Life Skills and Values for the Pupils of the European Union Erasmus Project

Project Title

Life Skills and Values for the Pupils of the European Union

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Acknowledging that children’s social and emotional well – being, which can be defined as the presence of a culture, ethos, and environment that promotes dynamic, optimal development and flourishing for all in the school community, does not only affect the health of the children of the E.U, but it is also a decisive factor of their academic success, the schools of the partnership decided to take action under the favorable framework of the ERASMUS+ E.U. Program.

A review of the educational policies of the member states indicated that, although in all EU educational systems references related to pupils’ well-being are recorded, in practice, they seem to focus more on the academic achievements and disregard the aspect of well being, despite the scientific developments in pedagogy and positive psychology. Therefore, a clear need for action has arisen and set the main goal of the project – the promotion of pupils’ well being, by assisting them to develop “Life Skills”, and resilience competencies (basic qualities that enable a person to effectively manage the challenges of daily life, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, the ability to communicate and collaborate, along with personal and social responsibility and empathy) with a parallel highlighting of the underlying European values that consist the strong foundations of our common European Identity.

The schools of the partnership, responding to the above mentioned need, cooperatively elaborated an intervention that focused to “School as a whole” and the main objective of which was to design, develop, apply, test and promote methods, processes and educational tools that can assist EU pupils to develop life skills in a framework that aligns with the main European Values, for their social and emotional well being and resilience.

The partnership, which consisted of schools from Greece, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain, countries with differentiated cultural, economic and educational backgrounds, cooperatively implemented a set of interrelated activities that led to significant outcomes in order to achieve the above-mentioned objective:

i). A Common intra-school mapping study for the assessment of the status of pupils’ well-being and the identification of the main risk factors that negatively affect it. The activity revealed that pupils mainly construct their perception of their well-being in the social domain, overlooking aspects such as self-efficacy, academic improvement, and participation in school life. The key risk factors that have been identified are bullying, school stress, absenteeism, and social isolation.

ii) Development of educational content with its relevant learning materials and teaching tools in many forms, from board games and puppetry scenario for the development of critical thinking and ethical decision making, anger management, emotional awareness to structured teaching packs for values teaching, like tolerance and respect, and from educational drama for the promotion of empathy and coping skills and resilience to cooperative games by the exploitation of arts for the improvement of social dynamics and school climate.

iii) Supportive instruments, such as “Bullying Mediators” and “Risk Factors Observatory”, for conflict resolution and monitoring of the well-being in the schools.

iv) Transnational learning activities, in the form of five (5) Short-Term Joint Staff Training Events provided unique opportunities for the staff of the schools to meet, obtain scientifically validated information, exchange opinions and experiences, participate in cooperative activities and develop knowledge and skills.

v) Transnational Meetings that were organized in parallel with the Short-Term Joint Staff Training Events brought together school heads who met with different organizational models of schools, different school cultures, interacted in a multicultural environment and, in cooperation with the coordinators, monitored, evaluated and validated its processes, outcomes and results, widened their schools’ organizational networks and enriched their personal ones.

The project and its outcomes were promoted to different target audiences during 6 dissemination events, that were organized during the period of the transnational activities. Those target groups consisted of parents and caregivers, educators and educational councilors, of educational administration structures at the local and regional levels. The project was also promoted in social media and by its WEB presence. The project reached more than 1200 pupils, 400 families, 200 teachers, and 5 local communities and delivered its key message: the recognition of well-being as a priority in European schools, by the development and support of programs for the development of life skills and resilience, brings multifaceted results psychological, emotional and social, to the pupils as individuals, their families, their communities and contribute equally to their prosperity.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 95960 Eur

Project Coordinator

2nd Primary School of Nea Aghialos – “Varnaleion” & Country: EL

Project Partners

• CEIP ALISIOS
• Szkola Podstawowa nr 172 im. prof. Stefana Banacha
• Istituto Comprensivo Camigliano
• Osnovna sola Orehek Kranj