#MindYourHealth Erasmus Project

Project Title

#MindYourHealth

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

The 4 schools from Germany, The Netherlands, France and Turkey who decided to work together for 2 years on the project #MindYourHealth all have to face the same problem which is a decrease of well-being and an increasing number of students with mental health problems. The youngsters feel pressure to do well not only because of their challenging schedule. They also make bad choices for their well-being. Many of them eat a lot of junk food, are online most of the time or sitting in front of a computer or watch Netflix series. Their mind doesn’t have the chance to calm down and relax. In addition to this there is an increasing number of “single parent’ families or families where both parents go to work. Many youngsters are left to care for themselves but they often choose the simplest way: They grab “easy food”, sit behind their computers and play computer games or “work” with social networks platforms like Instagram or TikTok. They do only a little bit of homework and often no sports. With this project we want to enable kids to make healthier choices by themselves.

Three of the schools from Germany, The Netherlands and Turkey have already worked together in different Erasmus+ projects. The French school has never had an Erasmus+ project before, so the other schools can support the French colleagues in handling such a project.
The Turkish school is a very special school. It is a non-religious boarding school in the form of a non-governmental organization. Students have to prove that they are orphans and that they come from poor families. They have to perform well at school and behave well otherwise they lose their funding. For the other schools involved in this project the Turkish school is very interesting since the kids there are given a strong structure which supports them in caring for their well-being. But this support mainly comes from an external impulse. It is therefore very important to offer knowledge and a variety of ideas and activities in addition in order to help the children stay fit in the long term, gain competences and a strong intrinsic motivation which they can use even after leaving school.

Scientific studies have shown that the following aspects are prerequisite to keep up mental fitness and physical strength:
a) Stamina training in order to enhance the ability and power of mental concentration
b) Cognitive training (brain callisthenics) to strengthen new impulses to the brain
c) Healthy nuitrition to support a sufficient nutrient supply for brain and body
d) Good and healthy sleep and stress reduction to enable regeneration for the body and the brain.
e) Continuous learning (e.g. a language)

Many studies have also shown the importance of the school environment for a good and sustainable development of children and young adults. Our target groups for the project are not only students but also teachers and the school family as a whole, as we will offer activities for students who are not in the project as well as for teachers and parents who want to take part.

We decided that all the participating countries have to organize “fixed activities” during every LTT activity. However, they can focus on different local, regional and national characteristics.

We plan to have two short-term joint staff training events plus four short-term exchanges of student groups.
The fixed activities during every short-term exchange of groups of pupils are:
-Students’ presentations and getting-to-know each other games
-Workshops/ presentations / research about healthy nutrition
-Visits to companies/organizations/professionals considering the topics: sports/healthy nutrition/ healthy lifestyle/ mindfulness/ safe use of social media
-Sports activities
-Workshops/ training about mindfulness/ reducing stress /….
-Workshops/ presentations / research about safe use of social media
-Creative activities to reduce stress
-Making a vlog (diary) during the exchange and upload it to our blog

The project will be carried out transnationally, as we can learn from good practice examples from our partner schools and we can improve the knowledge about a mentally healthy lifestyle and the motivation to improve. In addition to this we can develop students’ language skills through contact with students from other nationalities and through their stay in host families. As pointed out above, continuous learning, like language learning is an important aspect of mental fitness.
We hope that the project will be a long term success as we hope to integrate the topic “Mental Health” as a natural aspect of concern within each school’s daily work.
In addition, we can show that similar problems are a concern for all young people in Europe. This will lead to a closer affinity between the participating schools and school families and will potentially also reach a larger group via the blogging activities.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 100204 Eur

Project Coordinator

Staatliche Wirtschaftsschule Neuburg a. d. Donau & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Emelwerda College
• Collège Saint André
• OZEL DARUSSAFAKA ORTAOKULU