A school of democracy – we know our rights and duties Erasmus Project

Project Title

A school of democracy – we know our rights and duties

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

The project’s title “A school of democracy – we know our rights and duties” refers to the most important European value – democracy. The project aims at young students, whose awareness of social concepts on an intellectual level has just begun. The world of politics seems to them very distant and strange. They do not understand the world around them with all these political issues that are too difficult and abstract for young students who are 11- 15 years old. This project will help them to widen their horizons and gain knowledge very useful in their future education and careers.
The project will last for two years and its main objective is to increase the students’ interest in their local social and political life starting with their school surrounding where they can face the basic rules of democracy observing the schools’ governments. Another important objective is to develope the students’ fluency in English and digital competences.
Four European schools – from Poland, Portugal, Croatia and Italy – will carry out the project refering to the European citizenship. All the partners in the project are local schools interested in offering the European level of education to their students. The tasks and duties will be divided and shared equally. Each school will be responsible for one LTT activity. Moreover the Polish school will coordinate the project work, the Portuguese school will create and maintain the project website, the schools from Croatia and Italy will host the transnational meetings.
The four LTT activities dealing with lingual, social, historic, and cultural integration, will give young people opportunities that the single schools would not able to offer.
Eight students from each partner school will participate in the LTT activities that will last for five days. The project work will be divided in two parts: the work during the LTT activities and the work in partner schools. The students will focus their attention on two areas. The first one is their school life with the school government. The second one is the region they live in, its social, politicalical, and structural characteristics. The activities will lead the students to deeper knowledge of their nearest surrounding and wider understanding of their role in the school and local society. They will have a possibility to realize what their rights and duties are. The students will also learn how to discuss, present their point of view, negotiate and achieve a consensus. All the students will receive the Europass certificates.
The main advantage is that the students will be able to work in international groups, using and developing their language and IT skills to fulfill the tasks. Some complex transversal skills will be developed when the students experience a new situation that will demand new skills. This complex approach can also be seen in activities that will be based on the process of finding information. The methods used in this project will lead the students to self-reliance and responsibility for making decisions and choices. These methods will stimulate group work and encourage the students to create a new value through different activities. They will learn how to discuss, negotiate, write a petition or take part in a debate. Such skills will prepare them to their future roles in politics or will be crucial in their future professional lives.
The project will produce four final results: a website, a calendar, a glossary and a film. The website will be created at the very beginning of the project and all intermediate results will be collected there. The calendar will contain the students’ designs and disseminate the project. The glossary will contain new words and expressions explained in four languages so it will be used in the partner schools for teaching new vocabulary. The film will document all the activities and it will be used during English classes in the partner schools and beyond. All the final results will be available on the project website.
The impact of the project will be seen in the short-time perspective as the progress in developing the students’ skills and knowledge. The project will also influence the school life with the students’ awareness of their rights and duties.
Nevertheless the potential longer term beneficiaries of this project will be the students equiped with knowledge and skills very important in their future lives as responsible citizens of their towns, regions, countries and the European Union. The experience in the project may lead to their involvment in the local affairs or political careers. Social and educational value of European cultural heritage will increase the students’ EU awareness and understanding of the idea of democracy, will shape their future role in the society that may lead to economic growth and social cohesion of their towns and regions. The value of their education on the European level will result in economic growth and social cohesion of their towns and regions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 123184 Eur

Project Coordinator

Szkola Podstawowa nr 2 im. Jana Pawla II w Suchym Lesie & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Scuola secondaria di Primo Grado “G. Carducci”
• Primary school Antun Kanizlic
• Agrupamento de Escolas D. Maria II – Braga