Our Voice Our Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Our Voice Our Future

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: Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law); Social dialogue; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The starting point for the purposes of this form is a desire to create ethical, informed citizens. It is an aspiration for every child and young person in Wales and our partners within this project. All three partner schools from Germany, Hungary and Wales strongly support this goal. Changes of policy direction are a consequence of living in a democracy and, imperfect though this is, no one has yet invented a better system of government. So preparation for participation in a democratic society should have been one of the major tasks of schooling since the days of Aristotle. Sadly, it hasn’t been. Despite the pioneering work of political scientists such as Bernard Crick, citizenship has only recently been introduced with meaning. Many schools, rather than being democratic, are still lauded for being authoritarian institutions. Of course, schools cannot be democratic all the time: five- or six-year-olds cannot be expected to appreciate what citizens will need to function successfully as adults; a carefully structured, incremental approach is necessary. But our society probably underestimates young children’s ability to work for interests other than their own. The purpose of education in a democratic society is to instill the values of cooperation, fairness and justice into the hearts of our students. We would argue that these values are essential to maintaining and improving a functioning democracy in any country. As teachers and as concerned citizens, we should ask ourselves what we want pupils to be able to do to contribute in their lives? Of course we want them to have successful lives in which they are able to follow their passions but we should also want them, regardless of their profession, to be able to contribute to our democracy in some way. Democracy should be at the heart of our teaching practice. Through this project we want pupils to participate in the process of democracy – understanding how to vote, establishing class rules, School Councils, to learn how to be independent and self disciplined and still have the creativity to be open hearted and open minded adults. To learn how to work collaboratively to support others. We want students to develop their ability to have a voice in their future relating to themselves and others in decision making for the common good.
Democracy is not for the faint of heart and there are countries throughout the World currently who find the idea of democracy a difficult and frightening concept. For all partner countries it is something that must be protected by our citizens. The pupils of today are the citizens of tomorrow! Our schools must be places where students have a voice that is heard and they must be able to take action on issues that they care about. Thus we will encourage our pupils to listen to the voices of our partner country students, to discuss relevant topical issues, to share information and to work collaboratively on a goal. As teachers we should seek to give a voice to our young. By pupils taking part in mobilities we actively demonstrate that there is more that binds us than separates us. This type of funding has played a huge part in the motivation to compile this application. We all have seen first hand the good that is done when pupils meet, play and share together.
Our project is inclusive, and stakeholders will clearly include partner schools, cluster schools, parents,governors, local government. Pupils and staff will use eTwinning to share information, upload photos, film and partnership resources. Staff across the partnership will take part in action research projects reflecting the aims of the project: independence – without this it is hard to think critically; conflict resolution – pupils need to understand there are sometimes more ways to deal with a given problem. The data and research information will be used to support the project and is innovative in that it includes staff across Europe. Parent workshops will be developed to motivate and to explain, based on developing independence in an enjoyable way.
We believe it is sustainable as we have been inspired by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the future we see pupils regularly involved in panels on subject reviews with pupils and teachers meeting together. The possible formation of a school community council will give opportunities to discuss classroom practices and decisions about how the curriculum is organised, with pupils providing constructive feedback to assist staff in planning their lessons, enabling pupils to become more continuously, actively engaged in their learning.
To acknowledge and value the wealth of experiences and insight children have by giving them meaningful opportunities to participate in collective decisions makes us closer to becoming truly democratic societies. Equipping children to become ethically, informed citizens in their schools, community and wider world, to be drivers of change for the common good as democratic adults.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 60720 Eur

Project Coordinator

ST NICHOLAS CHURCH IN WALES PRIMARY SCHOOL & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Grundschule auf dem Süsteresch
• Gregor Jozsef Altalanos Iskola