Participating is more important than… Erasmus Project

Project Title

Participating is more important than…

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Health and wellbeing; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

In 2020 the next summer Olympics will be carried out in Tokyo, so we decided on them as the initial point for this two-year project “Participating is more important than…”
Since there are four participating countries we will work in four periods of six to eight weeks each containing different topics related to the Olympics, like the history, the Olympic thought, values, doping, commerce, Tokyo 2020 and Japan.
Four LTTAs will be carried out. During these meetings not only the hosting country will be in the centre of attention but other EU-members as well as different countries of the EU will be represented. Furthermore, tasks will be highlighted and social inclusion topics will be questioned and discussed on a deeper level.
To complement the programme of an LTTA activities like visiting an Olympic Stadium/ Olympic national training ground, meeting an Olympic Athlete and a tournament will be carried out.
During the project students will be working alone, in pairs and in groups according to the range of topics and activities. Among other things they will prepare several (PowerPoint) presentations, make short movies and podcasts, create a logo, interview athletes, compose lesson plans (e.g. for geography or history lessons). Dissemination tools like posters, videos, letters and articles will be used as well.
Apart from these results a social media account (Instagram) will support the general communication of events, personal Euro passes to certify the acquired skills and knowledge will be handed out to the students and a project diary will help to monitor the schedule and budget control for each partner.
For the project two platforms, both eTwinning and a Project website, will be used: eTwinning to upload outcomes of the different tasks reached during the project, the Twin space as a platform of communication between the involved students.
The project website with different pages will be used for the dissemination to other stakeholders like other staff members, parents and other schools who would like to see a project website.
Most of the participants will be students, their age will mainly vary from 12-14.
Other participants will be staff members of school depending on the tasks that need to be done, during the LTTA mostly the coordinator, a PE teacher or an English teacher will be joining.
In all participating schools the project will be dealt with in another way. While the Dutch school will incorporate the whole project in the curriculum of one grade, the other three schools will establish specific project groups made up of varying numbers, depending on timetables and other local circumstances.
The students taking part in the LTTAs will be chosen according to certain criteria like motivation and enthusiasm about the project in general and the specific topics. The focus will be on enabling as many students as possible to take part in this experience.
The project with its tasks, topics and activities will make the participants more aware of the fact that participating, in any way, is more important than anything at all. There is much more than winning, success or being famous and hopefully they will be aware of that after two years of this project.
Besides, the students will gain more and new knowledge about a wide range of topics. They will be more aware of the values in life, will become more tolerant and reduce prejudices, will improve their ICT skills as well as intercultural competences. They will meet each other in two ways: via social media and in person when travelling to another country. Thus they will improve their learning of foreign languages and understanding the own cultural background and identity within the European nation better.
Teachers will increase their own mobility, their intercultural and language competences through the Erasmus+ partnership like their students will and they will learn about the partners’ way of dealing with other teaching methods.
For the schools it will be an enrichment as well: both students and staff members will become more international. They will be enabled to build to a larger and stable network and possibilities for future KA1 activities like job shadowing.
By having tasks every six to eight weeks the project is not just running on LTTAs, but there will be a constant level of awareness of the project. The knowledge gained during the tasks and the attitude towards the project will stay in the mind of the participants. By staying in host families the students will learn more about each other’s cultures. Working together across borders will be an effective way to access new ideas and innovative approaches to teaching and learning in new environments.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 104560 Eur

Project Coordinator

SintLucas & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Heinrich-Böll-Gesamtschule Europaschule
• Killorglin Community College
• 2o Gymnasio Pyrgou