Health4Life Erasmus Project

Project Title

Health4Life

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Health and wellbeing; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Our observations and interviews with parents and students led to a conclusion that children’s lifestyle is very unhealthy. All partner schools had seen that we have the same problem with our students. That is why we came together for this project. Childhood is an exciting time, as children begin to learn about themselves and the world around them. It is a time when they begin to develop habits that can affect them throughout their lives, especially when it comes to eating habits, doing sports, dealing with stress, etc. We aimed to get our students to incorporate healthy physical activity and healthy nutrition habits into everyday life and in this way their awareness of the importance of health and quality of life had been increased. This has involved making lifelong international links. We wanted to make the children more informed about the basic principles of a healthy life which has shown students how healthy choices can help them do their best at their school life and in their international future.

The main idea of the project has been to increase students’ awareness of a healthy lifestyle by means of innovative and creative ICT tools. The project focused on health and various aspects of a healthy lifestyle and since a wide range of ICT tools had been employed while doing all the planned tasks and activities, the participants had also developed the key competences of the 21st century such as innovation, creativity, problem solving, entrepreneurship, teamwork, litaracy, language skills, digital skills. Furthermore, this cross-border cooperation enabled us to compare our teaching methods and assess their results. Good examples of teaching methods had been exchanged among partners.

Students and teachers from five primary schools from Poland, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Lithuania took part in the project. Cross-border cooperation raised the participants’ motivation on using technology and foreign languages effectively. Cooperating with cross-border friends improved the students’ communication skills and increased their confidence.

The project aimed to raise our pupils’ awareness of how to make healthy choices through food and sport activity in their local context as well as an international European context. In order to achieve this, different tasks and activities were carried out to find out about healthy lifestyle. In particular, the students learnt about the dangers of stressful life and they were trained in relaxing techniques, they researched and learnt morning exercise and energising activities, they found out new information about herbal tea and the power of water, they learnt about Mediteranean Diet and the importance of breakfast, they learnt about the negative effects of eating sugar, they prepared healthy recipes and they took part in healthy cooking lessons, they learnt dances and games from each country, they tried out new sports and at the end of the project the students prepared leaflets on healthy lifestyle that they shared with local communities.

While fulfilling some of the project tasks the students learnt many things about other nations’ culture, history and lifestyle. As in the process the students had been active and the teachers acted as tutors and facilitators, it was an important experience in a lifelong learning perspective as the students have started the process of becoming responsible for their own learning process. While trying to cook new dishes or learn a new game, students gained many skills both physically and psychologically. The students enriched their knowledge and shared it with friends when they were back to their schools. Being a member in a team reinforced their communication skills and motivation to learn a foreign language. Some competitions were organised which arose the children’s curiosity and motivation to take part in the project. Each school has also organised competitions and events for their local schools in order to promote healthy lifestyle and disseminate project results.

The above mentioned project activities resulted in children being more active and being more aware of the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
The work of collaboration and exchange of ideas, good practices and experiences brought benefits not only for teachers and students but also parents of participant schools. The project has also supplied information and ideas to everyone who worked within the educational branch, where EU politics aim to encourage young people from the EU countries to develop their educational level.

The project supported this kind of politics because the partnership between these schools helped to collect the information and knowledge about educational differences, cultural differences and different school systems in Europe. Every partner has good practices, experiences and traditions and shared them with other partners. Gaining new experience through the collaboration with other schools brought more benefits than only a local or a national project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 118310 Eur

Project Coordinator

Szkola Podstawowa nr 2 im. Krolowej Jadwigi w Jarocinie & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Istituto Comprensivo Padre Pio da Pietrelcina
• Plunge “Babrungas” Basic School
• 14o Dimotiko Scholeio Katerinis
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Castro Marim