Hand in hand – together against school dropout in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Hand in hand – together against school dropout in Europe

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits)

Project Summary

Due to the already existing contacts of the schools in Portugal, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands there was already a trusting cooperation in various European projects. The exchange led to the idea that, despite their differences, the schools described a common problem: pupils are at risk of dropping out of school due to school failure, school absenteeism or a lack of a social network. Every school was already pursuing approaches (concepts, supporting structures, student projects) to counter this. However, all schools sought to increase the effectiveness and expansion of the existing programs. The diversity of the schools was the key resource used for the innovative design and development of the schools. The new partner schools from Denmark (newcomer) and Austria were specifically searched for via the eTwinning portal and also mentioned the problematic field of dropping out of school and offered possible solutions.

The six participating schools are secondary schools / comprehensive schools with the same age structure (11 to 18 years). All have a coordinating European team, a counselling service with social workers and are located in a small town or rural environment. The project participants from all social classes took special courses (elective courses, working groups, European courses). A maximum of 30 students attended these courses, which were open to all students in the school community. Two teachers and five pupils who were actively involved in design took part in each of the AULs. Via eTwinning the participants were networked beyond the boundaries of their own school.

The aim of the project was to step together – hand in hand – against dropping out of school in Europe, to achieve the basis for a successful, independent adult life for our students in Europe through social integration and loyalty to school. Self-efficacy and resources were shown and used at student and teacher level in order to increase identification with their own school and to use it as the basis for school success. Through the project, the pupils and teachers have experienced innovations for designing their living space “school”, which can be implemented in the respective schools. The social integration in the individual school and in Europe was consciously experienced (especially by young people to whom this field of experience is usually inaccessible). Increasing the participation in school life and lessons inspires individual success in class and offers concrete incentives for a successful life concept in the protected area of Europe.

The activities of the project were on three levels: teacher training (exchange of concepts / workshops), short-term exchange for school groups (workshop design, school presentation, consolidation of results / implementation) and Europe (exploration of the partner cities as an active European, joint campaign “Every school day counts!” ).

When selecting the methodology, all levels and social classes were taken into account, in that concrete experience was set as the starting point for the work. The project’s structure and implementation followed the think-pair-share principle: 1) inventing solutions at home and in the project 2) discussing, sharing, preparing for dissemination during the AULs 3) disseminating and introducing innovative ideas at home. This three-step process was used in the AULs: observing at school, taking part in workshops and experiencing Europe. – The project was bilingual (English-German / English-German mother tongue) in order to take as many students as possible into the project. The workshops were also offered parallel in two languages. The concepts were exchanged in English and translated into the mother tongue.

The result is the template for innovation and implementation of the solution approaches for use / multiplication in the own school system as a concept template, mind map, PowerPoint, experience documentation (quikfilm, posters, PowerPoint presentations). All results and reports were posted directly in the online portfolio on eTwinning and linked at the respective school homepage. For the ongoing campaign “Every school day counts!” surveys, statistics, flyers, posters and presentations were created for dissemination.

Because of the corona pandemic, the content of the encounters, which had to be omitted due to Covid-19, was presented in the virtual room of the Twinspace.

This was we went “hand in hand – together against dropping out of school in Europe” for three years by exchanging good examples of our work in schools, facing up to the challenge of school absenteeism together, actively shaping our schools for the future and actively helping our students experience and bring in a successful, independent life as active Europeans based on school success, especially looking beyond the period of the pandemic restrictions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 146874,98 Eur

Project Coordinator

Oberschule Westercelle & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Copernicus SG
• Neue Mittelschule Pettenbach
• Agrupamento Escolas Marinha Grande Poente
• Irstaskolan 7-9
• Vestre Skole