Disconnect to Reconnect Erasmus Project

Project Title

Disconnect to Reconnect

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Inclusion – equity; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

One of the Welsh Government’s aims is to make students active participants in decisions that will directly affect them. Students need to become more involved in understanding the issues and concerns surrounding their mental health and well-being and how they can manage certain situations. Some students lack the confidence to express their opinions and form healthy relationships and often resort to social media as their main form of contact with others. We have already discussed with students the impact that digital technology has on pupil mental health and well-being. By taking part in creative group workshops we will be able to offer them guidance and encouragement on how to find healthier ways to communicate with one another and pass time.The whole school community will become more aware of the growing pressures that schools face in trying to control the addictive hold that mobile technology has on all of us. Together, we can continue to promote a more controlled use at home, at work, and, at school. We believe that our students trust social media without question. We want to empower our students; to take control of their use of digital technology and their use of social media. We need to suggest other ways for them to occupy their time and feel happy. It is not healthy to use social media as a means of ‘distraction’; scrolling is far too passive and makes us more anxious . By starting an intercultural dialogue on this issue we will be engaging our nurture provision to encourage pupils to be more open about their mental health; to understand the challenges they face. There will be three main members of staff leading the project. The teams involved in this project are highly experienced in running a variety of projects both locally, nationally and internationally. The project’s main aim will be to encourage 20 vulnerable students in acquiring and developing new skills and personal qualities and working collaboratively with their Spanish counterparts to share this message with a wider audience. Teaching and support staff will deliver the project during after-school and lunchtime sessions making the link between taking a break from digital technology and a young person’s well-being more explicit. We will ensure that our more vulnerable students are involved in more sociable activities which encourages them to spend time away from screens, and the confidence to communicate and be entertained in group activities. As part of the ‘Mind over Matter’ inquiry (Welsh Assembly, 2018), in a survey with secondary school children across Wales, 65.9%, said that, “they would like their school…to teach them more about how to look after their emotional well-being and mental health.” When students have strong positive relationships with family and friends; are able to understand their own mind, body and emotions they will be more able to reach their potential. Students who will be participating are from different year groups: Year 8 (12-13), Year 9 (13-14) and Year 10/11 (14-15). All have a variety of support and needs at school. Students will be able to develop their life skills through a series of structured workshops. We will monitor and evaluate the project by: using eTwinning to record experiences; surveys to establish how many hours per day is spent online; well-being assessment before and after each activities. The overall impact of the project is to give our students the confidence to make positive choices and take full responsibility of their lives and not allow social media or mobile technology to rule. There is a long term aim to this project which is to inform whole school policy on screen use as well as exploring ways in which we can continue to support pupils mental health and well-being and encourage a healthy and safe approach to internet, social media and digital technology use. We intend to use the findings from this project to help inform future opportunities and approaches to our whole school well-being policy. We will use these to help ensure that we are responding appropriately to the New Curriculum for Wales; Successful Futures agenda including ensuring we are fulfilling the four purposes to develop pupils are ambitious and capable learners, ethically informed citizens, healthy and confident and creative contributors ready to play a full part in life and work. These core principles for a new curriculum in Wales can be used to help shape thinking in relation to health and well-being education within the partner school in Spain. The pupils participating in this project will be ambassadors for the school and help to move the well-being agenda further forward and ensure it as the forefront of our long term plans. They will work with current and future pupils to share with them the positive experiences of moving away from the screen and open their eyes to the greater experiences available to them when they develop their creative minds and expose themselves to new experiences.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 24565,11 Eur

Project Coordinator

Mary Immaculate High School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• IES As Telleiras