Differently identical

Project summary

The project that our school submits in cooperation with three other schools from Croatia, Turkey and Portugal is the result of many months of work of all the participating schools in the project; it was created as an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of our school and what we would like to change and to improve. Our society and environment are, by nature and mentality of the people, very xenophobic and closed for all new things that, in their opinion, are bad and disastrous for the tradition and culture of our people. Every day we encounter this problem, although as teachers we are trying to skip or break all these barriers together with our students. Knowing that the best form of learning is through experience, we want to share our experiences with others, and we would also like to learn from others. Since the world is constantly changing, that in the modern age of migration is greater than ever, our goal is to empower our students to accept other cultures, religions, traditions, without any prejudices, while respecting their own culture and tradition, and make them understand that all of them together make European Culture, and so that on the next day we will have a society that adorns European values. Accordingly, we have chosen to participate in this project, and accordingly, we have determined our partners in the project and project goals. All schools participating in the project are more or less multicultural, with students from different social, religious, national and minority groups, and all schools strive to give all these students the same attention and dedication, regardless of skin colour, language they speak as mother tongue , the financial situation in the family, the religion they belong to, and the like. Each of the school participants in the project has a desire to share their experiences with another school, to learn valuable lessons from colleagues from Europe, to improve their daily teaching and work with their students. All the goals we have stated will be supported by the activities that will lead to their fulfilment. Visits to partner schools in the project and the exchange of experiences between teachers will lead to the fulfilment of those goals that are defined for teachers. Teachers will improve their languages, ICT and other professional competencies, will learn new methods that will then be able to apply in their everyday work, using modern teaching tools. Headmasters will, through the exchange of experiences with their colleagues, and visiting school partners in the project, find out what is all that can be improved in all schools and their organisation, and in particular will pay attention to how other schools and systems struggle with early school leaving by students. Students participating in the project will realise the activities of their peers from partner schools, will stay in their homes and will get acquainted with the culture of each nation individually, will visit cultural events and programs of each of the participating countries in the project, and the goals will be foreseen for students also fill. Moreover, students of all schools will have the same obligations when their peers from partner schools come to them, so the outcomes of the project will be expanded. The use of the eTwinning platform will lead to the project being implemented before the start, but also to continue to be implemented even after it has been completed for a long time. It is precisely the reason for choosing schools from the diametrically opposite parts of Europe - the Atlantic, the Balkans, the Adriatic and the far Southeast of Europe - a fertile ground for teaching pupils about how different cultures, values ​​and traditions can have the same goal-the demolition of prejudices and attitudes about the unknown. Therefore, the very title of the "Identically Different" project itself is closer to achieving a common goal. All the knowledge that our teachers will gather during the implementation of the project will certainly be used in further work. Improving language and ICT competencies and incorporating new teaching methods will also have a positive impact on their daily work and upon the completion of the implementation of this project, so that the results of the project will also be seen after its completion. Students participating in the project will develop their awareness of the different European cultures that build the European identity and will use their knowledge, skills and attitudes learned and built in this project after the completion of their primary education and transition to secondary education. Through the implementation of the Erasmus + project, our school will be positioned in the city as an innovative and quality educational institution with a very prominent European dimension (the only school in the area with two and we hope for the third Erasmus + project), which enables pupils and teachers to gain experience across Europe.