European Movement to Be Responsible Active Citizens Everywhere Erasmus Project

General information for the European Movement to Be Responsible Active Citizens Everywhere Erasmus Project

European Movement to Be Responsible Active Citizens Everywhere Erasmus Project
September 14, 2022 12:00 am
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Project Title

European Movement to Be Responsible Active Citizens Everywhere

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: Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The EMBRACE (European Movement to Be Responsible Active Citizens Everywhere) project was a direct response to the then happenings in Europe and sought to promote social, civic and intercultural competences. It necessitated and resulted in intercultural dialogue, the discussion of basic democratic values and fundamental rights in a forum similar to the EU Parliament, whilst giving our students a platform to debate issues such as social inclusion (tolerance vs intolerance) and non-discrimination (human rights). They were encouraged to become active citizens through the use of critical thinking skills and media literacy. The 7 participant schools (Croatia, England, Finland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain) represented a European journey through democracy and each added a different dimension/perspective to the project. Through cooperative/collaborative work, the students and adults involved in the project scrutinised the main principles of a democracy: freedom of speech, political tolerance, accountability, equality, human rights, and, the vital ingredient, citizen participation. All these aims were accomplished by first establishing a ‘Student Voice’ platform (called the European Junior Parliament) in every school in the partnership, for the duration of the project. This formed the ‘umbrella’ under which the rest of the planned tasks were conducted for the LTTA, as it was a very useful tool for gauging the mind-set of our learners at a given time. During the visit in the UK, a demonstration was given of the school Pupil Parliament, to be adapted for the EJP. Then, a visit to the Houses of Parliament in London for a guided tour to experience the real arena for debate and an opportunity to see a live session. In Croatia, there was a guided visit to the Parliament in Zagreb and, in Spain, a visit to the Asamblea Regional in Cartagena. During every mobility, apart from the creative collaborative activities such as making banners, clay puzzles, logos, or writing lyrics, there were the donations for the charity “shoe box/parcel” (in keeping with the Being Kind theme) as well as the cultural exchange through the European International Lunch: each country brought samples of their national foods for everyone to taste, compare and promote them. Staying in host families the students learned first-hand about their culture, the differences and similarities in lifestyles and so developed awareness of the cultural diversity in Europe. Afterwards, they wrote a review of the visit. We also had opportunities to visit other places of interest (London (UK), Taormina (I), Cartagena (S), Zagreb (HR), Rovaniemi (F), and Miranda do Douro (P ) ) to deepen our knowledge of the country and culture. The other project activities included the Project Logo, Active Citizen Newspaper Articles (research and posters about Human Rights), Patriotism vs Nationalism (survey and debate with some historical background), A short-story about a Long Journey (research of the history of Democracy), Being Human (sharing acts of Kindness), the eTwinning project ‘Embrace Art for Humanity’ (study of films and literary texts matching the topics of the project to write collaborative alternative versions), the Human Rights Tree (posters and debate), and In Their Shoes (surveys on the impact of migration and creation of diaries of migrants). In total, approximately over 2,000 students and teachers contributed to this project. The main target groups were those at most risk of being marginalised in our schools and local communities, but we also focused on the main cohorts who are in danger of becoming xenophobic. We wanted to engage our students in the democratic process as it is through their active participation that they will evolve as the rightful citizens of a free society tomorrow. To maintain regular contact with each other – teachers as well as students – the use of ICT tools was of paramount importance and with it came the urgency to safe-guard our youngsters from the dangers of the internet. During the transnational meetings the teachers imparted and received training from each other to update our own professional portfolios, sharpen our skills and strategies as practitioners to deliver improved teaching to our students: “Google Classroom and Google Apps for Education“, “Padlet”, “How drama lessons can be useful in improving the students’ performance in class”, “Project Based Learning methodologies “, “The Finnish School system”, “An electronic exam”, and “Food insecurity food charity”. As far as outcomes of the project are concerned, all its activities, training, resources, mobilities, evaluations and dissemination are visible to everyone via the project website, on e-Twinning and will be on the “Erasmus+ Project Results” platform.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 153120 Eur

Project Coordinator

Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School & Country: UK

Project Partners

  • IV Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im.B.Prusa
  • Agrupamento de Escolas de Macedo de Cavaleiros
  • LICEO SCIENTIFICO STATALE SEGUENZA
  • Osnovna skola Visnjevac
  • IES Ramon y Cajal
  • Kiimingin lukio