Environmental and social issues are a priority for our society in transition. They are major challenges for the European Union, which implements policies to promote ecological practices at different scales. We named this project, Seeds for Tomorrow, because we believe that the seeds of this ecological ambition for tomorrow are in the hands of European youth. Drawing on their experience of European projects, the teachers and staff of the Lycée Touchard, located in Le Mans, France, have gathered around them Portuguese, Finnish and Bulgarian partners with whom we are renewing a project, as well as newcomers. Among them, we welcome the teachers and staff of the Collège Cocteau de Coulaines, located in the agglomeration of the coordinating high school, to enable them to embark on these very stimulating experiences and to strengthen the regular and active collaboration between middle and high school students. The IES Las Salinas establishment located in Cadiz is also discovering this organization with a lot of motivation. The Seeds for Tomorrow project will spread from the banks of the Danube to the north of Europe, via the proximity of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Seeds for Tomorrow meets cross-cutting objectives. First of all, awareness and skills acquisition on ecological transition will follow four axes: feeding, moving, producing, consuming. All the activities planned over the two years of the project will enable students, teachers and staff to work on these concepts. The linking of knowledge and know-how will allow students to exchange in English, based on argumentation skills and a specific vocabulary. In parallel to the development of language skills, the pupils of each school will express social skills thanks to the organisation of the host week and the sharing of a different culture from one partner country to another. Finally, Seeds for Tomorrow is based on the creation of High School Climate Citizen Conventions, which bring together students, teachers, staff and external speakers at the end of each mobility week to discuss proposals for improvements made by students. We hope that the Seeds for Tomorrow project will enable positive, ethical, scientific and civic changes in the way our schools operate. The practice of public speaking inscribes our project in the democratic tradition of our continent and will contribute to its positive evolution. Groups of about 20 young people will carry out the project, over two years, in each institution. They will be chosen on the basis of their motivation to take part in the project over the long term. They will be ambassadors for Seeds for Tomorrow which will radiate far beyond this group. The activities have been designed during each mobility to include many members of our educational communities, schoolchildren, students, working people, parents to reach a large community of European citizens. We also want young people, who do not have the personal conditions to travel, to be able to take part in international mobilities. We defend the solidarity values of welcoming and sharing. The integration of secondary school students into the project reflects our desire to accompany young people towards the above-mentioned skills and to create a link between two ages of secondary education. On this subject, all the partners have thought about activities that can be carried out, at different skill levels, by students aged 13 to 18. The progression is intended to be growing between September 2020 and June 2022 with a specific identity to each stage such as the professional world, science or coastal preservation. The e-Twinning platform will allow an efficient follow-up of the productions in their diversity: articles, photographs, video capsules, audio recordings, artistic works... The common experience shared between teachers and staff upstream of the project allows for a shared organisation of the project. Roles are defined within and between schools. The young people will be able to benefit from a framework that complies with well-understood rules and allows them to develop. Families will be able to join the project with confidence, aware that risk management is taken care of. At the end of the project, we are therefore looking forward to the following prospects: - Young people enlightened about the right ecological and social choices to make - Schools which will benefit from their reflections to improve their daily lives - Pupils and adults, better speakers in English, to continue this investment on a European scale in the near future.
The Erasmus+ project was named Seeds for Tomorrow because we believed in the ability of students to sow new, ethical and responsible ideas. After two and a half years of regular activities on a European scale, we can testify to the success of this ambition. Eight virtual, physical and hybrid mobilities took place between September 2020 and February 2023, combined with distance activities between mobilities and in the context of the pandemic. The joint work on food, mobility, production and consumption practices facilitated learning. The work between our Finnish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Portuguese and French pupils (secondary school students) and with all the participants (students and professionals) was based on a deep questioning of the themes of the ecological transition. The students and teachers involved in the project were not at the same stage of competence on these issues and the setting up of workshops and distance exchanges was able to enrich the knowledge and practices and to develop the skills of sobriety and solidarity. Indeed, thanks to the Erasmus+ project, the pupils discovered how, in concrete terms, materials (textiles, plastics) can have a second life in the framework of a solidarity economy, for the benefit of those who need them. For example, the Finnish and Spanish pupils integrated these issues into their vocational section lessons (design, catering, commerce) and the sharing of experience was then the subject of several initiatives such as the launch of a plastic recycling process. We also wanted the initiative to come from the students. This is why school climate conventions were held on themes adapted to the schools that hosted them (for example, marine biodiversity on the Spanish coast). Through workshop work, visits and interventions, family visits and social events, the pupils developed their language skills, as expected. The setting up of these conventions, at the end of the mobilities, allowed them to work on the art of oratory and the strength of conviction thanks to a vocabulary adapted to the subject and to our time. Once again, the collaboration of the pupils between them allowed the pupils who were very advanced in English (Bulgarians for example) to share their skills with all the groups. These proposals were echoed in the schools. Our management teams liked the dynamic that an Erasmus+ project could bring. For example, the outdoor design projects have spread to France and Portugal (furniture, garden). The teaching mobility in Brussels (October 2021) made us realise that the wills were common and also that a transition is not limited to a two and a half year project. It is integrated into the way things are done (school catering with chosen products, gentle travel to school, production of school materials in recycled material, well-chosen consumption and solidarity action). In these times of war in Ukraine, these uses and practices are like seeds planted. And they are growing. The schools will continue the work in the coming weeks with, for example, a forthcoming meeting in Spain between our pupils. The global dimension of Erasmus+ projects (accredited) gives us confidence in a shared future.