Europe is ours! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Europe is ours!

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The achievements of the European Union – peace, a common internal market, open borders – are taken for granted by many students. But far too few students are actively involved in European ideals. In times of Brexit and a shift to the right in many European countries, it is all the more important to make these achievements tangible and to recall what is at stake for us if we do not develop and cultivate Europe together: This is why “Europe is ours!” became the title of our project.

The goal of this project is to enable young Europeans from Germany, Poland and France to gain new experiences with a diverse community of young people from neighboring European countries, to reduce prejudice, to make historical connections tangibly experiential and thus to take responsibility for their future-oriented interactions with one another. We want to raise awareness of the solidarity and commitment of young people as an essential condition for a peaceful future in a united Europe.

For a total of 480 pupils between the ages of 15 and 17, from two schools each from France, Germany and Poland, learn from each other and their common European history as a time of differences and wars over a period of two years and exchange views on their common values, ideals, goals and dreams as young Europeans.

This bright outcome should be shared in the media – for example in explanatory videos and films – and thus serve as a basis for discussion of all participating groups. In addition to intercultural exchange, our main focus is on the acquisition of foreign language and key competences in media. In addition, such ambitions are well-suited to be made available to the broad public in order to raise awareness to a common European identity even outside of the parameters of this project.

In the first phase of the project, which focuses on the existing involvement of the pupils, the participants will first create slide shows to introduce themselves and to get to know each other in terms of their language and cultural background. For this purpose, pupils will complete surveys, the results of which will be exhibited for all partner schools in audiovisual form.

The second phase of the project focuses on war graves commission exemplary as an opportunity for intercultural engagement. Here, soldiers’ biographies are first traced back in order to approach shared European history. At a meeting in Normandy, the pupils produce explanatory videos (Common-Craft-films) about soldiers’ fates. This will be followed by a written documentation of the first year of the project.

The third phase of the project, which coincides with the second year of the project, focuses on active EU citizenship. Again, the partners introduce themselves since the participating learning groups are changed. Under the title “Europe as Opportunity – History and Perspective” the previous results are summarized in a padlet. In preparation for the film production, storyboards for the project title “Europe is ours!” are created and discussed via e-twinning. The image films created as part of our meeting in Kreisau are shown to the school public and placed on the school’s homepages. The learning groups create accompanying information, such as flyers or home page articles that highlight the regional opportunities for young people to become more involved in Europe.

This is concurrently the central goal of this project: to empower students to stand up for and be involved in their Europe. It is desirable to sustain a positive fundamental attitude to actively participate in voluntary services in other European countries. We are convinced that this project will help young Europeans to become more aware of their European identity and to understand themselves as part of a European community. Because: Europe is ours!

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 157688 Eur

Project Coordinator

IGS Langenhagen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace nr X im Stefanii Sempolowskiej
• Gymnasium Ernestinum
• Zespol Szkol Ponadgimnazjalnych w Karpaczu
• Lycee Francois premier
• lycée Jacques Prévert