Happy and healthy kids all around Europe. That was the first idea of 3 schools experienced in international projects. 2 new partners were offered their experience so they created the partnership of 5 schools across Europe, from the north to the south and the east to the west. We are 5 partners from very different backgrounds: 2 from rural areas, 2 from small cities and 1 from bigger city, all of which makes this project innovative. The project is directed mainly at children in primary and secondary education and the diversity comes from the fact that there are kids from different nationalities and from families of very different social-economic status as well as some minority groups. The priorities of the project are directly related to the objectives set: -To foster the inclusion of students from poor backgrounds and with learning difficulties as equal citizens. To encourage them to become aware of other realities and to consider a future life abroad as a possibility. -To raise awareness of the fact that contact with other cultures, religions and beliefs enriches and makes us more tolerant and understanding of others. -To promote collaborative teaching-learning. -To increase digital competence which is absolutely essential in today’s world. -A healthy person is a basic element of a healthy Europe (mental and physical health of an individual, good habits, healthy school, home and world environment, the ability to make decisions based on the critical thinking) -To foster the love of foreign languages, to aid communication at work, socially or for fun. Activities will be organized to promote the project: leaflets, a logo competition, an informative video, a showcase in the schools to show how the project is developing and dissemination through a range of websites. Other activities will focus on reaching the proposed objectives. Five blocks of work have been chosen: mental health and changing habits, healthy food, sport activities, environment and socializing; all of which will help us attain our main objective, that of social inclusion. The final product for each of these topics will be made during each of the visits to five partnering countries, which in itself will help us learn about the culture of other countries and will offer us a broader vision of Europe. A third group of activities will be aimed at assessment, both of the project itself and its impact and sustainability. These include the initial and final questionnaires, interviews, quantification of the visits and interaction with the project websites. The methodology is primarily collaborative: peer-teaching/learning, mixed-ability group work and, changing habits at schools and in families. In the cooperation with school parliaments, there will be innovative proposals to school educational programmes. Most of the activities will be carried out using ICTs as the main tool, which will foment digital competence. The final products will be published both in English and in the participants’ language so as to increase the love of languages and language competence. The tangible results will be: eTwinning website, a project logo, a presentation of participants, a video blog describing visits, a book of mental activities and a school calendar for 2021/22. The strategic results will be: management and organization of human resources and materials, achievement of a tolerant attitude, collaboration and communication based on ICT tools, dissemination of the project and its tangible results amongst the whole community, development of critical thinking through workshops, improvement of oral and written communication skills and awareness amongst the students of their possibility of moving within Europe as a single space. The main impact of the project is the inclusion of disadvantaged students, as the project will allow them to work alongside the rest, so helping them to feel integrated members not only of the school but also of the society and Europe. Healthy Europe will contribute to a marked increase in digital and communicative competence and collaborative work in a European setting. All of the above will enhance the sustainability of the project in so far as it serves to motivate students and teachers to participate in other aspects of the Erasmus + programme. All the products will be available on the different digital platforms, so they can be transferred to other educational areas. All students will be able to access and learn from them. Moreover, teachers will upload their methodological sheets onto the educational websites so the number of people who will benefit from the results of this project will multiply. Attending seminars, conferences or workshops within the schools will support its sustainability. Teachers will present the results, distribute leaflets and the materials. We will keep the project website up to date and the project team motivated even after its end. This is an effective way of the exploitation of the outcomes in this ITC era.
Happy and healthy kids all around Europe. That was the first idea of 3 schools experienced in international projects. 2 new partners were offered their experience so they created the partnership of 5 schools across Europe, from the north to the south and the east to the west. At first, we were 5 partners from very different backgrounds: 2 from rural areas, 2 from small cities and 1 from bigger city, all of which made the project innovative. We finished the project as a group of 3 partners.The project was directed mainly at children in primary and secondary education and the diversity came from the fact that there were kids from different nationalities and from families of very different social-economic status as well as some minority groups. The priorities of the project were directly related to the objectives set. We decided to foster the inclusion of students from poor backgrounds and with learning difficulties as equal citizens, to encourage them to become aware of other realities and to consider a future life abroad as a possibility. We raised awareness of the fact that contact with other cultures, religions and beliefs enriches and makes us more tolerant and understanding of others. We promoted collaborative teaching-learning, increased digital competence which is absolutely essential in today’s world. Our aim was to find ways how to form a healthy person as a basic element of a healthy Europe (mental and physical health of an individual, good habits, healthy school, home and world environment, the ability to make decisions based on the critical thinking). We fostered the love of foreign languages, aided communication at work, socially or for fun. There were activities organized to promote the project: leaflets, a logo competition, videos, a showcase in the schools to show the development and dissemination of the project through a range of websites. Other activities were focused on reaching the proposed objectives. We had five blocks of work: mental health and changing habits, healthy food, sport activities, environment and socializing; all of which helped us attain our main objective, that of social inclusion. The final product for each of these topics was made during each of the visits to partnering countries, which in itself helped us learn about the culture of other countries and offered us a broader vision of Europe. A third group of activities was aimed at assessment, both of the project itself and its impact and sustainability. Those included the initial and final questionnaires, interviews, quantification of the visits and interaction with the project websites. The methodology was primarily collaborative: peer-teaching/learning, mixed-ability group work and, changing habits at schools and in families. In the cooperation with school parliaments, there were innovative proposals to school educational programmes. Most of the activities were carried out using ICTs as the main tool, which fomented digital competence. The final products were published both in English and in the participants’ language so as to increase the language competence. There were also tangible results made: eTwinning website, a project logo, a presentation of participants, a video blog describing visits, a book of mental activities. Our strategic results were the following: the management and organization of human resources and materials, achievement of a tolerant attitude, collaboration and communication based on ICT tools, dissemination of the project and its tangible results amongst the whole community, development of critical thinking through workshops, improvement of oral and written communication skills and awareness amongst the students of their possibility of moving within Europe as a single space. The main impact of the project was the inclusion of disadvantaged students, as the project allowed them to work alongside the rest and helped them to feel integrated members not only of the school but also of the society and Europe. Healthy Europe contributed to a marked increase in digital and communicative competence and collaborative work in a European setting. All of the above enhanced the sustainability of the project in so far as it served to motivate students and teachers to participate in other aspects of the Erasmus + programme. All the products have been uploaded on the different digital platforms, so they can be transferred to other educational areas. All students are able to access and learn from them. Teachers have uploaded their methodological sheets onto the educational websites so the number of people who can benefit from the results of this project still multiplies. Attending seminars, conferences or workshops within the schools supported its sustainability. Teachers presented the results, distributed leaflets and the materials. We keep the project website up to date and the project team stays motivated even after its end. This is an effective way of the exploitation of the outcomes in this ITC era.