character training in primary school Erasmus Project

Project Title

character training in primary school

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; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social dialogue

Project Summary

Our project “character training in the primary school” can be seen as part of the superordinate project priority “development of participation in civic and social life”. The aim was to raise the pupils’ awareness of the importance of being part of a society. We want them to take responsibility and act in the interests of our society and contribute a positive part to it.
The project C1 addressed the topic of “self-acceptance”. To realize this, a play was written and performed and a corresponding song (“Du bist spitze, du bist genial” / “You are great”) was sung and taught to the pupils. We translated all the material into English, so that the character training could be realized at our partner school in Bulgaria as well. They were able to adapt the material to their needs. All pupils of the school community were involved in this project. All pupils met to see the play performed. Afterwards the teachers talked about it in their class individually and worked further on the topic.
Departing from our original plan, the project C2 addressed the topic of self-acceptance again. Our partner school enlarged upon the topic to deepen the knowledge about it and raise more awareness of it. The pupils performed a play based on the children’s book “You are special” by Max Lucado. While performing they also sang the song from the C1 activity which they had translated into Bulgarian. The performance was filmed so we were able to show it to our pupils later. Subsequently, the translated play was performed in our school. Additionally, our school realized a character training in which we revisited the earlier topic of courage. The pupils were able to prove their courage when leading each other through an obstacle course while being blindfolded. They got the opportunity to learn about courage in a first-hand experience.
The next project C3 addressed the topic of “tolerance”. Again, a previously created play was performed. This time it was rehearsed with a group of pupils with special needs under the direction of our drama teacher. All pupils of the school community were involved in this project, as the play was performed when the whole school community met. Afterwards the teachers talked about it in their class individually and worked further on the topic. Furthermore, a song (“Du bist du und ich bin ich” / “You are you and I am me”) was rehearsed prior to the assembly with all the pupils and was sung at the assembly. We translated the material into English, so that the character training could be realized at our partner school in Bulgaria as well. Of course, they were able to adapt the material to their needs.
Because of the Covid 19 pandemic, the last project C4 could not be realized.
We are planning on making use of the created material in the future when we revisit the topics of the character training. Character training and Christian values as such are implemented into our school’s programme and a recurring theme in our curriculum. We gathered material on different values for further use. The material we created for our character trainings on “self-acceptance” and “tolerance” are part of this collection. At our school, character training mostly takes place in religious education lessons, or when the need arises to address a certain topic.
At the moment we do not know how or if our partner school is planning on using the material in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 24778 Eur

Project Coordinator

August-Hermann-Francke-Grundschule Lemgo & Country: DE

Project Partners

• “Chastno osnovno uchilishte Quest” EOOD