communism and demonstrations in Poznań in 1956. The students could learn about the Polish way to democracy and how the citizens pay tribute and commemorate the victims of those days. The main task of the C5 LTT activities was to sum up and evaluate the whole project. Moreover the students could enjoy the time together – the element of the project that was missing during the virtual C2 LTT activities.