Our students live quite far from the capital and most of them have not so much contact with foreign cultures or are not used to travelling abroad. We wanted to increase young people’s interest in international issues and foreign languages in the spirit and context of sustainable development. The goal was to develop collaboration skills, strengthen students’ English language proficiency, encourage self-expression, and foster interest in the short foreign languages taught at our school, such as German and French. We also aimed to practice project work, digital skills, and manual craftsmanship. After the pandemic years, it was important to establish collaboration with a German partner school, which we had become acquainted with during a German language study trip supported by our city in 2019.
Our organisation is a relatively big high school in Eastern Finland. We wanted to participate in this European project in order to increase the interest in foreign languages and environmental issues.We were invited to participate in our friendship school’s newly organized Erasmus+ project ‘GoGreenGreat’ (the name became established as the project progressed) in 2022. The goal of the project was to bring together European schools and young people to collaborate under the umbrella of sustainable development. Different meetings had different focuses: in Sardinia, it was ‘Urban gardening’ and hands-on activities (woodworking, crafts); in France, the same theme with historical elements, along with fabric printing and furniture upcycling; and in Germany, which was the project’s final destination, the emphasis was on natural raw materials, ecological food production, and plant-based cooking. Behind all these main themes was the aim to increase awareness and understanding of sustainable lifestyles among young people, strengthen collaboration skills, learn more English, and foster interest in the short foreign languages taught at our school, such as German and French. Both digital skills and manual skills were at the center of the project