Tornbjerg – Montpellier exchange Erasmus Project

Project Title

Tornbjerg – Montpellier exchange

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The context of the project is that, previously, our two schools have successfully completed a joint Erasmus+ exchange. The goal is once more to give students in the two countries this unique opportunity of an exchange. The project consists of 4 short term exchanges of pupils and one short term joint staff training event. Our project aims at developing the learners’ linguistic qualifications, improving their understanding of the different pedagogical tools available for teachers, their use of new technologies, their capacity to reflect on their own learning process, as well as their knowledge of another European culture, and thereby reinforcing the development of key competences within language skills and intercultural understanding.
The teachers will get the opportunity to observe different teaching methods in a different cultural context and to locate and analyse the differences and similarities in the pedagogical practices in both countries. Furthermore, the teachers will be able to collaborate on and exchange didactical tools as well as reflections concerning teaching methods in order to create new teaching tools and to develop an exchange platform on pedagogical practices for the benefit of teaching language now and in the long run.
The duration of each exchange will be 8 days including travel days. Before the exchange, each students will be matched with a student from the partner school. The link between the students will be made on the basis of a questionnaire they have filled in. Thereafter the students will communicate on a regular basis by mail, facebook, skype etc. The teachers will make sure the communication is kept up. Before the exchange there will be a meeting at at the school where the parents are invited and the headmaster is present. There will be a meeting with the parents both before going on exchange and before receiving students. The purpose of these meetings is to prepare the students and their families for being a host family and being an exchange student. We will furthermore make a contract that the students and their families have to sign before hand. This contract provides guidelines as to how to behave, what to provide and what to expect during the exchanges. During the exchange the students will stay with their host families 6 nights and at a hotel one night. The stay at the hotel is necessary in order to ensure coverage from insurance companies in Denmark. The students will partly follow the teaching of their hosts and partly participate in cultural activities. They will have one weekend alone with the host families.
Being in Denmark the French students will speak English and thereby improve their English language skills, and in France the Danish students will speak French. As to the French group, this exchange represents a unique possibility to discover a country in the European Union as well as to practice the target language in an authentic context. As to the Danish group, the students have chosen French as their second language. Being a second language at beginners’ level, the
language immersion will offer the students a unique opportunity to experience the target language in a genuine context as well as to develop linguistic, social and cultural skills.
The reason why we have planned two generations, is because we want the project to cover a longer period in order to have a better possibility of improving our organizations through the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65899 Eur

Project Coordinator

Tornbjerg Gymnasium & Country: DK

Project Partners

• Lycée JF Champollion