Happy People Will Change the World Erasmus Project

Project Title

Happy People Will Change the World

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The world with its quick and demandings dynamics put all of us into stressful situations daily. People have difficulties to manage life’s challenges, they struggle to find joy in every day routines. Scientific researches prove there is more and more depression and other health issues among youngsters, the society is becoming passive and apatic. At the same time school, as a polygon of different social interests, demands of authorithies, children’s needs, teachers’ ideals and expectations, parents’ ambitions, … just reflects the situation in all its complexity. Children are emotionally unequipped, behavioral, concentrational problems, aggression is rising. Dissatisfaction in bigger or smaller extend is present on all parties included – children, teachers and parents.

With our project we wanted to react on that. The team consisted of 6 primary and secondary schools from 6 countries: Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Spain, Portugal and Latvia, students, included in our project were from 4 to 18 years old. The goal of our project was to increase the levels of happiness about school and life in general in pupils and also in teachers. Our intention was to bring new qualities in school to make a step toward an emotionaly healthier, more aware, and therefore happier individual. Happy people strive for personal improvement and lifelong learning, they are more creative, empathic, involved citizens who can literally change the world – for better! – so our title HAPPY PEOPLE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD explains it all.

So how to teach so-called happiness, how to bring the subject in school?

We saw and still see an answer in mindfulness concept which approaches us in a hollistic way and gives importance to all segments of a human being, paying attention not only to a brain but also to person’s body, emotions, feelings, sensations, senses, charachter qualities. We can’t change the reality but we can work on ourselves, equip ourselves with necessary tools and skills to cope with reality and change our perspective and attitude towards the situations around. With systematic emotional education we thaught pupils to recognize the emotions in themselves and others, to accept them and to gain necessary strategies for expressing them in right manner. We used different media like movies, cartoons, poems to approach the subject and later gained knowledge and tools via discussions, groupwork, peer to peer learning, individual introspection, social games. With different meditations, breathing and concentration exercises pupils were shown various techniques to calm down, release stress, increase the awareness of body and senses, to focus and concentrate or simply just to break the routine and bring some fun into the class activity.

Creative expressions through writing, crafts, art, music, movement, theatre brought to light different results (poems, esseys, drawings, motivational quotes, international gardens, sculptures, motion videos, games, multi-sensory cards, …) but the most important result and dissemination tool was our webpage with all the content and results available to the public with 2 printed brochures, one on the emotional work and other as a collection of key mindfulness, breathing and concentration exercises practised during the project, both also in digital form freely available on the internet. All our work was presented monthly also in school Happy Corners.

The impact of our work was absolutely noticeable – students increased self-awareness, emotional regulation and work focus, they learned how to feel, observe, see, listen, be patient, see the value of life as it unfolds, find something positive also in unpleasant situations. They showed more empathy and understanding for temselves and others and they connected better with a group as well as with teachers. All activities also strengthened their personal qualities like joy for learning, compassion, curiosity, creativity, … which all contributed to a bigger sense of personal happiness and satisfaction.

The important part of our project was to involve teachers in all these processes as participants, target group and carriers of activities because as key factors of all our class actions their happiness was (is) of great importance. If a teacher is happy, miracles happen. They gained important skills and competences on methodology related to our project topics but through mindfulness practice they also worked on themselves and their happiness, so they went through their own personal transformation which brought them more satisfaction about their job, better efficiency, better connection with pupils, more confidence and more self-compassion.

This project certainly filled us all with joy. We started to build a philosophy of a new modern school. We will use new competences and experiences in further work, trying to add new in the search for learning enviroment which will be responsive to the dynamics of time and especially to the needs of all actors involved in education.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 144530 Eur

Project Coordinator

OSNOVNA SOLA KOLEZIJA & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas da Trofa
• C.P. EL CASTELL
• ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO STATALE M. L. KING
• Ezernieku vidusskola
• Zespol Szkol Spolecznych