Living and working together : Coexistence in schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

Living and working together : Coexistence in 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: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Context: The three schools who associated for this Project share a common characteristic, their difficult beginning. Two of them have been classified as having “difficult working conditions” and the third one has a risk of a high level of early dropouts.
Background: A group of teachers who were worried about the high rate of conflicts and risk of dropouts considered the need to improve student coexistence at their schools.
Achieved Goals:
-We have learnt about the local, cultural, social and natural heritage of each project member through visits to the different schools. In this way European history has been discovered, a common history where each member country’s characteristics affect the development of the rest of the members, including their culture and society.
-We have made possible that teachers, students and parents get familiarized with conflict resolution methodology, by qualified personnel.
-We have educated our students in the correct use of social media, given that its abuse is the source of a lot of the problems among them.
-We have created a friendship web, not just horizontally between students of the same age, but also vertically between students of different ages, to facilitate the integration of the youngest students into school daily life.
Participant profile and number: Our aim has been for this project to reach as many people as possible. Unfortunately, as not everyone can participate, we proposed 30 volunteer students (previously chosen that fulfill certain criteria) per school (10 per activity), more or less 6 teachers (2 per activity) and 3 handicapped student support staff (1 for mobility).
Activities:
In Catania= The activity has been about social media risks.
The teams of cyber-helper students have received training in the multiple risks of social media abuse. Afterwards, they have elaborated a talk about the incorrect use of social media, the amount of personal information we give away to strangers, (pictures, etc) and all the associated dangers. Later they have given the talk in different groups’ homerooms. This activity did not interrupt the school schedule as it has been done during homeroom hours. A handout has also been created and given to parents to inform them of parental control and how to recognize signs of cyber-bullying.
All the information and work resulting from this activity has been published in a blog and E-Twinning platform for its further use in participating schools. At the same time students have visited local heritage sites.
#In Guadalajara the activity has been about training in Conflict Mediation and Solving. Student mediators have been given this training by external staff (Alcalá de Henares University). In this activity we wanted all participants to enhance their education by working on the real needs around them, sharing our experience and knowledge. During the whole process we wanted students to be the main agents in this self-learning process, as they will be active participants in the detection and improvement of real conflicts that arise in everyday life in their own schools.
This meeting has also been used to show the natural environment of the area and Cultural Heritage Sites of the nearest cities, such as Toledo, Madrid, Alcalá de Henares…
#In Gran Canaria: The activity has been about “Students League of Friends/ Students to the Rescue”. Students from the three schools got together in Canarias to receive training in the creation of the coexistence observatory (helping, active listening…) as well as training in developing student helpers. This training has produced written and visual material that has been published in our blog to be used in the respective centers.
During these sessions not only were training aspects covered, but there were also visits to discover the Cultural Heritage and informative activities that were carried out by students.
Results description and long term benefits:
What this project has achieved is to try to change the strategy and methodology of each school, which is why the results will affect the whole community. We hope to have achieved a culture of peace and acceptance of others with this project. This acceptance has been achieved through knowledge, on a small scale like the High School or community, and on a large scale such as The European Community.
We think that having participated in a project that bases itself on the idea of help between equals and participation in school is a basic pivot point to advance in school collaborative networks and prevention of violence to improve the atmosphere and coexistence in our educational center.

Project Website

http://erasmusaguasvivas.com/category/proyectos-escolares-ka229-convivencia/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 71491,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES AGUAS VIVAS & Country: ES

Project Partners

• IES Villa de Firgas
• ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO “VITALIANO BRANCATI”