Fit For Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Fit For 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 : 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: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Inclusion – equity; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

The name of the project is “Fit For Europe” (F.F.E.). The goal “to become fit” and the term “fitness” refer to the health of pupils, teachers and all citizens of Europe. The observation that absences caused by illness have been increasing at schools in Europe has led to the basic idea of the project. The age-old wisdom that “a healthy mind lives in a healthy body” has been corroborated by many scientific studies and is the basis of our project goal. The overall aim of the project is to improve the physical fitness and the mental well-being of the students, so that they are better able to cope with the challenges they face at school and in their everyday lives. The main target group are pupils who have results at school which are below average for different reasons. Those reasons can be physical, psychological, social, economical or cultural. With the help of the project the participants are supposed to get better integrated into the school community and society in general. Exclusion, frustration, resulting poor performance, the repetition of school years and finally a possible dropout can be avoided in the medium and long term. The participants are going to do health-keeping activities. We are going to focus on a large variety of sports, healthy eating and extensive health-improving activities, as for example doing a “Kneipp” cure. Since the problem of an increasing number of absent days can be found all over Europe, we have included many different regions in Europe in our project. Each of the partners taking part in the project contributes special traditions and methods of health-keeping in order to develop an as extensive catalogue of health-keeping methods as possible. The Finnish school contributes, for example, the tradition of taking a sauna, the Portuguese school contributes different water sports, Italy provides insight into the healthy Mediterranean cuisine and the German school delivers workshops on “Kneipp” cures. Furthermore, each school has special strengths which are decisive for a successful implementation of the project. Germany contributes project experience and expertise in several sports, Portugal has experienced film-makers who are going to produce films and DVDs, Italy has ICT specialists who are going to create the project website, Finland has project experience and health education as an A-level subject. Up to 18 students between 12 and 18 from each school are going to take part in the project. Especially weaker students are going to be included. The main activities are different sports (e. g. Judo) and workshops on healthy eating and instruction in health-keeping methods (e. g. Kneipp). The best way to learn these techniques is to practise them at their place of origin and being taught them by experts. The implementation of the project aims is dependent on being put into practice and therefore they have to be learnt locally. All activities are planned in detail, then implemented, analysed and if necessary modified (PDCA = Plan, Do, Check, Act). All the results are going to be published (website etc.). All activities are not just an end in themselves, but are going to be analysed and the results are going to be included in a comprehensive multi-lingual health and training manual. The manual is going to be available for other schools and institutions and therefore ensures the sustainability of project results. The overall project goal is to improve the fitness and well-being of all participants decisively. Moreover, as many people as possible are supposed to be reached by the project to improve their awareness of the advantages of a healthy lifestyle. In the long run the fitness of all participants and those interested is going to improve and the number of absent days is going to be reduced. Europe’s diversity is the inspiration to better health-keeping and an improved equilibrium of its people who will be able to contribute as active and responsible citizens to further integration and intercultural understanding. Sport is an ideal medium to overcome prejudice, exclusion, intorelance and ignorance. The intergration of the European Week of Sport in the project underlines its European dimension and validity.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 96050 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Roth & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas Eça de Queirós
• LICEO SCIENTIFICO STATALE “LORENZO RESPIGHI”
• Kyrönmaan lukio