Pius X Anglia exchange Erasmus Project

Project Title

Pius X Anglia 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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Number and profile of participants:
Our school Pius X College is a large, regional school of about 2300 students. The school offers all the different levels of secondary educations in the Netherlands, going from Praktijkonderwijs to Gymnasium. For many years exchanges between our and other schools took place in the highest levels, Havo and VWO. The students of the lower departments (for example GT, VMBO) were always deprived from being able to take part in exchanges. We believe that especially for these students the experience of going abroad, encountering people from other cultures is extremely meaningful to their social, cultural and personal development.

Participans:
In our school a 3gt class will take part. There are 14 students of 14 or 15 years old. They follow an additional course in English, which offers them the opportunity to obtain an extra certificate by taking and passing the Anglia exam. We have connected this program to an exchange in order to not only improve their skills in English reading and writing, but also improve their communicative skills by putting what they have learnt in practise. Two English teachers are involved and of course all the parents of the students because they will function as host families. The Italian partner school has a similar group of students , 2 coördinating teachers and parents that will host the Dutch students.

Context/background of the project:
To do so, since 2008 our school has offered GT students the possibility of following an extra curricular course in the English language. This means that the students have extra lessons to intensify their knowledge and skills in order to take an Anglia exam at the end of their fourth year which enables them to prove they master the English language at a higher level than the regular GT certificate requires.
With this Erasmus project we intend to add a practical component to this course. We found a partner school in Italy that is also interested in offering their students an extra opportunity to expand their skills outside the regular classroom.

Objectives of our projects:
The objectives we would like to produce are the following:
strenghten the student language skills and strengthen the intercultural (soft) skills.We want to change and enrich the mainly theoretical based school environment with practical and project based experiences. We want to provide students with more self esteem in communication and in relation to other cultures . Lastly we want students to take initiative, be creative in their solutions, communicate properly and present themselves and their country in an appropriate way.

Description of activities:
Programme in the Netherlands:
Tour school guided by our Dutch students, ice-breaking activities to get to know the school. Have a typical Dutch lunch, a centre-town game Bladel. A trip to Amsterdam, visit Rijksmuseum with assignments. A visit to Den Bosch, a tour through canals, climbing the St. Jan’s tower, visit a farm on double bikes and learn about Dutch farming life, learn about making cheese.
Programme in Italy:
Workshop in Italian gestures, a tour in the city of Crema. Ice-breaking games to get to know each other. A visit to Milan, climb the Il Duomo, guided by the students. Program at the host families, visit the violin museum in Cremona. Chinese classes at the Italian school, visit the Garda lake, visit d’ Anunzio’s residence.

Carrying out the project:
– The results of our project will be archived and shared with the partnerschool, presented on the website of our school.
– Our school has a weekly broadcast on the website of the school; this project will be shown on this program, with all the events mentioned.
– Prior to the project parents and students will be invited in school to be informed about the project.
– Prior to the project, the students from both schools will act as ambassadors of the project by giving presentations in english about the program and their expectations.
– The project will be displayed in the school in a showcase and on printed banners.

Description of the results of the project:
When interacting, they will learn a lot about eachother’s cultures, values, differences regarding customs, living conditions and habits. Because of coöperating with their peers (working and living together during the exchange) they learn to communicate better and understand eachother and adjust themselves in new situaties. In that way we give them an opportunity to improve their soft skills.

The potential longer term benefits:
Students wil learn to broaden their horizons, other students in school will see the opportunities that will come with this programme.
The students that have partaken in the project will function as ambassadors and be an example for other students around them and within the school.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 32580 Eur

Project Coordinator

Pius X -College & Country: NL

Project Partners

• IIS Luca Pacioli