Each of the two schools involved in the project aims to develop a network of partners, in particular European. Indeed, this European opening is a great opportunity to offer its learners and staff the development of their professional skills by their confrontation with different work methods, and thus ensure better employability. It is on the occasion of an action of development of its European project that the Lycée FT got to know the IIS Caterina da Siena thanks to a staff training mobility which took place in March 2019. It was the opportunity to develop relationships and make possible the implementation of this school partnership. Our two schools offer a professional fashion sector and provide the framework and content for this collaboration. This school exchange aims at: . federating actors (teachers, students, other staff, families ...) around a common technical but also cultural project on the theme of the Orient-Express . developing the basic and transversal skills of the learners . strengthening the professional skills of teachers by their confrontation with different didactic practices . ensuring the influence of schools on the local and regional level in particular . bringing out a European identity through the discovery of the other and the sharing of a European history and common values. This educational project brings together all the students of the Fashion branch of the Lycée FT, that is to say about thirty students divided into several classes who will work on different historical periods of the Orient-Express. 10 students will work during the sixties and will be part of the mobility. For the IIS, 60 students from several classes and levels of the Fashion and Fashion Design sector will participate to this period, including twenty-two on mobility). Note this disparity in the number of students, those enrolled in the Lycée FT in the Fashion sector are actually low. These thirty students from FT High School and IIS, with their teachers, will work together to design and produce each 10 models of clothing on the theme of the Orient-Express. A common technical specification is established from the research conducted by the students on the different aspects of the period concerned on the artistic, cultural, social level ... Each group of students, Italian and French, will propose prototype models which will be voted on to retain their 10 models. The prototyping and production phases of the models will be the subject of multiple exchanges between students and teachers via the E-Twinning platform and its exchange tools (Chatroom, Online meeting) but also with applications Skype type, What'sApp’, Zoom conference.. as needed. Project management is coordinated by two representatives from the management of each schools. A steering committee within each school is created, in conjunction with the teaching teams. Project referent teachers are appointed and attend the the committee. The project coordinator, the Lycée FT, will assist its Italian partner in project management activities as necessary. They will follow the progress of the project together with tools such as MobilityTool, a schedule and online table of expenses and two transnational meetings are planed. Two mobilities of teachers and students are planned. They will allow both students and teachers to compare their achievement, discover new techniques and transfer them if possible. In addition to technical skills, the creativity of students will be particularly solicited since the achievements of the models call on styles and references specific to an era that the students will try to translate into their achievements. The models thus produced will be the subject of a presentation in the form of a fashion show and exhibition that will take place in each school. These presentations will integrate all or part of the partner's production with a scenography specific to each. These events will contribute to the influence of the shools, capable of arousing the interest of others to launch out, too, in a European project. In addition to the development of techniques and linguistic reinforcement, this project meets the objectives of opening European shools. The confrontation of pedagogies, the discovery of new techniques or knowledge will also promote the professionalization of teachers. Finally, this European openness for our socially fragile students will thus participate in the construction of their professional but also personal curriculum by restoring their confidence.
Our 2021-2022 Erasmus+ project named "Orient-Express, a European adventure" is part of the continuation of the Flora Tristan High School's exchanges with the IIS Caterina da Siena in Milan, which started in September 2018. In March 2019, they enabled the implementation of an Erasmus+ mobility for the training of staff from the Lycée Flora Tristan. The partnership continued in autumn 2019 to work together on a school exchange project for which we secured funding in 2020. The objectives of the project remained unchanged from those presented at the application stage: to bring together learners and teachers from the two countries involved in a joint project to produce clothing models set against the backdrop of the mythical "Orient-Express" train, with a stopover in Milan in the 1960s. Our learners were thus able to develop their basic skills through understanding the context and the work instructions (most often technical), the use of information and communication technologies to exchange or design (presentation video, discovery of E-Twinning). They were also able to make the most of cross-curricular communication skills in a foreign language (English and Italian, even if the result is not significant because the health situation had a serious impact on direct exchanges between the pupils), to use methodological tools (project review, specifications for technical solutions, etc.) and to show initiative and autonomy in choosing their creations. However, the health context linked to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the organisation of the project. All the participants had to adapt to this new context with longer deadlines for the completion of the work sequences, the absence of two teachers and their replacement, and the closure of the Italian school from November 2019 (see enclosed document COVID IT), while its French partner continued to welcome its pupils but with a reduced number of classes and alternating classes (see enclosed document COVID FR. It was also difficult at times to communicate with the Italian coordinator, who was very busy managing the health crisis and was new to running an Erasmus+ project. The Flora Tristan high school, which has significant experience in the management of Erasmus+ projects, assisted its partner in its project management as much as necessary, in particular by setting up the steering committee and contacts by telephone, remote meetings or e-mail correspondence. The link with the pupils was maintained thanks to the teachers who, in turn, were able to ensure the relay between them and the coordinators. Despite these difficulties, the project followed its course and the link was maintained by the commitment of all the actors and in particular the teachers with a large number of pupils, even at a distance. It is also thanks to the project management set up with roles defined for each member of a steering committee (management-coordinators, administrators, referent teachers and teaching teams) which, in spite of everything, made it possible to coordinate and monitor the project in such a context (coordination meetings and intermediate assessments conducted at a distance). Thus, 6 activities out of the 8 initially planned were actually carried out, the two activities relating to mobility were cancelled due to the health situation and the ban on leaving or entering the territory of the two countries concerned. The students, with the help of their teachers, each designed and produced 10 models of clothing on the theme of the 1960s, with the Orient-Express train as the setting. Although the planned timetable and the major difficulties encountered in exchanging clothes partly modified the initial organisation (and particularly the direct contacts between the pupils) for the reasons already mentioned above, the content of the activities carried out and the expected results were respected. The prototype models were used to make the clothes and accessories in the specifications established in activities 2 to 4 (style research, fashion figures). The cancellation of the mobilities did not allow for the implementation of the learning and training activities in situ, but the planned content was nevertheless the subject of a transfer of documents and other tutorials between the establishments (slide show of technical solutions for the mass production of French models). The dissemination of the project also required adaptation to the health context by organising other forms of events, including several online, exhibitions and the creation of videos. Finally, if the difficulties have affected the implementation of the project in 2021, the dissemination actions will continue at the end of 2021 and 2022: parade at the Flora Tristan high school during the Erasmusdays 2021, request for pairing with the IIS Caterina da Siena will open new perspectives when the situation will be back to normal.