Being a young European citizen in France and in Italy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Being a young European citizen in France and in Italy

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The project mobilised high school students aged 16 to 17 as part of a project between France and Italy around the theme of European citizenship. The goal of the project was to develop our students’ European consciousness.
A class of 29 students in Première ES (Economics and Social sciences) in France took part in this Erasmus + project along with 29 Italian students from the high school N. Copernico A. Carpeggiani in Ferrara.
This project allowed students to study the national singularities of each country (France and Italy) to compare the similarities and differences within several areas chosen by the students themselves.
We started the project by working virtually via the Etwinning TwinSpace so that the pupils could discover themselves and present their respective schools. The students prepared a written presentation of themselves in English and produced a video montage presenting their school. These activities were carried out at the beginning of the projectand one hour was dedicated to this every week in the students’ schedule.
The project was then organized around 4 mobilities (two incoming and two outgoing):
C1: mobility from Italy to France: a group of 15 Italian pupils came to France, accompanied by two Italian teachers in order to allow the pupils to meet each other physically and start thinking about the themes they wanted to deal with during the project. The students were hosted by families throughout the week.
C2: mobility from France to Italy: a group of 14 French pupils went to Italy, accompanied by three French teachers in order to allow the pupils to continue their work on the project.
C3: mobility from Italy to France: a group of 14 Italian pupils came to France, accompanied by two Italian teachers to deepen the work.
C4: mobility from France to Italy: a group of 15 French pupils went to Italy, accompanied by two French teachers in order to allow the pupils to continue their work on the project.
All the details relating to these 4 mobilities are available in part 7. Learning, teaching and training activities.

For both C5 and C6 mobilities initially planned when the project was drafted, the exceptional situation linked to COVID-19 made any travel impossible and the closure of French and Italian establishments made any virtual event between our establishments too difficult. Although the project was extended by 6 months, the situation in our countries did not improve and thus no implementation could be carried out to continue the work started by the students last year, especially since the French students involved in the project have all obtained their Baccalaureate diploma, thus moving on to college.

The purpose of this project was to allow our young high school students to open up to another form of culture. This work carried out throughout the two years of the project has enabled the students to acquire a greater awareness of their European citizenship. The pupils had to communicate in English throughout the duration of the project to be understood by their peers, which made it possible to practice English in a real exchange situation, especially during the weeks spent abroad. The work carried out by teams of Franco-Italian pupils allowed them to develop teamwork even though it could not be finalized during the last two mobilities. The goal of these last mobilities was the preparation of a mobile exhibition made by the pupils. This exhibition was meant to be presented in the two establishments and in the local libraries and cityhalls of both cities. Unfortunately, this exhibition could not be produced due to the pandemic.

However, the students made some concrete productions:
– the project logo
– a comic strip on cultural stereotypes between our countries
– slideshows on their visits to Chambord and Amboise (castle and Clos-Lucé) and on the life of Leonardo da Vinci
– a photo exhibition produced for Erasmus Days 2019 and displayed at the library of the French high school
– a recipe book featuring traditional dishes from our respective gastronomies
– a slide show on human rights
– a slide show on global warming
– several presentations on Venice (its architecture and its history) following a guided tour of the city
– a video montage featuring interviews with students on their experience of the project
– The students also independently managed an Instagram account to talk about the project with each other.

Students have developed their ability to speak in a foreign language, not only linguistically speaking but also in terms of confidence in themselves. We hope that this project has also given them the possibility to think about their future studies by showing them other horizons which is something our rural students sometimes lack.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 58015 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lycée Claude de France & Country: FR

Project Partners

• IIS “N.COPERNICO – A.CARPEGGIANI”