Adolescence is a decisive period in life. A teenager has continuous ups and downs, mood swings and insecurities caused by a wide range of situations: poor marks at school, social exclusion, discovery and acceptance of their own sexuality, lack of self esteem, personal appearance, relationship issues, etc. For this reason we will propose that groups of students aged 15 to 18 participate in this project. Every centre participating in the project will select their own students following their own pre-determined criteria, aiming to make them as objective as possible. To give the best results, the number of participants will be limited. Although this will depend on the size of each school, we would like to include 60-90 pupils in the activities, limiting the number in every trip to 6 students accompanied by 2 teachers. With the “Learning in Peace” project we express our will to highlight the problem of violence at our schools, especially where it stems from the use of social media because this is more difficult to identify and therefore more dangerous as it is less visible and in most cases it is kept secret out of a sense of shame. Teachers, families and students must become aware of the different types of violence in order to be able to create a safe learning environment, and to prevent and combat antisocial behaviour, reduce the rate of academic failure, reinforce self-esteem and prevent suicide. We are aware that this problem can only be solved by a plan which includes all the agencies involved in it: the educational establishment and our society in general, including teaching staff and families, but above all, the students themselves, who have an important role in the eradication of these harmful practices and attitudes. We will address the risks of the internet and social media; we will enlist the help of qualified professionals (police, psychologists, etc) to demonstrate different approaches to the problem through talks and presentations. We’ll guide our students in their investigations and creations. We’ll offer fun educational activities and we will promote contact between participants of the 5 involved countries confident that we are laying the foundations for a better learning environment. The Project will offer useful products and materials about the topic we are working on, such as brochures, videos, theatre roleplays, games, etc. These materials will made available on the ETwinning space created for this project and which will have the same name: “Learning in Peace”. However, the most important expected outcome of this project will be the most difficult to quantify: both teachers and students will find new motivation and energy for classroom innovation, we will also benefit from cultural and linguistic enrichment, an improvement of our digital skills and a unique experience. The “Learning in Peace” project is part of the curriculum of every school involved and of a number of our complementary projects and other activities. Information about our participation, how it is financed, the aims and the activities to achieve them, will be included in our school syllabus. We think that extending the project to surrounding areas, publicizing it to our society via the media is essential because our long-term objective is to change the mentality of our society towards violence in the school environment, an underestimated problem which marks many lives.
Adolescence is a decisive stage. A teenager experiences ups and downs, mood changes, and insecurities caused by various situations: poor school results, lack of self-confidence, physical appearance, relationship problems, social exclusion by their peers or people these teenagers identify with, etc.. For this reason, students aged 15 to 18 are selected for this project. Each partnering school Will have chosen its participants based on objective and public selection criteria. The main intention of our project "Apprendre en paix" is to highlight the problem of violence in the school environment, especially that resulting from misuses of social networks, which are more difficult to identify and therefore more dangerous as they remain hidden in most cases. Teachers, families and students must become aware of the different types of violence in order to be able to create a safe environment, prevent or stop antisocial behaviour, decrease the dropout rate in school, reinforcing self-confidence and preventing posible suicide cases. We are aware that this issue can only be solved by implementing a plan in order to eradicate traumatic attitudes and practices on teenagers, which involves all parties: educational administrations and society in general, and specifically speaking, teachers and students' families, but above all the students themselves, who are the protagonists of this goal. We have worked on the potentials and risks of the Internet, requesting the cooperation of professionals (police officers, psychologists, social workers, associations, etc.) in order to show different angles to the issue. We have guided our students in their search for information and in their practical tasks; we have offered recreational, as well as educational activities and encouraged contact between participants from all partnering countries with confidence on our effort on contributing to a better learning environment. This project has provided products and materials such as brochures, videos, dramatizations or plays, games, etc., regarding the study and prevention of bullying ,as well as cyberbullying. These are accessible on the project results platform, online with free access or on the schools’ websites. We have created on eTwinning a complementary site for the project named "Apprendre en Paix", although the latest modifications on the eTwinning platform has posed us many difficulties to move the contents elsewhere. However, the result that we consider most important is hardest to assess: the students and teachers involved have gained extra motivation, an inclination towards pedagogical innovation, an improvement of their linguistic and cultural, as well as digital competences, and, above all, an extraordinary life experience. The Erasmus+ project "Apprendre en paix" has also been part of the educational programmes of our partnering schools, integrated in different projects and complementary activities. Spreading the information over our participation in the Erasmus+ program, as well as the EU funding, the objectives and the activities designed to achieve them has been a priority over this period. We value in a very positive way making the project available to our environment and the dissemination provided in the media, as our long-term objective is the change of mindset in our society towards a much underrated problem that can greatly impact the lives of many people