In recent years, our center has made a firm commitment to promote the social inclusion of different ethnic minorities, races, cultures, religions and individual skills which are present at our school with the goal of improving the social harmony, overcoming learning problems and raising the students achievement. We are convinced art, main focus project, will help to build a collaborative, respectful and enriching learning where diversity and heterogeneity could be sensed in a positive way. Teaming with our Lithuanian and Croatian partners in a new Erasmus + project will offer us the possibility to broaden our internationalization strategy and strengthening our European identity. The clear and particular commitment of Vilnius and Sibenik schools to values and art have been the decisive point to join our efforts. The Christian values and extraordinary interest of the Croatian school to join the project has outweighted its inexperience in European projects. Likewise, the Lithuanian school, experienced in Erasmus +, has Drama, Dance, Music and Applied Arts as required subjects at all levels, being one of cornerstone for equal opportunities . All these factors, combined with the great interest for music in our community, have finally led to this project. Our students are the main reason and the purpose of this application. We will promote the involvement and participation in all activities of all the students taking part in this project, from Infant 3 years to 6th grade of Primary. However, the 6th grade Primary Education students will be the participants in the mobility activities due to their degree of maturity. The Erasmus Working Group, consisting of teachers with a critical attitude and the desire of self- improvement will be assigned for the organizational and coordination task of the project. Regarding to the justifications project they could be summarized in four priority areas. 1. European dimension. 2. Educational services. 3. Identity and belonging. 4. Values. The satisfactory experience gained as a result of European projects in the last 8 years has significantly boosted our internationalization strategy to the point of feeling the need of greater achievements. The project approval would mean the extension of our educational offer and keep a quality label and identity mark that we are very proud of. At the end of the project we are decided to achieve the following objectives connected to horizontal formulated priorities. 1. Contribute to the inclusion of disadvantaged students. 2. Promote the school coexistence. 3. Improve academic performance. 4. Prevent early school leaving in the transition from primary to secondary education. According to the facts exposed our project is structured in 3 lines of action linked to three artistic manifestations: • DIVERSITY/PLASTIC ARTS • SOLIDARITY/PERFORMING ARTS • RESPECT/MUSIC AND DANCE Simultaneously we will carry out an eTwinning project under the same title of this application with our Croatian and Lithuanian partners with a double purpose: on the one hand to establish new channels of communication, to coordinate actions, to assign responsibilities and to supervise their implementation, and on the other, to store the graphic and documentary material. The communication, dissemination and evaluation of our project will be essential elements to be considered. We will establish fluent and effective communication formulas that allow us maintaining contact and monitoring the implementation of activities. Through a clear and well-defined dissemination strategy, we will launch a pack of actions aimed to display our project inside and outside of our respective centres. And we will analyze the achievement of the short, medium and long term objectives, using quantitative and qualitative indicators. Undertaking such a complexity project, funded or not, is not an easy task. It is a huge effort from the first moment but we think the benefits are worth. Our European strategy is becoming unstoppable. We wish and hope that the proposed actions result in the project approval as a reward to for so much work of these modest schools committed to continuous improvement.
Sadly, we live in troubled times in Europe caused by the barbarity of war; a war that causes death, destruction, hunger, misery and pain, but at the same time and with even more force, generosity, help, solidarity and rapprochement between peoples; values, all of which constitute the essence of the Erasmus+ programme. It is in this general framework sprinkled by the blessed virus in which the partner schools of Spain (CEIP José Rodríguez Cruz), Croatia (Katolička osnovna škola) and Lithuania (Mokykla Sokratus) have developed the KA229 “Values through art” project during the two last school years 20/21 and 21/22, emphasizing the need to build a fairer and more humane world full of color and full of hope. Once the project is finished, it is time to look back, take stock and assess its development and the degree of achievement of the objectives we had set for ourselves. We close an obviously atypical project marked by a pandemic that has greatly conditioned it. The global health situation caused by covid has inevitably influenced the development of the project to the point of being forced to redirect and reorient its initial approach as we go along. The closure of schools, the high percentages of the infected population, the different waves of the virus that we have suffered and the restrictive conditions to travel, have conditioned the calendar and the type of activities initially planned, having to put the safety of our students and teachers first to any other type of desire. In this sense, physical mobilities, ultimately the tip of the iceberg of all project activity, have suffered an unequal fate among the partner schools due to the aforementioned circumstances. During the 20/21 academic year no physical mobility was carried out and in 21/22 two were carried out; one in Croatia and another in Lithuania, both with the absence of Spain that decided not to travel for covid reasons. At the end of the 20/21 academic year, Spain organized a virtual mobility and participated in a hybrid/mixed distance in workshops and activities organized by Croatia and Lithuania during the celebration of their respective physical mobility. The local and joint activities planned in the project were also altered. Despite the complicated circumstances, the partner schools have worked in a coordinated manner without losing heart in organizing and carrying out the proposed activities; various activities, all of them in tune with the horizontal priority lines established and aimed at achieving the objectives set: - Promote the inclusion of disadvantaged students. - Promote the improvement of school coexistence. - Improve academic performance. - Prevent early school dropout in the transition from Primary to Secondary education. through 3 main lines of action linked to 3 great values and 3 artistic manifestations: - DIVERSITY/VISUAL ARTS - SOLIDARITY/PERFORMING ARTS - RESPECT/MUSIC AND DANCE In general, we can frame the activities carried out in six large blocks: Local activities: erasmus days, erasmus corner, diversity wall. Joint activities: coordination meetings, logo contest, values christmas tree exchange, peace day, promotional materials, etwinning project. Physical mobility: Croatia (3/28-4/1/2022) and Lithuania (5/24-28/2022). Virtual mobility: Spain (7-11/6/2021). Mixed/hybrid mobility: Croatia (3/28-4/1/2022) and Lithuania (5/24-28/2022). Final products: project webpage, teacher's guide, usb flash media and eTwinning project “Values through art”. The results of the project are aligned with the proposed objectives to the extent that they have contributed to the improvement of school coexistence and the creation of a collaborative, respectful and diverse learning environment. Art as a transversal element of our project has generated the ideal context for our students to express opinions, feelings and interact with the world and with others. Our project, through art, has contributed to forming responsible, supportive and committed people with others, society and the environment. On the other hand, and in the longer term, the results of this project have notably contributed to promoting the internationalization strategy of the partner schools and to strengthening their European dimension of education, expanding their radius of action and influence beyond the limits of their respective cities, opening new horizons for students and teachers in the cultural, social and linguistic spheres. Working on this project has meant for the partner schools to continue expanding our training offer, establishing collaboration networks at a European level and maintaining a quality badge and a sign of identity that makes us unique and proud.