Activating the Future – Informing, Reflecting, Motivating and Empowering Erasmus Project

Project Title

Activating the Future – Informing, Reflecting, Motivating and Empowering

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: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law)

Project Summary

Activating the Future – Informing, Reflecting, Motivating and Empowering (AFIRME) is a joint project of Škofijska klasična gimnazija (a coordinating school), Bischöfliches Gymnasium Augustinum (Austria) and Istituto Istruzione Superiore Galilei-Campailla (Italy). All 3 secondary schools are aware of the importance of promoting active citizenship and social engagement among their students. Therefore, each school has integrated some activities on active citizenship into the compulsory curriculum and offered others in form of extra-curricular activities. They have been seeking ways to bring these activities to a higher level, systematically organise them and add some new contents. Out of these endeavours, designing a project on this topic, exchanging examples of good practice and working together seems to be a logical next step.

While preparing a project, a great attention was given to the definition of project objectives to achieve the expected results and benefit from joining the partnership. There are 6 main objectives: improve activities in the field of active citizenship for students (results: development of new approaches, an increase in the use of participatory approaches and ICT, an increase in the active involvement of students in their local communities, reaching a better understanding of social and cultural diversity); increase the number of students engaged in activities on active citizenship; offer opportunities to experience international cooperation for students (through mobilities and an eTwinning project); increase the professional skills of teachers and their awareness of a broader international context (results: ability to integrate good practice from the participating schools; ability to reflect on one’s teaching practice, development of better capacity for working in the international field); prepare and implement effective dissemination methods (organisation of local dissemination events (at least 3), designing a teacher course); establish stronger connections with local communities & other stakeholders (establishing permanent cooperation from which both students and local communities can benefit a lot).

To make the project as successful as possible, there are several target groups that the project addresses. To name the most important ones. Those teachers who are members of project teams at each of the schools. While working on the project (developing new contents, visiting other partner schools, etc.), they will hone their skills and knowledge and thus be able to impact the (partner) schools and students in the best possible way. Other teachers of the partner schools will be addressed with dissemination events, engaged in activities when hosting project events and asked to provide feedback. Students are the main reason to improve the schools’ programmes. The participating students (aged 15-18) will be included in various extra-curricular activities on active citizenship locally, will cooperate with each other (on eTwinning, including some students who will not attend mobilities), participate in mobilities, and initiate two projects (with representatives of the local community and governing authority). About 90 students will be actively involved in the activities, from which at least 15 students with fewer opportunities.
The project foresees 3 student exchanges each dealing with a chosen social issue. The first will be about working on a real-life challenge (studying it, visiting relevant (NG)organisations, working on proposals, offering a solution). The second exchange will be about the history of international connections, global ecological and social injustices, the European project, etc. (research work, reflecting on the challenges of globalisation, internationalisation, being an active citizen, expressing thoughts through art). The third exchange will be about the issues of diversity (discovering it through history, listening to testimonies from migrants, meeting volunteers, preparing short drama enactments).

Since the project encourages teachers to further develop themselves, there are several activities aimed at them. 2 cycles of simultaneous job shadowings are planned to visit a partner school, observe examples of good practice, transfer them, give feedback. Every year, each school will send a teacher to visit 1 of the partner schools and it will, at the same time, welcome a teacher from another partner school. Another important activity will be a preparation of a teacher training course based on the examples of good practice from the project. The course will be designed during the project and carried out by 2 teachers from each of the participating schools. It is planned that the course will be later offered once a year to teachers involved in the Erasmus+ KA1 projects. In delivering this course, the project results, a series of activities on active citizenship and their examples of good practice will be further disseminated and introduced to a great number of teachers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 91041 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zavod sv. Stanislava & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Bischöfliches Gymnasium Augustinum
• Istituto Istruzione Superiore “Galilei-Campailla”