European Wellbeing Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Wellbeing

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; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

The motivation for this project is the increasing significance of promoting ‘Wellbeing’ in the second level education system. Emotional well-being is about how young people cope with stress on a day to day basis and having the ability to ask for help and support. It’s about linking and embracing the systems which are innovative for today but also are tried and tested for years gone by. The motivation for this project is to highlight and make aware the importance of positive mental health, the need to be socially responsible, to use communication in a positive healthy way and promote links to our communities through appreciation of our unique national and European culture. Issues related to social media use include anxiety and depression. This is an issue that needs to be tackled amongst young people due to their reliance on social media. It is a part of their everyday lives and while an excellent tool for communication, it needs to be used in a socially responsible way. Our project will look at how this can be achieved.

Our project will focus on developing positive relationships, we feel that relationships are key to a persons wellbeing. Our project will promote positive relationships with the self, Ireland will focus on mental health and strategies which students already use as well as some new tools.This will be done initially through surveys, discussions and debates around the topic of well-being. Students will work towards gaining an understanding of the problem and use this to develop a lesson promoting an aspect of wellbeing to a younger year group. They will present their findings following an evaluation of the lesson. All results will be complied in a basic app which students can turn to in times of stress. Germany will look at social and civic responsibility in relation to well-being, they will look at the relationship between students and their societies. They will focus on building relationships between a wide variety of the community and how this impacts on students and their well-being. The Netherlands will focus on communication and the impact social media has on relationships which in turn impacts on wellbeing. The hope is that students will understand the role social media has in their lives and be educated about the importance of using it appropriately. Latvia will focus on culture and well-being. They will combine the project with Latvia’s 100 year anniversary since it became an independent state. The students will organise and participate in a photo and song/poetry competition which will then be showcased for the local community celebrating Latvian culture as well as the cultures from the visiting countries. The aim is to educate students about the importance of connecting in life especially in their local cultures as well as at a European level.

It is the aim of all involved that the entire school body will be affected by the Erasmus + project. About 30/40 students in each country will access the exchange program but the entire school will have access to the lessons and resources learned on all of the trips. Across the four countries there will be a variety of students from different backgrounds making this an extremely diverse project. Each student will be given an equal opportunity to become involved. It was the aim that all resources be shared with the entire school body through “A day in Europe” dissemination day at the finale of the visits. This was to be an opportunity to showcase all the hard work and outcomes reached through the two years. During this day the local communities, school body, parents and any wider groups would be invited into the schools however this was unable to happen due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is envisaged that the results from each of the visits will have a lasting effect on the students and continue to impact in a positive way as they go through life. Equipping them with the necessary tools in ensuring they are resilient, independent and adventurous individuals. At the end of this project, we hope that we can use the students’ ideas and best projects not only to implement them at our school but make them a regular event in the school’s calendar, thus fostering the status of our school as a community builder and providing students with possibilities to experience meaningful exchanges with their community.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 101076 Eur

Project Coordinator

Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board & Country: IE

Project Partners

• Marion-Dönhoff-Gymnasium Nienburg/Weser
• CVO CSG Calvijn Groene Hart
• Strencu novada vidusskola