Let’s be Europeans! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Let’s be Europeans!

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: Migrants’ issues; Environment and climate change; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Our project entitled “Let’s be Europeans!”, meant to last for two years, from September 2019 to June 2021, involved four secondary schools located in the European Union: “Lycée Elie Vinet” in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire (France), “IES LAKUA” in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain), “Rainer-Maria Rilke Gymnasium” in Icking (Germany) and “Aarhus Gymnasium” in Tilst (Denmark).
This project, supervised by 4 teams of teachers, enabled the collaboration, around common themes, of a hundred or so volunteer pupils of the same age group from the four partner schools, among whom 47 French, 12 Danish, 15 German and 29 Spanish.
As the European project is being weakened or even questioned, the initial objective of the project was to reawaken a sense of European belonging among young people by offering them the opportunity to participate in a collaborative project of European scope. It gave them the opportunity to exchange and collaborate with young people from different backgrounds. The initial project also foresaw various mobilities but only one could be carried out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the young people involved in this project kept exchanging all along the two years through digital tools and distance work.
The aims:
– to develop social capital in young people, their autonomy and ability to participate actively in the democratic life of Europe
– to develop pupils’ skills (ICT, teamwork, social relations, etc.)
– to make pupils more active in their choice for further education, to give them ambition
– to encourage the learning of foreign languages.
– to promote and implement mobility for pupils and students in Europe.
– to create a sense of European belonging through interculturality
– to improve their knowledge of the EU history and achievements
– through education and culture, to become aware of the challenges that Europe will have to face
– to enrich and diversify teaching practices
Three themes that are at the very heart of the European project were chosen to achieve the following objectives: Memories of Europe (memories of how, why the EU was built in the 4 different countries), Migrations Yesterday and Today (migratory routes: what are the challenges for the EU?), For/Towards a Sustainable Europe (sustainability of the European project through environmental issues and interculturality).
The participants worked in various ways (courses, workshops, seminars, but also at a distance when circumstances required it). Inter-school collaborative work was carried out in using computer tools (eTwinning, videoconferencing, social networks, etc.). Whenever possible, meetings were organised with local organisations and professionals in order to enhance the value of commitment and expand the young people’s horizons.

For two years, the participants had the opportunity to study the history of the European construction and migration as well as the implementation of the EU’s SDGs, to take part in a logo competition, to meet various organisations and to collect testimonies (migrants, young people who had taken part in European mobility schemes, elected representatives committed to sustainable development, etc.), to write articles on the subject and to participate in a discussion forum. …), to write bilingual short stories and put them into words, produce and exchange a wide variety of documents (surveys, questionnaires, videos, slide shows, draw-my-life creations, news commentaries and debates on the project themes), organise actions and awareness-raising days in their respective schools (Europe-to-go day, clean-up actions and energy saving challenges, Erasmus Days…)
In the initial project, exchanges were planned every year and each student was to travel at least once to one of the partner countries. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, only one of these exchanges took place, in Aarhus, Denmark, in February 2020, where 45 pupils (15 Danish, 9 German and 21 French) met and cooperated on visits, meetings and activities linked to Sustainable Development.
The European Week initially planned in Barbezieux as a culmination of the project with all the partner schools, could not take place but was maintained at local level in the form of “Erasmus Days” in May 2021 during which the final achievements were disseminated and highlighted. The whole educational community was involved in these days through exhibitions (in the school and in the local council multimedia library), European meals, a public reading of the bilingual short stories and a closing ceremony of the project.
Despite the difficulties linked to the pandemic, this project allowed the creation of links that we hope will last for a long time between our pupils who are no doubt the European citizens of tomorrow.

Project Website

https://sites.google.com/view/letsbeeuropeans

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 58086,21 Eur

Project Coordinator

LEGT Elie VINET & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Rainer-Maria-Rilke-Gymnasium Icking
• IES LAKUA BHI
• Aarhus Gymnasium, Tilst