Cultivating difference and not indifference Erasmus Project

Project Title

Cultivating difference and not indifference

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: Inclusion – equity; Disabilities – special needs; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

The Medical and Pedagogical Center for Adolescents of Neufmoutiers-en-Brie and the Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore Matteo Raeli di Noto are committed together in a project aiming at promoting social inclusion and the fight against school dropout, through a fun learning and language-teaching approach that mobilizes different artistic fields: poetry, music and plastic arts.

The partnership is based on the strong contrast between the two establishments to bring the European motto alive: united in diversity. The CMPA is a school integrated in a hospital, located in a rural and wooded area of Seine et Marne. The middle and high school students are all patients there with somatic and / or psychiatric pathologies. Conversely, the Istituto M. Raeli, a traditional school establishment which welcomes high school students, is located in the heart of the historic center of a Sicilian city listed as World Heritage by UNESCO.

The title of the project was therefore quite natural: cultivating difference, not indifference.

The idea is to bring the students of the two schools together to develop a music album composed of original songs in French, Italian, English and Spanish, record it in a studio, illustrate the cover and the booklet, and perform 2 concerts. It is an opportunity for learners to take advantage of their differences, whether social, cultural, linguistic and even regarding health status, to stimulate their creativity and discover that these, far from creating a distance between them, are a powerful vector for integration. It is a 24-month multi-year project. The first year, the Istituto M. Raeli hosts the event on its premises. The second year the event will take place in the CMPA.

15 students from each of the 2 establishments participate in transnational mobility leading to the concerts. They are all selected on the basis of their motivation and their investment in the activities offered. In the case of the CMPA, they also come from psychiatric services to give medical teams the possibility of developing a therapeutic stay which feeds the personalized journey of their patients.

The project is designed to radiate inside and outside the 2 establishments. It is primarily intended for pupils in the 3rd year of secondary school and the 2nd year of general, technical and vocational high schools. These are, in fact, key levels in the fight against school dropout. Hanging on the dropout students at this point in their schooling is to ensure a lasting investment in their curriculum and by doing so increasing their success in the baccalaureate. This is why, the preferred methodology is that of a pedagogy which encourages learning through play and which makes the lessons taught a means of making the project succeed. Thus, each student can undertake and build meaning for himself.

Songwriting takes place during lessons in French, Italian, English and Spanish. The writing of the songs and the graphic creation of the album take place over the time of the workshops of the Erasmus club created in each of the 2 establishments. To make these activities collaborative, we use the “Cadavre exquis” method. Remote exchanges are carried out using a Twinspace. Similarly, the project website is supplied with content produced by the students.

The expected benefits are:
– increased motivation for learning, in particular language learning
– improvement of linguistic and digital skills
– better understanding and responsiveness to diversity in all its forms
– improved sense of initiative
– motivation and increased satisfaction in daily work
– positive attitude towards the European project

Remote exchanges and transnational mobility allow us to integrate our students into different realities: local, national and European. The concerts are an opportunity, through a tangible performance, to promote awareness and recognition of study care as a model of excellence.

Such a project, involving hospitalized students, has no precedent. The French Student Health Foundation has around twenty establishments of the same type as the CMPA. The results of our experience, through training courses aimed at sharing them with as many people as possible, will have the long-term aim of bringing more medical establishments to undertake Erasmus + projects. The purpose is to improve equality of opportunity in the long term. Too many sick and / or disabled students do not take advantage of the same opportunities as their peers educated in traditional establishments. Finally, the CMPA and the Istituto M. Raeli both intend to continue their partnership by undertaking KA1 and KA2 projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 84615 Eur

Project Coordinator

Centre Médical et Pédagogique pour Adolescents de Neufmoutiers-en-Brie (Annexe pédagogique du Lycée Jacques Amyot de Melun) & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Istituto di Istruzione Superiore M. Raeli Noto