Culture, Curriculum and Communications Erasmus Project

Project Title

Culture, Curriculum and Communications

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: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND: The project connects three primary schools in Lincoln with three primary schools in or near Elblag in Poland. The communities have collaborated since 2008.

OBJECTIVES:
1. ADULT EDUCATION AND STAFF TRAINING:
School staff from both countries compared and contrasted key themes:
– Education culture – centralisation and independence; recruitment and retention; diversity; migration
– Communication – teaching core skills of literacy, numeracy, science and ICT competencies
This was mostly done informally through classroom observation and discussion rather than formal presentations
2. SCHOOL EDUCATION:
Pupils collaborated on a series of activities relevant to the curriculum and to the communities in which they live.
– Year One – to compare medieval heritage and traditional stories
– Year Two – to study the four seasons and compare related festivals and celebrations. This was very disrupted

PARTICIPANTS;
STAFF: a combination of senior leaders, class teachers, teaching assistants and others were involved., The coordinators in each school remained the same and participated in all meetings.
PUPILS: aged 9 to 11 at the start of the school year in September: UK Years 5 and 6; Poland – Grades 4 and 5). However, for widerlimpact all pupils in all six schools (UK 4-11: PL 7-14) were made aware of the project through school assemblies and other sharing methods, such as wall displays.
The pandemic was disruptive.The programme was completed by pupils who had been in UK Year 4 and Poland Grade 3 when it started in 2019

ACTIVITIES: These included:

ADULT EDUCATION: Contacts were initially through email and then face to face with colleagues for key leaders in the two countries in 2018-2019. Later there were meetings dedicated to teaching, learning and staff development, one in each country.

In mobility 1 (January 2019) each English host school arranged for the Polish visitors to visit every class to absorb the atmosphere. Each made a formal presentation and enabled professional discussions shared information about English schools, timetables, lessons and even how schools integrate new starters. Polish members of staff based in Lincoln, spoke about the similarities and differences between educational settings and provided linguistic support.

The same structure was followed in mobility 3 (March 2019) when the Polish schools hosted their British counterparts in Warminsko-Mazuria.

After a year’s gap caused by the pandemic Teams meetings took place in May 2021 in preparation for the virtual pupil mobility.

SCHOOL EDUCATION: Children learnt a great deal from interacting with each other, sharing experiences and problem-solving.

Year One on medieval heritage went largely to plan but Year Two on the four seasons, festivals and celebrations was disrupted. Moreover, when the pandemic eliminated the second pair of exchange visits, there was a greater emphasis on recording and communicating.

In Year Three from December 2020 to January 2021, children shared letters to each school over Christmas time and through to the New Year. They exchanged Christmas greetings and discussed winter weather. In the virtual Mobility, May 2021, UK children shared some experience of Ramadan and preparing for Eid. A boy from MAPS, a participant in the 2019 mobility, was fasting. Polish schools shared festivals and special days. This international communication was in fact mirrored by children in the different schools in each country because they wouldn’t normally have met.

METHODOLOGY: this included staff training through discussion, observation and pedagogical presentations.
Joint class projects such as researching the history of Lincoln Castle which fitted into the existing curriculum were enriched through the partnership; pupils communicating both through traditional methods such as letter-writing and art, modern media e.g. Microsoft Teams meeting and PowerPoint presentations, face-to-face interaction, publication and performance to wider audiences

RESULTS; Adults achieved a better understanding of how the others’ systems work, especially in core skills, management and working with migrant pupils and families, both new arrivals and returnees. Pupils improved particular skills, enjoyed the experience of travelling to somewhere new, and learned how to collaborate with their peers from a different culture speaking a different language to create something e.g. a newspaper and combine to produce webpages, a newspaper and performances.

IMPACT AND POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITS: the impact and benefits were considerable because the activities and mobilities gave a lot of children and adults the opportunity to collaborate and learn together, and thus jointly enhance their understanding of the realities of being global citizens. Brexit and Covid provided further experiences, sadly many of them negative. The pandemic also meant that pupils and teachers learnt resilience, a long term gain.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 91569,37 Eur

Project Coordinator

Monks Abbey Primary School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Bishop King CE Primary School
• Szkola Podstawowa w Lecze
• Lincoln St. Peter at Gowts Primary School
• Zespol Szkol we Fromborku
• Szkola Podstawowa nr 18 im. Franciszka II Rakoczego