One, Two, Tree! Plant and Let It Grow We are living in 2020 in a context in which environmental issues are becoming more and more pregnant. The students this project is addressing have to deal with a fast-paced changing world. Adapting to this changing world is a real challenge for individuals and societies. Europe has always been a continent shaped by exchanges. Maintaining the unity of the continent within a same political and economic frame is an absolute necessity for the development of a European citizenship bearing at heart a sustainable environment for every citizen to live in peace. During the last few years, in Europe as elsewhere, a global awareness of the seriousness of the situation concerning the impact of our way of lives on the nature that feeds us has become obvious. Pollution is multifaceted. It has to be reduced. Trees are growing according to seasons, as we do age as years go by. We refer to photos to see our own changes. We read how a tree has grown according to its yearly transformation as we count and observe the several layers of its growth on a trunk. Each country will be implied in a tree-planting operation with local species in order to acknowledge the essential role of trees in our lives. Traditions and craftsmanship will be mixed with the use of new technologies to produce wooden objects related to the restaurant or the kitchen. A project about trees is also about sharing. Trees can communicate between themselves thanks to the help of an invisible network of mushrooms in the ground. We humans are interconnected in today's world thanks to the speed of digital technologies. We would be well advised to care more about trees and consider what they give us. Shelter, shadow, colour, shape, landscapes, biotopes ...they slowly grow just as we do but their lifespan is longer than ours. They give us wood for the fire and fruit for the palate. They give us food for thougths. Writers and poets love trees. The project encompasses this ecological issue by dealing with wood or wood-related objects instead of disposable plastic. The project deals with the diversity of trees that grow everywhere in Europe according to climate differences and specificities. The project implies gastronomy and table decoration as means to enhance the beauty of nature and in particular wood from several distinctive areas. The project targets students in gastronomy, catering and tourism in particular as one of its main objectives is to work on vocational skills. As a matter of fact, five European schools have decided to work together to share experiences for a two-year programme focused on the use of wood in tableware and of trees bearing fruit in gastronomy. Each country has its particular story and relation to wood because such a material has been part of every day life in every culture. Letting a tree grow, it is being confident about the future. Its symbolic meaning is a way to give hope to the youngest generations. Letting a tree grow, it is also a metaphor for a life-long learning process. Our students will benefit from this Erasmus+ project but the outcome of such a project will flourish once they reach adulthood. The students are in a cycle that will help them gain in autonomy, in responsibility and they will become aware of the value of their vocational skills. This is one aspect of the project of the uttermost importance: giving each student the tool kit to build up a vocational future in a complex world. Four out of five participating countries have a catering section with cooks and waiters. The fifth partner, Italy, has a tourism section. Therefore, the project addresses students in vocational schools in the fields of gastronomy, service, tourism and commerce. These vocational sectors are linked on each territory as tourism is often developing in places that have a huge potential. Each school is willing to welcome an international gathering of students and teachers. This means that the planned calendar schedules five destination countries. Each foreign delegation will travel four times to meet other partner countries and each school will welcome the international delegations once. Each visit will consist in a week-long encounter with planned activities including school visits, ice-breaking activities, the discovery of nearby places worth visiting related to the theme, conferences and round tables with professionals, international workshops, the practice of vocational skills, either at school or in a real-life context, cultural visits and the discovery of local gastronomy, with an emphasis put on tree-related produces. In the long-term will be built up an international network that should be able to live on as years go by, making it easier for students and adults to get connected. The results also include the impact of such a project on each school, underlining the dynamism of each team and shaping each school's image with an international scope. Trees and students will grow with the project.
The project was very quickly affected by the global health crisis in 2020. The extra year given to this project in order to implement all the activities initially planned was beneficial. The 2021-2022 school year did not allow any short-term student mobility, as the school calendar was too far ahead when the health restrictions were lifted. As a result, the first mobility was virtual, in May 2022, with the partner countries discovering France and the Region Centre through video conferences and shared online activities. The coordinators decided to organise the first real mobility trip to Sicily in the first term of the 2022-2023 school year. This mobility took place in October 2022. It was an opportunity for the students from the different schools to meet for the first time and for the coordinators from each participating country to set up a new timetable concentrated on a single school year. In consultation with each school head, it was decided that the exchange would take place in December 2022 in Slovakia, March 2023 in Germany and May 2023 in Slovenia. This provisional programme has been respected. The objectives of the project have remained the same: to use the theme of trees to work on environmental and climate issues, on the development of territories thanks to the natural resources of each country, on the need for rational exploitation of resources and on the study of the adaptability of tree species to climate issues. As expected, wood as a material was an object of study: in art, in table decoration, in interior fittings and design, in the manufacture of objects designed to enhance biodiversity. The students studied trees as a resource in the field of gastronomy. They have also studied the importance of the forest as a natural resource to be protected with a view to developing nature-based tourism. For all these aspects, and depending on the specific nature of each country, each school has drawn up a programme, the implementation of which has given rise to various sites that can be consulted by all, with documentary resources, students' work and reports of experiences. To sum it up: in France, the delegations saw the relationship between the arts and the forest through the work of artist Eva Jospin. They discovered the environment close to the French school with the Tronçais forest and a report on the Chambord castle located in the forest. In Sicily, the delegations discovered the richness and diversity of the island's flora. The Palermo botanical garden and its endemic species, and the Nebrodi park. Tortorici hazelnuts used in sweet recipes. In Slovakia, the tourist attraction of a wooden trail built high up to walk through the treetops, wood as a building material, or to produce sculptures. In Germany, wood used as a resource to enhance biodiversity, to make insect hotels or to shelter a herd of wild horses. In Slovenia, wood as a natural resource to be preserved, contributing to the development of nature-based tourism; wood as a soothing and insulating building material for interior architecture; trees as a source of fruit used in gastronomy, with recipes and culinary workshops for students. There are many long-term benefits to be gained from this project, including boosting students' interest in international culture and raising their level of competence in modern languages. Acquiring historical, geographical, cultural and socio-cultural references. Becoming aware of belonging to the European Union as a citizen. Working on professional skills by organising workshops on tourism and gastronomy. Strengthening the bonds of friendship between young Europeans. Seeing the trees planted in the various schools grow as a symbol of the international friendship engendered by the Erasmus+ programme. Strengthening the links between the teachers of all partner schools in order to maintain the international outreach activities aimed at students, teachers and staff. This presupposes a continued convergence of views and objectives between each school management, each coordinating team and each potential partner for future projects, as part of KA1 or KA2 actions.