Future Europe: French and Finnish Youth mobilises for a cause. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Future Europe: French and Finnish Youth mobilises for a cause.

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

This project arose in the context of an association, the Douzelage, created in 1991 and which today links twenty-eight European towns. During one of the annual general meetings, in May 2019, teachers from two of these towns, ours in Granville, France, and Asikkala in Finland, had the idea of setting up an educational and social project on active citizenship in our two schools. On an individual level, our schools are each committed to citizenship and environmental initiatives, and their geographical situations make them both particularly aware of the problems of global warming: Granville situated in the Cotentin Peninsular is especially concerned with changes to the seashore line and the protection of the coast, while Asikkala is in the south of Finland, a region of lakes which is very sensitive to the prospect of a rise in sea levels. Our establishments are also engaged in reflection on “sustainable food choices” with students being involved in a number of projects which we feel are complementary, and therefore it will be rewarding to exchange ideas on existing practices and consider joint actions.

Our aims:
– To make our students more aware of the opportunities open to them in Europe and teach them to work on a project with other Europeans in a foreign language, i.e. English (key skill: multilinguism).
– To get the class working as a team on this project and give meaning to the label “European Class”.
– To move from awareness to putting it in practice, encouraging commitment (European Union key skill: active citizenship) at a local level: protection of a beach (sea or lake) near the two schools.
– To develop life skills as far as food and diet are concerned and to learn to eat responsibly, through concrete actions.
– To promote and raise the profile of the European “Douzelage” network.
– To foster links between the high schools, partner companies (key skills: initiative and entrepreneurial spirit) and associations.

The project will involve forty French and Finnish student participants and their teachers, but will also include the entire educational community in the two establishments and in partner companies and associations.
First the students in both schools will study the shore environment and changes to it resulting from global warming on a world scale, in a non-language geography class. Then, supervised by their teachers, they will carry out an investigation of local effects in their town and transmit their data in English via eTwinning to their correspondents in the other country.
Secondly, in collaboration with local authorities and associations, they will choose a concrete action to carry out in the field with the aim of protecting a section of the shoreline.
Concurrently, students will be made aware of the issues of eating responsibly and will engage in a practical project targeting their peers: devising a vegetarian menu, reducing waste, finding alternatives to junk food and working with the school bursar to establish local sourcing contracts. French and Finnish students will again share their experiences on the actions they have carried out, in English, via eTwinning.
Two meetings are also planned, to exchange views and carry out joint actions, one in Granville in spring 2021 and another in Asikkala in autumn 2021.

– This project will create a team spirit in the European classes in the French lycée, and in the Finnish high school classes, with the young people from both countries co-operating in a long-term exchange and a concrete project.
– The project will contribute to the level 2 E3D label award for the French high school.
– This action should complement the schools’ development plan, notably in terms of its educational component of opening up to Europe and encouraging mobility.
– The results will be shared within the partnership on the internet (via eTwinning ) and during the two planned meetings.
– The actions will be reported in the local press (print, radio, and blog)
– Both schools’ open days will be important opportunities to promote the project and its results.
– The local authorities and associations will be kept informed.

We trust that this project will be the starting point of a long-term cooperation between all the various stakeholders involved, not just the educational institutions, and that it will encourage the lasting involvement of the educational community and the inhabitants of our respective regions in similar projects.

Project Website

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/132314

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 49340 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lycée Polyvalent Julliot de la Morandière & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Vääksyn Yhteiskoulu