Eudaimonia – Wellbeing Erasmus Project

Project Title

Eudaimonia – Wellbeing

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: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

“ Eudaimonia – Wellbeing, a word which in Greek philosophy means achieving the best conditions possible for a human being, in every sense – not only happiness, but also virtue, morality, and a meaningful life.” This quote highlights the main goal of our project Eudaimonia – Wellbeing very well.

The main reasons that started us planning the project were that the link between our schools and the surrounding communities and the environment seemed to be somewhat lacking, secondly, students’ motivation had declined and their results had deteriorated, especially in mathematics and science, and thirdly, there were sleeping disorders and health problems, and issues resulting from working at computers all day.

Our main goals were to make our schools more closely connected to the surrounding community, and make our students more aware of their ecological footprint and involve them more in taking care of their environment. Another important goal was to increase their motivation and provide positive learning experiences. Lastly, our goal was to boost both students’ and teachers’ mental and physical well being, and give them tools to cope with stressful situations that they will need in further studies and future work life.

The participating countries were Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Azores from Portugal and the United Kingdom, all from diverse geographical locations.The students’ age ranged from secondary school pupils to high school students. During the two years of the Eudaimonia project, 2016-2018, all the schools introduced versatile wellbeing activities into their everyday school work that affected both the students’ and teachers’ mental and physical wellbeing. Another important part involved the wellbeing of our fellow citizens, especially those that were in an underprivileged situation, and we shared ideas and took part in many charity activities. Motivation was boosted by implementing new applications and methods into science and by doing cross-curricular teaching. The importance of being aware and taking care of our environment was highlighted by planting trees and plants in the school yard, arranging clean-up days and using applications to make the school premises more appealing.

All in all, there were five meetings, two of them virtual ones, and two Teaching/ Training Activities. The first one was the Urban Nature Activity in the UK in March, 2017, where five students and three science teachers from each country spent a week in the UK studying the urban nature, learning to use new geographical applications, learning science and healthy living habits in different style lessons, and making field trips into interesting locations.The second activity was the Eudaimonia – Wellbeing Activity in Italy in October, 2017, where five students and three teachers from each participating country spent a week in Italy learning how to make and edit a video, and had many wellbeing activities and field trips in the surrounding area, and finally produced two videos of the week’s events. These videos and all the other materials produced during the project are available at https://eudaimoniasalo.wordpress.com .

As for the results and longer term benefits of the project, here is a quote from the headteacher of the Finnish coordinating school,
“The Erasmus project Eudaimonia coordinated by Salo High School succeeded in its entirety. The project underlined the well-being of students and teachers, which today is one of the biggest individual challenges in teaching and learning across Europe. The project allowed many good practices to spread between partner schools and become established, permanent methods. Another significant achievement of the project was the chance given to a number of teachers and students to travel in the EU creating new networks and relationships, and enhancing both the participants’ understanding of foreign cultures and ways of working. The enthusiasm and willingness of the participants to make an effort for the best possible result was outstanding, and this also inspired more students and teachers without previous experience to get involved in international activities. As a result of the Eudaimonia project, the partner schools now have an effective network of schools in the EU, which can greatly facilitate when planning further projects.”

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 82712,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Salon lukio & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Edith Stein Catholic Academy Trust
• Budapest XVII. Kerületi Körösi Csoma Sándor Általános Iskola és Gimnázium
• Escola Básica e Secundária da Madalena
• IISS “LUIGI RUSSO”