Citius – Altius – Fortius Erasmus Project

Project Title

Citius – Altius – Fortius

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT:
The project “Citius-Altius-Fortius” was directed by France. It regroups 3 schools of those countries who can participate in Erasmus programs (Spain, France and Italy) including the Collège Anatole France des Pavillons-sous-Bois. The French and Italian middle schools had no prior experience in international exchange programs.

NUMBERS AND PROFIL:
The participants of the 3 schools came from different social backgrounds:
-The Spanish students were from middle-class families and had had English classes since primary school. Thus, their level of English was better than the other 2 schools.
-The Italian students were from disadvantaged families.
-The French students reflected the evolution of its school’s population: certain middle-class students and a growing number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

OBJECTIVES:
For the teachers:
-Improve the quality of teaching.
-Develop a European vision within these 3 schools.
-Acquire knowledge and competence in managing international projects.
-Teach in English: certain activities were led in English, especially the first 2 years when we had more opportunities to work with the students in school.
-Develop language skills in other languages.
-Develop partnerships with representatives of the Federations “handisport” and Pavillons-sous-Bois’ Photoclub.

For the students:
-Succeed in making a project in English.
-Become actors in their learning.
-Develop linguistical competence in other languages (English, Spanish and Italian).
-Develop their scholarly ambitions.
-Discover other cultures and bridge international relationships. The schools organized cultural excursions and the families took to heart to show their cities and sites of interest.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITES MADE:

2016-2017
Module 1: discover other countries and their educational systems.
-Logo contest: the logo of a French student was chosen by all the project’s students.

Module 2: each school produced a work on the history of the Olympic Games and a work on a sport practiced in its country.
-initiation to pala
-initiation to different handisports including blind soccer with Yvan Wouandji.
-meetings and discussions with professional athletes.

2017-2018
Module 3: charity race: organization of a race for classes with Erasmus students. During this race the students used the application for solidarity running “KM for Change.”

Module 4: the Olympic Games that marked History.
Creation of a game to learn the dates, cities and countries hosting the Summer Olympic Games. The students researched famous Games such as Berlin in 1936, Mexico City in 1968…

2018-2019
Module 5: the candidature of a city for the Olympic Games.
The students worked on the candidature of a city responding to 3 questions:
Why organize the Olympic Games? How? What consequences?

Module 6: Restitution and valuation of the project
We first planned this module to be a closing ceremony. For several reasons, we had to modify the final result of this module. Among the reasons were the disappointing results of the National Final Exam in 2017-2018. Mrs Michel, the Principal, asked us to focus and work on the final oral exam with the 19 students involved in the project who chose the Erasmus + project as the subject of their oral exam.

RESULTS AND IMPACT ACHIEVED
Only 2 students left the project in the middle of this last year, one for disciplinary reasons and the other one for personal reasons.
This project succeeded in uniting the students and their parents over the long term. Among the 28 students involved in the project, 26 were in their fourth year at school and 2 were in their third year. 73 % of the students have decided to make an oral presentation of their Erasmus + experience over the 3 years. Some of them even took the opportunity to speak in English or in Spanish during their final presentation.
The teachers not directly involved in the project have been playing an active part during the Erasmus + week in France with the pen pals.

LONG TERM BENEFITS
Thanks to this project, our school became more attractive to the local community.
The teachers’ skills have been widely promoted by the school managers.
We plan to create a European section using CLIL teaching.

MOBILITIES
The students started travelling during the second year of the project.
We organized 3 trips every year.
Every student went to the 2 other countries.
Every family hosted two pen pals.
During the Erasmus + weeks, each host school was visited by 2 groups of 15 students from the other 2 countries. Cultural, social, integration and academic activities have been done. The students were also able to practice different sports and share their work about the different modules.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117090 Eur

Project Coordinator

Collège Anatole France & Country: FR

Project Partners

• IES Blas de Otero
• Scuola Media Salvatore Di Giacomo Qualiano