Building tomorrow’s school together Erasmus Project

Project Title

Building tomorrow’s school together

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: Cooperation between educational institutions and business; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The project entitled « Building together tomorrow’s school » was born thanks to a joint thought of the partners on their school systems, and the will of each of them to make them evolve. Meanwhile, we noticed a growing loss of interest for the European institutions by some parts of the population, and this reinforced the collegial work between the partners in order to raise the European citizen conscience of our students.
The main goal was to create and submit a European citizens’ initiative about the school system, written together to the European Commission. This proposition is the reflection of the collaborative work done during the mobilities between the three countries, but also the result of a voting process. In that, the students from the three countries have learnt, beyond the research, argumentation and presentation methods, the law’s mechanism and the work in commissions. The final citizens’ initiative is then the fruit of both an intellectual and experimental works, both constituent of their training as young European citizens.
The run of the project followed the working scheme elaborated beforehand with the partners when we wrote it as much as possible. Indeed, the first step was based on the ambassadors’ experimentations during the first mobilities. The later had the opportunity to discover new systems, news working methods, often far from their own system. This led to a reflexive work on their own system and analysis work on the strengths and weaknesses of each one. This step also incited the French school, with a view to broadcasting the project within the whole school and as announced beforehand, to organize two thematic days: a “Swedish day” and a “German day”. These two days were highly successful and appreciated among the staff and students, allowing then the experiment to be collective. The feedbacks, in the form of questionnaires, allowed the students to asses which point could be improved, mainly in terms of food or the use of Information and communications technology.
The mobilities have all been realized as announced, except for the last one which could not take place because of the Covid19 pandemic. The tri-national experiment process during the mobilities in Sweden and in Germany allowed the students to get grips with their respective thematic and topics. However, the weak point remains the communication between the partners during the intermediate phases, probably not enough explained by the teachers, and not imposed by a “real” need of communicating. The fact remains that the students were able to communicate and work together during the mobilities. This complementarity between the students has especially been highlighted during the oral presentations, each of them making their contribution. The second part of the project was about the process to create a law. Thanks to the working strategies developed, the students have experimented this way of working in commissions themselves, from the presentation to the argumentation, and even the debate. In that, the educational objectives set beforehand were reached, and allowed the students to progress in these abilities.
The final activity aiming at electing the citizens’ initiative could take place, but in an online way. The students had the possibility to finalize their work, and present it to all of the partners, along with some “guest stars” during two online sessions. They also proceeded to the vote thanks to digital tools. The proposition which received the most support turns out to be entitled: “Equal treatment for everyone”.
The outcomes obtained are rather encouraging in terms of progression on the working strategies, collaborative work, oral fluency and self-confidence. On a long term, we hope the students who participated in the project will consider mobility as an advantage in their higher education studies or their professional lives.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 85352 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lycée européen & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Östra reals gymnasium
• Markgraefler Gymnasium Muellheim