Responsible Students, Responsible Citizens (sharing ideas, sharing project among four European schools) Erasmus Project

Project Title

Responsible Students, Responsible Citizens (sharing ideas, sharing project among four European schools)

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

This project was designed as a tool for both students, aged 13-17, and teachers to help improve school atmosphere, combat issues at school like bullying and school dropout, develop tolerance and respect for the people and the school premises, prevent vandalism, and, as the title of this project says, form responsible students and responsible citizens. We also wanted to share the special programmes that are used in the four partner schools which promote inclusiveness and are an example of good practice. 
Considering this general objective, we designed a number of activities, made each partner responsible for one of the four blocks of the project and for directing the headlines of the activities that would help us obtain our goals:
 First of all, we opened our project on e-twinning and created a web of the project that would contain information about the different projects and photos of the exchanges. Then we started work with the students. We organized the logo competition in the different schools, students prepared  presentations of their schools concentrating on what they were like and what they would like them to be and worked on their school rules. These projects were presented in the first common exchange in  France, December 2018 (C1). In this exchange students debated on the importance of school rules and wrote down their conclusions.
Then, students recorded videos on bullying situations and prepared a Power-point presentation on inclusive school programmes that are implemented in their schools. These projects were presented in the second common exchange which took place in Finland May 2019 (C2). We were also introduced to the KIVA programme at the University of Turku, a pioneer in the fight against this issue, and the school also showed us their special programmes.
Next, students prepared a campaign against vandalism in their schools, prepared Power-point presentations on vandalism at school and in their towns / cities and also made a presentation about recycling. All this work was presented in the third common exchange in Italy in January 2020 (C3). Students also worked on the web radio. They prepared interviews on these topics in mixed- nationality groups and recorded them on the school radio.
The final part of the project, which was to be presented in Spain  in May 2020 (C4), where we would also  introduce our special programmes: Pygmalion and mediation, couldn’t  be done because of the pandemic. For this exchange, we had planned two more presentations: a literary contest about a problem solved at school by the students and a presentation about what students can do to improve the school atmosphere.  
Apart from these four general exchanges, we had also planned 12 country-to country short-time exchanges and two long term exchanges. We had divided our project in four  subtopics, which would be led by each of the partners of our organization. The first block, led by France was devoted to discipline, school rules and self-discipline. The second block led by Finland was devoted  to combating bullying, introducing KIVA and special inclusive programmes. The third one led by Italy was dedicated to combating vandalism, preserving the school premises and working on the web-radio. And the last part of the project led by Spain was devoted to special programmes like Pygmalion and Mediation, which are designed to help vulnerable students and solve conflicts generated at school. The 12 exchanges were designed to include a higher number of students and deal with these topics in a practical way. Unfortunately, 6 of them couldn’t take place because of the pandemic: C9: short-term exchange between Italy and France in Italy. C10: short-term exchange between France and Italy in France. C14: short-term exchange between France and Finland in France. C16: short-term exchange between Finland and Spain in Finland and C18: short-term exchange between Italy and Spain in Italy. It was our intention to include as many participants as possible to get a higher group that could help implement the ideas and knowledge acquired in the long run. 
Nevertheless, the long-term exchanges C11: two Finnish students in Spain for two months January-March 2019 and C12: two Spanish students in Finland March-May 2019 did take place. This was our first  adventure in long-term experiences and we must say that it was very rewarding both for the students and teachers.
Due to the situation we are living in, it is very difficult to assess the impact of our project in our schools right now. In the school year 20-21, France and Italy had hybrid in school/virtual schooling all year, Finland stopped classes in March-April and our school in Spain has had groups divided into two and attending classes every other day. No doubt students have developed IT mastery, increased their level of English and reinforced their responsibility and we expect that, in the long run, by applying certain measures and continuing work in this direction, we’ll see some results.

Project Website

https://iesalbalerasmus.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 118367 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES ALBAL & Country: ES

Project Partners

• ITIS GALILEO GALILEI
• Nakkilan yhteiskoulu
• LGT MADAME DE STAEL