In the globalised context which combines the rapidly-growing technological evolution, global warming and the temptation to become introspective, how is it possible to reconcile all of these fundamental challenges? How can we live with sustainable development in a modern lifestyle where everything is connected and open to all. The COVID-19 virus has struck us all with full force, forcing us to rethink our modern lifestyle and its excesses, and has obliged us to reduce our activities. How do we achieve a more reasonable consumption level, and one which favours local commerce? By targeting several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we would like to develop the awareness of our students in sustainable development. To do this we would like to motivate our students to have a greater contact to nature, incite them to use simple daily gestures, which make them more conscious and responsible actors in the quality of life, notably through reducing energy consumption and food waste, and by becoming more efficient in recycling paper, cardboard and plastic waste in their respective schools - and in their own homes. We will particularly focus the attention of the youths and - through them - other social groups, such as families, school communities and local authorities, on the current state of the environment, its exploitation, as well as the risks and the dangers that this brings with it. This is all the more important as a part of the students - who are involved in the project - live in an environment which is heavily impacted by over-exploitation, pollution and degradation. This leads us to envisage a project of common interest in the participating countries where the challenges, the history and the financial means and resources are very different. We also want to make the students more active in any initiative which has the goal of stopping social exclusion of people, be it the elderly, the poor, the sick, those who are not adapted to modern life, or discriminated against. We therefore hope to make the youths more tolerant and less indifferent towards the social integration of people who are discriminated against. The project will enable up to 80 students and up to 12 teachers, over the course of the two years, during an exchange visit, to discover the daily lives, the language and the culture of their correspondents in France and Poland, thereby allowing a better mutual understanding of each of the respective participating countries, and thus also combatting the stereotypes of each country.
The fundamental challenges which the world faces today are well-known to us all: pollution, overexploitation of the environment, the energy crisis, climate change and social exclusion. The goal of this Franco-Polish initiative was to exchange on practises in the two establishments, in order to find effective common solutions, which provide answers to these challenges, which can be put into practice on a daily basis, with the hope of seeing the benefits on all the groups of people involved in the project (participants, teachers, families, local communities, and the establishments.) In each high school, over 35 students, aged 15-18 were able to participate in the four mobilities, accompanied by 8 teachers in total. Thanks to the activities carried out during the transnational meetings, which were supplemented by others completed remotely (Twinspace), the students and teachers discovered, and enriched their knowledge and soft skills on three perspectives: ecology, sustainable development and social inclusion. They were able to achieve this thanks to pedagogical visits to sites producing green energy, and an eco-village, they took part in the production of items which use solar energy, by upcycling everyday objects, and they also participated in an energy generation challenge, and another in collecting plastic waste on the beach in St Malo. Their schools also worked to reduce their consumption of electricity, and their food waste. They also participated in activities which were aimed at reintegrating young students with special needs into a school environment. From a methodological point of view, a number of activities were conceived to be completed by international groups, via collaboration, in order to develop their use of foreign languages (English, French), and to improve their use of IT applications in the learning process, and the the dissemination of the results. Numerous productions were created by the students during these activities (videos, digital presentations, exhibitions, mind-maps, interactive maps, interviews, energy analysis), and the project also provided the teachers the opportunity to exchange about their teaching practices (managing group work, IT tools, remote learning). At the end of the project, a number of impacts could be observed. Amongst them, there was an increase in confidence, and students became more outgoing. Teachers were given the opportunity to try out new teaching methods, developing skills and gaining practical experience in the creation of European projects for the two schools. In addition, the project enabled the schools to promote an opening towards Europe in both participating countries, which is crucial to avoid becoming too introspective and obsessed with their own identity, thus developing a feeling of being a European citizen. Finally, as a result of the sanitary and geopolitical crises, which existed during the duration of the project (2020-2023), it also enabled the participants to learn that you always need to have faith and try to overcome any obstacles which you encounter.