FUTURE BEGINS TODAY Erasmus Project

Project Title

FUTURE BEGINS TODAY

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: Access for disadvantaged; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

In the age of globalization, when we have tons of different information, young people often are confused and don’t know what life path should choose. Project “Future begins today” is intended to help them find their strengths, identify weak points – to eliminate them, they have to develop talents, seek ways to develop themselves and ultimately do it to the best of their ability. By the way, we want to prevent early school leaving among pupils, create school-friendly (and teacher-friendly) atmosphere in the school, favor in the environment a model of young European, who is open to the other cultures and people, tolerant, equipped with knowledge and skills, needed to find himself in constantly changing reality, also – in the labor market.

We want to achieve our goals through international co-operation with institutions from 5 countries: Poland, Croatia, Italy, Spain and Greece (they have diagnosed similar problem: early school leaving, reluctance to acquire knowledge, conviction among young people, that there’s no future prospects) through peer prophylaxis. Young people will prevent above problems, by organizing volunteering (for students needed support) by engaging themselves and others in developing passions – writing screenplays, theatrical scenarios, preparing artistic presentations according to project’s topic, participating in competitions, entrepreneurial activities, assertiveness, documenting project activities, submitting proposals for a “friendly school”. All of that will be possible thanks to the trainings (in 4 countries), Skype contacts and social media.

Activities of youth will be supported by pedagogical staff, who during the course of the project will gain new experience about mentioned theme, through participation in trainings in Poland: “Happy teacher = happy student” – how to create friendly atmosphere in the school.
Trainings for pupils as the 5-days classes will be as follows: art workshops, games, classes with specialists, talks, conference, festiwal, discussions with the use of activation techniques and practical actions. The main assumption of making trainings for youth will be cooperation, collaborative learning, assigning tasks to each participant according to his needs and capabilities (eg. for people with disabilities, with SEN), interactions, making relations, triggering joint initiatives to learn about their identity, building plans for the future. We want to bet on partnership, fraternity, the power of common interactions, to remind the original assumptions of the EU, that there are no “better” and “worse” people, only diverse, so learning from each other can be so interesting and inspirational, especially when it comes to the future of young people.

By exploring the cultural heritage of individual countries and regions, students will learn about their cultural identity, answer the question: “who am I”, “where I come from” to come to this, “where am I going”, what are my plans? Learning about the culture of partner countries will contribute to increasing openness to the world, tolerance, and will lead to the transfer of cultural achievements within the EU.

We plan videoconferences for teachers to identify needs, resources, detail the schedule, plan the form, methods, make an evaluation and summarize made actions as well as videoconferences for students in order to exchange experiences and inspiration for activities.

We direct the project not only to pupils and teachers of partner schools (direct participants) but also to parents, local school communities (debates, movie presentation, theater performances), head teachers (events, such as “Talent’s Day”, debates), citizens (flashmob), education employees from the region of partner school (conferences), local companies and enterprises, associations – visits within the career advising topic.

Throughout our partnership, there will be made many teaching materials: scripts, work plans, workbooks, diagnoses of the students, movie “Dreams Come True,” a guidebook for students in English “Plan your future”. These products will be available on FB’s and partner schools’s websites, e-Twinning, Platform Dissemination of Results. Our products will be also: logo of the project, chronicle, promotional materials (leaflets, invitations, posters), PP presentations from particular activities, participation certificates and Europass Mobility .

We hope, that thanks to our project, young people from partner countries will have an idea for themselves, they will become aware of their weaknesses, but above all – valuable citizens of the European Union, fearless looking ahead to adapt to the changing market conditions, realizing their dreams without the worries. The school will become a friendly place for them, where they could find a way to carry out their plans. Products from the project will reach to a wide audience in the EU, becoming an inspiration for further facilities in solving problems of similar nature.

Project Website

https://thefuturebeginstoday.wixsite.com/erasmusplus?fbclid=IwAR0IcdBMR7vdH1T5INb0a6QpfBRZnppwoTZaiQ47LhPX1Y5RSp8Z6uF1UpU

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 125708,99 Eur

Project Coordinator

Specjalny Osrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy w Sieradzu & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Osnovna skola Popovac
• Institut Guillem Catà
• Istituto Tecnico Tecnologico G. Malafarina
• 8o GENIKO LYKEIO TRIKALON