Common Ground Erasmus Project

Project Title

Common Ground

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: Integration of refugees; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Social dialogue

Project Summary

The main objective of this project was the integration of marginalised students with a focus on immigrants.
Throughout our project we carried out activities, games and lectures where students had to communicate and work together in order to create a common ground. There were also many opportunities, where they were confronted with the problems of migrants, refugees or foreigners and outsiders. They had the chance to become more sensitive and could act more helpful.

During the short term joint staff training (November 2018) at Ortenbergschule in Germany all partners could experience a school where migrants are actually part of the school community. We organized interviews with experts and also listened to students and parents who told us about their problems.

In Germany the close contact to social workers, helpers and migrants led to the idea of regular meetings. We wanted to have a setting for talking and getting to know each other not connected to school problems from the start, so we set up the Encounter Café. Teachers got more insight in the domestic situation and parents got to know what school is expecting from them. We had positive reactions from all participants but had to stop during Corona. Yet these contacts were very helpful during the Corona time.

In France (March 2019) the school is close to the refugee hotspot in Calais (“Jungle of Calais” – now cleared but still several replacement camps exist). Beside other activities the focus was on aid agencies, problems and living conditions of refugees and their expectations and the motivation of helpers.

At Lycee Jehanne d’Arc in France participants of the ‘Common Ground Project’ realized, that there was not much done for welcoming and helping migrants at school. They contacted local organizations and other teachers from school already involved in helping migrants. Together they created ‘a welcome booklet’ which contains useful information and addresses for migrants and started an opportunity for advice on a more regular basis.

During the meeting in Finland (May 2019) the students experienced to learn words using notes. We presented an application to help with the learning of irregular English verbs.
Then students of each country gave lectures about minorities in their countries, we learned for example about the Swedish, Sami and Romani minorities in Finland.

Puistokadun Koula from Finland started a cooperation with the Kurkijoki Museum (insight on wartime immigration within the country) and the Turku Teacher Training School (information about immigration from abroad in Finland).

In Greece (November 2019) the focus was on direct communication. During the 5 days we had alternating activities at school (such as Diplomats mediation activity or UN experimental games) or went out. For example we visited “Arsis Youth Support Centre” or the historical site of Vergina.
At Gymnasio Efxinoupolis from Greece working on the refugee issue led to a History project which investigated the refugee past of Efxinoupolis, which was originally created as settlement for people who had to leave Bulgaria from 1906 until 1926.

Liceo Artistico Statale Catalano from Italy invited many refugees to talk about their situation during lesson – which was then documented in e-books or videos.

In March 2020 Corona struck all countries. The Project came to a sudden halt.
Before Corona it was our focus to integrate migrants, refugees and outsiders in general. Now it became: maintain or built up social contacts but stay away from each other.
Due to Corona the planned activities could not be carried out. We switched to online activities and changed the focus somewhat to communicate at all.
Using the project to offer possibilities to talk about Corona restrictions and how to overcome them. We could organize two virtual meetings with participants from all schools.

The Virtual Meeting in March included many activities: Surveys (Mentimeter); Virtual treasure hunt (Google Earth); Video Presentations, Quiz (Kahoot); Collecting information (Padlet). The highlight was definitely the “Living Pictures” contest during the third day.

For the Virtual Meeting in May we wanted to get students more actively involved.
We could use separate conference rooms for smaller groups. What we did was: bring students from 5 countries with 5 different languages together, give them motivating tasks and let them more or less work on their own – without teachers.
They had an intense exchange about their wishes, their hopes and expectations.

The planned Travel Diaries (reports from all exchanges) were finished and published as online e-book. Two e-books covering the virtual meetings could be added.
Language skills were definitely promoted through the Corona situation and also the improvement of computer skills.

Project Website

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/75687/home

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 125215,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ortenbergschule Frankenberg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• LICEO ARTISTICO STATALE CATALANO
• ASS TOURQUENNOISE DE GESTION DE L’EIC
• GYMNASIO EFXINOUPOLIS
• Puistokadun koulu