Earth Charter Erasmus Project

Project Title

Earth Charter

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; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law)

Project Summary

The participating schools have jointly chosen the project “Earth Charter” because 3 of the schools in previous projects noticed, that the pupils still don’t regard this subject as very important and vital for their and our future

The Earth Charter is an international document on fundamental values and principles trying to contribute to a just, lasting and peaceful global society in the 21st century and is divided in 4 pillars:
I Respect and concern for the world community (UK),
II ecological integrity (ES);
III social and economic justice (LT);
IV Democracy, non-violence and peace (NL).
The 4 pillars are divided among the 4 schools.

The world population in the last decade has stabilized, and now Environmental protection is an important issue as people, especially European people, want to leave a habitable planet for our descendants. Also of importance are our fundamental values of human rights, equitable human development, social and economic justice, democracy, respect and care for the community of life and the importance of living in a peaceful global society.

Our agreed objectives and activities are:
1. We want the students to respect and care for the Community of Life with understanding, compassion and love. Eg. by visiting and guided tour in the House of Humaity in The Hague.
2. To develop the ability to show respect to the Earth and life in all its diversity. Eg. by taking part in chat forms with topics such as poverty, social justice ideals, equity and equality etc.
3. To understand the importance of a democratic society that is just, participatory, sustainable and peaceful. Eg. through a guided tour in the town hall in Liverpool, the House of Representatives in The Hague, and the former concentration camp Vught(NL).
4. To investigate ways in which students can secure the Earth’s beauty for present and future generations. Eg. By visiting several historical cities and National Parks. In Spain pupils will participate in a workshop on the importance of conserving the countryside
5.To design ways of protecting their environment and saving energy. Eg. in Spain, students will design ways of protecting their environment and saving energy by participating in activities in a Smart City. By partcipating in chat forums on these topics such as energy saving.
6. To develop skills to eradicate poverty and ways to promote gender equality, access to education, health care and economic opportunity as a right for all. Eg. pupils will develop skills to be able to facilitate the eradication poverty and ways to promote gender equality,
7. To gain knowledge and develop the students values and skills needed to live a sustainable way of life and power. Eg. pupils will deliver a workshop about debating, make a vlog a photobook and a presentation. The Europass guarantees the sustainability of the whole experience they have gained
Because the spoken language is English the students will also increase their competence in this language and they learn to work in a digital era.

• To achieve our objectives we need to work in partnership with other schools in other countries, using their knowledge and expertise in the various aspects of exploring and disseminating values of the Earth Charter.
• To bring together students from four different countries and cultures. This will allows us to share and experience the fundamental values of our global society and develop the importance of the values of the Earth Charter.
• To develop multilingual links between the four countries for both staff and students. The focus and delivery of the project will be in English and this will allow students and staff at all linguistic levels to interact and develop their language skills. Although the main language expressed in this project will be in English, there is an appreciation and consideration for the range of languages to be spoken and developed from the participating countries.
• A further aim of this project is to provide the students with a platform to enhance themselves as global citizens in a diverse world. Staff and students with gain a greater understanding of their global footprint and this will impact upon future generations.
• This project will strongly aim to develop an awareness and knowledge of how to use social entrepreneurship to treat others and the environment with dignity and respect, so that they actively make a contribution to sustaining harmony in the world.

The outcomes will continue to develop beyond the two years allocated for the project.
In the long-term, changing teaching methodology and incorporating aspects of the project activities will result in permanent benefits for our schools; the dissemination of our materials will help many others benefit from our project outcomes.
The results will be promoted where possible; school websites, local media, Facebook, e-Twinning, Instagram, Twitter, the international app of Earth Charter “MAPting” etc.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 79243,35 Eur

Project Coordinator

2College Durendael & Country: NL

Project Partners

• IES SANTA CATALINA DE ALEJANDRIA
• Siauliu “Sauletekio” gimnazija
• The Whitby High School