HEALTH 4 U Erasmus Project

Project Title

HEALTH 4 U

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The school partnership “HEALTH 4 U” aims to set up a cooperation between four European secondary schools in Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway. The language used for all comunication and cooperation is English.
The Partnership´s topic is health, as it is defined in the constitution of the WHO: “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”. We see an increasing need to help our students to prevent and/or cope with psychological stress, discrimination, lack of movement, unhealthy diets, unrealistic self-image, etc.

When schools work on health they will usually concentrate on physical health by organising lectures, campaigns or sports events. The importance of the other two aspects of health are often neglected. Therefore we want to pay more attention on mental and social health, than we have done before. Each school will chose their methods and topics according to equipment, subjects, local offers and staff involved. Students will be involved in activities but also in decision-making and organisation.

In our project title the letter H stands for (physical, mental and social )health. The number 4 refers to the number of schools. The letter U represents three aspects we want to focus on:

1) “yoU” means the individual aspect. We want to encourage our students and staff to monitore and reflect on their personal well-being. Individual health checks, tests, research, training, sports events, fieldtrips and surveys, campaigns, etc are methods to achieve this.

2) “yoUth” stand for our students. Although teachers will participate in several events and studies our main focus is the age group of 15 – 18 years. Since personal health is a topic of lifelong learning our project aims to influence our students level of competences, awareness and responsibility about their health. We also want to compare special offers for youth health in our countries and areas and school systems. The results and outcomes of this cooperations will be publisched and shared.

3) “eUrope” stands for the added value that an international cooperation will bring to our schools. The UN has just published the World Happiness Report 2018 with Finland and Norway in first and second place and the Netherlands in the sixth place. Austria has reached 12th place in the ranking. But how do studies and rankings like this reflect the situation of young people in our schools and their actual state of health and well-being? Are there big differences or do we all share the same strengths and weaknesses? International surveys, meetings and comparative research can be used to work on these questions. Communications and cooperation with peers in other countries will help our students and staff to improve their language skills, international competences and social competences. We want to learn from each other´s experience and share good practice examples.

The four schools will try to reach their objectives through miscellaneous methods including research, field trips, lectures, presentations, surveys, health checks, awareness campaigns, sports events, competitions and practical training. Contact with local companies and organisations will complete our work on this most topical issue. The project offers individual and collaborative learning activities. Although our students need to see that they are responsible for their personal well-being, they will also look at the topic of health in a larger context: at their school, region, country and even on an international level. These competences are relevant for our student´s academic success and future career as well as for their personal lifes.

Each school will host one short term exchange (Learning Teaching Training Activity) and focus on at least one form of health. At each exchange the schools introduce their curriculum and health related work, their favourite sports, local offers for youth health, special topics or subjects that the other schools don´t have. According to the working period there will be one special event to initiate or complete an outcome of the project.

The results and working processes will be published so not only students directly involved can benefit from our project but also all students and staff, parents and the public. We will use various forms of dissemination, for example a project website, school websites, events, reports, campaigns and articles in local newspapers.

The project aims to produce results that will be used after the partnership has ended and wants to make significant long-term changes in levels of competence and awareness of students. The project will provide learning material and contacts for our schools for the future.

Project Website

https://www.h4uerasmus.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 81160 Eur

Project Coordinator

HLW St. Veit/Glan & Country: AT

Project Partners

• St. Olav videregående skole
• Lentiz | Reviuslyceum
• Nisulanmäen koulu