1. Cultural awareness, both of students' own culture as well as another culture. By the end of the project, the students’ (inter)cultural awareness will be better developed than at the start. We wanted students to be more aware of their own habits and cultural background, as well as the Danish culture. 2. By the end of the project, students will have improved their English language skills by linking language classes to authentic situations. They will also be more familiar with some low-level Danish. In order to communicate in an international setting, participants need to 'speak the same language'. The English teachers used the Denmark exchange as authentic situations in which students use English. It gives students more real life situations to link to what they are being taught at school. 3. By the end of this project students will have noticeably developed their experiences and skills when it comes to intercultural and international cooperation and communication. International cooperation between different cultures is our main objective of the project. Students will face language obstacles, as well as cultural and educational differences in which they develop their skills in an international and unfamiliar context.
Our organisation is a school which offers compulsory education. In the Netherlands children go to primary school for 8 years (Year 1 - Year 8) and then they go to high school. The type of high school they go to, depends on their intellectual abilities. Our school offers three programmes: mavo, havo and vwo. These are the theoretical types of education offered in the Netherlands. Besides the 'regular' vwo programme, which prepares students to go to a university after graduation, we offer students the bilingual vwo programme. This bilingual programme is the one that belongs to the field of this application. Students take many of their subjects in English and the programme focuses on English language skills, global citizenship and personal development.