Circus of Emotions: Empowering students – Building integration Erasmus Project

Project Title

Circus of Emotions: Empowering students – Building integration

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: Inclusion – equity; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

In 2019 the European Union was going through a period of uncertainty (before BREXIT). There was also a raising wave of xenophobia, racism and intolerance all across Europe. Many people were afraid of migrants and refugees just because they are different and that causes fear and rejection. Our schools are a reflection of society and our students, teenagers, are somehow overwhelmed by a cocktail of emotions, prejudices and stereotypes that cannot be easily managed. Pupils may experience that others are different to their standard and many times that leads to conflictive situations.
We have noticed at school that teenagers need to be aware of their emotions, be able to name them, recognise them, learn how to control them and how to react in different situations. And this was the main motivation of our project. This can be done by taking part in social and emotional competence workshops and the circus trainings, which will show them the universality of their feelings and emotions.
The project “Circus of Emotions” aimed at helping pupils to open up to others and to promote tolerance and acceptance.They need to learn to learn methods to control their impulses, build empathy and assertive communication and practise social skills in order to improve all their relationships in life. We have trained body language and movement as well as stimulated creativity through different circus workshops and activities in order to have a final circus show with students from the different schools. We also enhanced the students’ digital and linguistic competence in English, the lingua franca of the project and used eTwinning and TwinSpace in order to communicate and share videos and presentations all the project products. Learning and working together with four European schools has helped students realise not only their differences but also their similarities. This has enhanced their intercultural awareness and strengthen the idea of the European Union.
Pupils from Secondary Education (aged 12-17) from the four schools took part in the project activities. Students from each school’s age group participated in the implementation of emotional intelligence lesson plans. Students who wanted to participate in all the project activities had to volunteer. Public selection criteria were be taken into account. We also gave students with fewer opportunities the chance to participate.
The group of teachers selected for the project had different backgrounds, experienced staff together with teachers new to European project work. For the exchanges we
selected mainly teachers working in the field of Theatre, Magic and Circus together with English teachers who are competent in speaking the lingua franca and have had a long experience in Erasmus + projects and exchanges.
The European Projects Team coordinated all the activities. All the schools counted with the participation of experts on emotional intelligence, magic and circus to train teachers and students during and after the transnational meetings.
The selected students (7 per school each mobility) were going to participate in the exchanges and take part in the different workshops and activities planned. They were going to stay in host families and teachers in hotels, two teachers with each group of students to ensure support and safety.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemia and health crisis, the 1st mobility with students (C2 – Langerwehe) planned for 1-7th March 2020 had to be postponed the week before travelling. Online Coordination Meetings were scheduled via Twinspace in order to make decisions and rearrange the original Timetable. A 4-month project time extension was accepted by the NAs. Unfortunately, all the mobilities finally turned into Virtual Meetings.(C8 Langerwehe: 11-13 Dec 2020; C9 Kaunas: 19-23 April 2021; C10
Alaquàs: 26-28 Oct 2021; and C11 Herzogenrath: 14-16 Dec 2021).
We are proud of the hard work and great coordination among the 4 schools, which has allowed us to meet all the objectives planned, although the activities had to be implemented virtually. A shame for the students who were not able to travel and meet other countries and cultures. Some students left and others joined the project. A project Website was created and linked in each school’s Website. Virtual activities allowed more students and teachers participate and developed their ICT competence (Teams,
Zoom, Meet, Google shared docs, Drive, presentations, etc). The final show was adapted into a Video Show.
The project Circus of Emotions will have a double impact in the four schools in the long-term. First, the emotional competence lesson plans have been included in Lesson Plans in each school and will continue being implemented after the project’s end. Second, Circus will be included in each school’s curricula in different ways depending on each school’s education system.
Project results will be available in English in TwinSpace, the website and in the E+ Project Result Platform.

Project Website

https://sites.google.com/mdolivar.com/ka229circusofemotions/p%C3%A1gina-principal

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 17207,9 Eur

Project Coordinator

Mare de Déu de l’Olivar II & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Kauno Saules gimnazija
• Europaschule Herzogenrath
• Europaschule Langerwehe Gesamtschule