The Roots of Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

The Roots of Europe

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Inclusion – equity; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

The project Roots of Europe is a response to the times we live in. The main goals were social and educational value of European cultural heritage, social inclusion and strengthening the profiles of teaching profession as reflected the needs of partner schools and preschools. All participating institutions noticed that there was a decline in the interest of own cultural heritage before going into this project. The inner borders of Europe are vanishing and the migration within European countries is easier than ever before. Within the groups, we are still encountering new varieties of issues with children of immigrant families while integrating into the new social environment (such as language barriers, lack of social connections, different customs and foods). With our partners we exchanged successful methods and good practices for integration of children of different social, ethnic or cultural backgrounds. We raised awareness and deepened EU values such as non-discrimination, justice, solidarity and social inclusion. The main goals of the project were: deepening the competences for fostering inclusion, connecting with EU countries and transfer of innovations gained with mobility (work methods, cooperation with parents, inclusion of families with different cultural backgrounds), getting to know the narrower and wider social and cultural environment and getting to know intercultural differences, similarities and customs. With main activities such as My grandmoms bread, My town once, Customs here and abroad, Folklore, Clothes and footwear, Old finger and movement games we encouraged interests in our own traditions and compared it to traditions of children from other cultural environments. The anticipated results for teachers and preschool teachers such as getting to know new innovative work methods, enhancing ICT technologies, improving foreign languages, familiarisation with foreign school systems and cultures, collaborations with parents, all contributed to a greater openness for changes and innovations in educational process. The children got to know their own culture, traditions and customs far better and at the same time they strengthened their tolerance and raised awareness on the issue of difference. At the beginning of the project the parents, teachers and preschool teachers were invited to participate in a questioner that determined their attitude towards their own and other cultural heritages. Due to the Corona virus epidemic we couldn’t repeat the same questioner, so we prepared a new questioner for teachers and preschool teachers at the end of the project. The questioner showed a higher understanding of the importance of introducing different topics of the project in the curriculum. We extended the project for one year and concluded it with a meeting in Ljubljana, in June 2021 where we followed all health measures. During the project we applied active learning methods and a special KWL method (what I know, what I would like to know, what I have learned). We included a variety of participants in the project. To list some of the participants: educational institutions employees, including technical staff (janitors, cooks, directing and management staff), children, their parents and grandparents, local community and external institutions (museums, galleries, libraries, other schools, national galleries, educational institutions, folklore groups, experts and craftsmen). We carried out five mobility meeting where all the attendees got the opportunity to get to know the educational institutions of our project partners, to explore the differences and similarities of educational systems and to share positive examples. The project activities were spread among all partner institutions. We designed an official public WEB page of the project https://rootsofeuropa.webnode.com/, created a Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1873653845987139, and posted a presentation of the project with description of the activities on Erasmus+. The presentation of the project consists of a description of activities, DVDs of songs, dances and games, a collection of finger games and a cookbook with gathered recipes of traditional methods of baking bread. We carried out two eTwinning projects. The first one was Roots of Europe 2018/19 and the second one was Roots of Europe Let’s know each other with music 2019/20. For their work on the project several partners received Quality labels both on national and European level. A lot of partners from different countries also joined the eTwinning projects. With these two projects we expanded the Roots of Europe project throughout Europe on eTwinning portal and on our own personal social networks and groups. All partners disseminated results in connection to the project. We published articles in newspapers and publications, we presented the project in local, national and international meetings and conferences, on TV, we prepared exhibitions, presentations and workshops.

Project Website

https://rootsofeuropa.webnode.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 110060 Eur

Project Coordinator

Vrtec Sentvid & Country: SI

Project Partners

• GRADINITA CU PROGRAM PRELUNGIT ,,SOTRON”
• Izmir Gaziemir Sabiha Gokcen Ilkokulu
• CELFF Centro de Estudos Línguas Formação Fogueteiro SA – Colégio Guadalupe
• 52 primary school ‘Tsanko Tserkovski’