During this project our students will work on and deal with human rights issues; LGBTQI-issues, migration and cultural differences. At the end of this project student will know more about human rights and its issues. Tolerance, citizenship, intercultural competences and social inclusion are keywords. All these issues have been part of both schools' curriculum over the past years and we would like to expend the curriculum and we see this program as a great contribution to our educational program. We want to achieve that students look at how they relate to a particular problem and experience how they can deal with it as effectively as possible. During this project, experiences gained by students and actions they take are linked with the international convention on human rights. Human rights are a part of a child’s everyday life, we therefore see this as an opportunity to teach, learn and work with human rights on a higher scale than just in a regular classroom situation. We believe that human rights education not just teaches students about rights but also about their responsibilities as a global citizen. Through these human rights can educate students in a sense of respect towards other human beings and inspire them to become, in their own way, educators and ambassadors who will assist in the defense of human rights. Impact: We believe that this Human rights project will produce and develop the following components with our participating students and the community: develop attitudes of solidarity across issues and nations and knowledge and analytical skills produce a positive change in values and attitudes and (social) behavior develop more inclusive behavior by our students give a positive impuls to more cohesion within our community including our school and other social enterprises confront students with their own influence that they have on their community and in society in general. gain more knowledge about global human rights issues and the difference that every human being can make concerning these issues Participants: This project is intended for students of the third year in the Netherlands (age 14 - 16) and students of the same age in Portugal. Students of all levels may participate. In the Dutch group, students who have recently migrated (refugees) can also take part. Students will receive information about the project and those who wish to participate are required to write a motivation letter.The teachers involved are teachers who teach the participating students and have experience in leading a project and exchange. The official language is English.We aim for participation of at least 20 students, these students will also be joining in the physical exchange. During the project, therefore, 40 students will be simultaneously joining in the project. Each year there will be a physical exchange, in Portugal and the Netherlands. Preparation: We want to organize one meeting with teachers/coordinators in advance. This is to ensure that we can start the project with the same goals. We are in touch via email, and will later set up the project in the E-twinning platform. There wil also be time to evaluate after each exchange. Project: We want to design a digital project as well as a physical exchange. For the digital exchange we want to use the eTwinning platform but also media that are closer to the students. We see this as a website that is managed by both groups, this website as well a presentation will be the final outcome of the project. By establishing a digital exchange first, students can get each other and the project better and feel more comfortable during the physical exchange. We see the physical exchange as a vital part of this project because in this way students can completely immerse in another culture and lifestyle and see how students from another country experience family and school life. The activities are designed to communicate with experts on Human Rights Issues and learn about the history and current situation of these rights. Students will discuss these rights and look into the threats and opportunities. They will learn to approach, to think about and experience the human rights as closely as possible. Students will also report on and debate on the issues involved. By researching, discussing and experiencing all aspects of the rights, students will see how there might be differences and similarities between them. Exploring the Human Rights in an increasingly complex society will contribute to the development of current curriculum. This project fits entirely within the vision and objectives of both schools. In the longer term, the SDCA and AECS want its students to treat each other in a more respectful way in today's diverse society. To achieve this, we want to continue to use the results and activities, after evaluation, also for students who have not participated in the project. We will share lessonplans and this project with other schools.
During this project our students have worked on and dealt with human rights issues: LGBTQI-issues, migration and cultural differences. Tolerance, citizenship, intercultural competences and social inclusion were keywords. At the end of the project students knew more about human rights and its issues, and how to take action themselves. During this project, experiences gained by students and action they took were linked with the international convention on human rights, as human rights are a part of a child’s everyday life. We therefore saw this as an opportunity to teach, learn and work with human rights on a higher or different scale than just in a regular classroom situation. Impact: this human rights project has contributed to the following skills of our participating students and the community: - They developed attitudes of solidarity across issues and nations. Knowledge and analytical skills helped produce a positive change in values and attitudes and social behavior, as a consequence of the stories that have been told and the activities the students have done. - Our students have developed a more inclusive behavior towards people. - This project gave a positive impuls to more cohesion within our community including our students, their parents. - This project confronted students with their own influence that they have on their community and in society in general. - This project contributed to gaining more knowledge about global human rights issues and the difference that every human being can make concerning these issues. Participants: this project was intended for students of the third year in the Netherlands (age 14-16) and students of the same age in Portugal. Before getting started with the project, the students received information about the project and the ones who wished to participate were required to write a motivation letter. Due to COVID, we decided to do only one physical exchange with these students, so by the time we could set up this physical exchange, our students were aged 15 to 17 years old. During the first year with only digital exchanges, 3 students who have recently migrated (refugees), with interest in this human rights subject, took part. One of them joined our physical exchange as well. In the end, a total of 20 Dutch and 20 Portuguese students joined the project. The teachers involved were teachers that have taught the participating students. The official language was English. Preparation: we organized several digital meetings with the coordinators and teachers involved to ensure we were at the same page about our goals. A physical preparation meeting didn’t take place. We were in touch via email and we have set up the project on the Etwinning platform. Project: in our project plan we wrote that we would like to design a digital project as well as a physical exchange. The digital part: due to COVID, we had to use a lot of digital tools to create a digital exchange between our students and we chose to use tools that were closer to our surroundings. We organized a digital logo competition and a digital human rights day in April 2021 through Zoom, where we kicked off our project and got to know each other and learned more about human rights issues. Things we did and used were: storytelling, padlet, logo competition.Thanks to this, we saw that students were becoming more and more comfortable and open with each other. Because of these digital activities, we decided not to launch a website. We did set up the human rights project on the Etwinning platform but in the end we did not use it a lot as it’s not very accessible and easy to work with. We did use social media: our school posted updates on their website and on LinkedIn, and the Portuguese coordinator posted a lot on her Facebook, to provide people with updates about the project. She also approached the local newspaper: they have written about the project. The physical part: the project fits entirely within the vision and objectives of both schools. In the longer term, both the SDCA and AECS want its students to treat each other in a more respectful way in today’s diverse society. The activities were designed to communicate and learn from experts on human rights issues and to learn more about the history and current situation of these rights. Students have discussed these rights and were included into the threats and opportunities. During the activities, students have learned to approach and to think about human rights as closely as possible, by researching, discussing and experiencing all aspects of the rights.