We defined 3 objectives at the time of the bid. In consultation with our partner, we prioritised them. We have focused our project on peer training. This teaching practice encourages the development of new ideas and new knowledge, particularly among young people like ours, who are not very receptive to traditional school teaching. This method requires a system that encourages ‘frequent’ exchanges between students and, in the case of our project, between teachers too. These formal and informal exchanges, conducive to the construction of new knowledge, enabled the pupils to react actively to the teaching offered. This system, as the backbone, led to the second objective and encouraged the discovery of others. Meetings and exchanges as part of common activities have contributed to the knowledge of foreign professional and cultural knowledge and facilitated encounters with the Other. Finally, we have gradually emphasised the need to consider other ways of producing food and to raise awareness of the challenges of sustainable food production at local, national and international level, by highlighting the link between practices here and practices there.
Our school is in a rural, semi-mountainous area, particularly isolated, far from urban centres and their potential cultural, European and international links. It is located in the south of the Occitanie region, at the foot of the Pyrenees. The young people attending our school come from fairly disadvantaged social backgrounds, and we also have a Unité Localisée pour l'Inclusion Scolaire (Local Unit for School Inclusion). In addition, when analysing needs, we have to take into account the fact that 3/4 of our pupils attend the lycée boarding school from Monday to Friday, which is the largest in the department. These general facts are both handicaps and assets. In fact, the boarding school enables us to establish very special relationships with the students, whom we know particularly well and can follow as closely as possible. The Spanish partner, on the other hand, is located in a working-class, disadvantaged urban district. The public it receives is in initial and continuing training, with a wide range of ages. This project has enabled our young people in catering training (cookery and service) to break out of the confines of their environment and gain access to the European dimension through a cross-border partnership.