Breaking Walls, Preserving Walls Erasmus Project

Project Title

Breaking Walls, Preserving Walls

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: Inclusion – equity; Creativity and culture; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

Breaking Walls, Preserving Walls (BWPW), is the project of a school exchange partnership composed of four public secondary schools:
– IIS G. ANTONIETTI Iseo, Italy (coordinator)
– GENIKO LYKEIO NEAS KYDONIAS, Chania , Greece
– IES VEGA BAJA Callosa de Segura, Spain
– KOPERNIKUS GYMNASIUM Wasseralfingen, Germany
In the four schools pupils aged 15-17 will be the protagonists of BWPW.
The number of students and staff involved annually in project activities will very much vary according to the size of the school, and will depend on the year’s workplan. Nevertheless, some activities will be opened to all the pupils of the schools, therefore involving about 2900 young European teenagers.
The 4 schools share the same awareness of the importance of international cooperation and strongly believe in the role that European cultural heritage can play to foster social cohesion and inclusion.
Considering the challenges that young Europeans have to face, especially in terms of employability, and increased global competition, we are aware that international experiences and mobility can greatly contribute to our students’ personal development, improving their basic and key competences.
Thinking of the current migrant crisis, of discrimination of minorities or of bullying or racist episodes, and considering that 2018 will be the European Year of Cultural heritage, the schools decided to set up a project based on promoting social cohesion and equity, focusing on the social and educational value of European cultural heritage.
Small scale Europe has been marked and formed over centuries by frontiers, borders, boundaries; so European Cultural Heritage is strictly connected with walls: building and defending them, pulling them down or breaking them, preserving and cherishing them, literally and metaphorically. Our project aims at pulling down the “walls” that hinder inclusion and at preserving the ones that belong to every European country’s cultural heritage.
Every year we will focus on different aspects of the European cultural heritage as follows:
YEAR 1 Social and educational value of local traditions; YEAR 2 Social and educational value of European Music; YEAR 3 Social and educational value of Cultural Heritage: Walls
We believe that thanks to BWPW we will succeed in leading groups of pupils from different countries towards discovering the European cultural heritage in motivating, participatory ways.
Activities will be student-centered. Non-formal learning will be pursued and pupils will always be engaged, trying to enhance individual strengths, such as communication, intercultural or digital skills. Social cohesion and intercultural dialogue will be fostered, as activities will be multi-national, and every school will include pupils from cultural minorities or disadvantaged groups.
In addition to the achievement of the project objectives, over the three years pupils will produce a large number of concrete results that will have required the skills listed above.
Some results have already been defined, e.g.: project logo, interviews to old people, murals, guided tours given by students; final concert in year 2; project anthem; project cookery book as an expression of different cultures and influences.
Some other products will be better defined at initial meetings according to the years’ topics and workplans, e.g.: photos, drawings, paintings or other works of art in relation to the cultural heritage explored; surveys involving a large number of students/stakeholders at international level, quizzes, games, interviews, videos, presentations, musical performances; songs, modern and traditional dances; rhymes and poetry; exhibitions and flash-mobs to involve local communities, especially during final exchanges every year.
Teachers will also produce materials e.g.: satisfaction surveys; teaching resources; presentations; reports.
In the long term participation in the project will lead to:
– Establishing lasting LT and ST school exchanges with the partner schools
– Development and implementation of skills, instruments and digital techniques acquired during the project into the regular curriculum of each school
– Intensifying existing local educational partnerships
– Broadening the net of educational cooperators during and by the project
– Enhancing the awareness of the social and educational value of European heritage and of the European political and social identity and incorporating it into everyday school life and discourse
– Promoting tolerance and inclusion – already part of the corporate philosophy and identity of all partner schools – in every respect and at every level of school life
We believe that BWPW will have a wide and strong impact on all four school communities, but also we trust that local communities will benefit from it, thanks to the co-operation with local partners and because of the dissemination strategies that we are going to implement.

Project Website

https://bwallspwalls2018.wordpress.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 78107,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

IIS ANTONIETTI & Country: IT

Project Partners

• IES VEGA BAJA
• Geniko Lykeio Neas Kydonias
• Kopernikus-Gymnasium