Inspired by health Erasmus Project

Project Title

Inspired by health

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: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Health and wellbeing; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Inspired by Health was a two-year project by Alppilan lukio (Helsinki, Finland), Bischöfliche Gymnasium (Graz, Austria), Nuestra Señora de Pilar (Valencia, Spain) and Gymnasieskolan Vipan (Lund, Sweden). The project was created out of concern of the students’ physical and mental well-being and its effect on their academic achievements, and we wished to cut the school dropout rate.

The main purpose of the project was to make the students more aware of the factors affecting their health, thus helping them to achieve better study results. The topics were nutrition, sports, mental health and active citizenship. These factors form a circle: when you eat healthy, do sports and are mentally balanced, you have the strength and the willingness to help others and to be active in society. Also, being balanced improves the students’ self-esteem and they are able to set themselves higher goals in school.

We included as many students (aged 16-20) in the project as possible. The total number of students actively working in the project was ca. 100. In addition, 20-30 teachers worked for the project. We collaborated with numerous non-school organisations, companies and parties during every meeting: specialised lecturers, sports clubs, voluntary organisations etc. We also included our own schools (ca 4000 students) and even primary schools and disabled children in the program by organising them events.

The project was built to have one semester working with a specific theme. We started with nutrition in fall 2017 (Helsinki), followed by physical exercise in spring 2018 (Graz), mental health in fall 2018 (Valencia) and the final topic was active citizenship in spring 2019 (Lund). The content of the meeting was, in short, following: in Helsinki, the students learned eg. how to build a healthy diet. In Graz, the students got to try out many different kinds of sports and present sports that are typical to their countries. The theme of the third meeting in Valencia was mental health. The students took part in different workshops that aimed at improving mental well-being, eg. laughter therapy, mindfulness and learning cooperation by attending escape room. Our last meeting was in Lund with the topic active citizenship. The students got to know several voluntary organizations and the previous three topics were also combined in the program. During the different meetings the students also wrote multilingual glossaries on nutrition/ cooking, sports and voluntary work.

Though the meetings only lasted a week in each country, we worked with the core groups long before and after them. This involved eg. conducting surveys, preparing videos, organizing workshops for other students, listening to lectures and presenting the project to others – the schools, other schools, in the media (tv, newspapers, teachers’ unions’ magazine) etc.

After each meeting, the participating students answered a feedback survey about the week, and so we were able to monitor the benefits. According to the results, the students now know more about a healthy way of living and they feel that the project has increased their knowledge on eg. healthy nutrition and its effect on their bodies. Overall, the student feedback was highly positive as for the informative part of the project as well as the project and its activities overall. The students have gained cultural and social capital due to spending a week in a foreign family and working with others in different countries. Their language and ICT skills have also improved and their self-esteem has increased and they are less afraid of giving a presentation in a foreign language.

We have involved not only the students of our four schools but also primary school students and disabled children in form of workshops and beneficiary events. Our schools have organised eg. a sports event for disabled and primary school children as well as a “preparing healthy snack” session for primary school children. Also, all schools organised an event for voluntary work eg. gathering toys for children seeking asylum, a soup kitchen and in Lund, the whole school worked to collect as much money as possible to the Music Help, which has now distributed these to those in need in Kenya and Lebanon.

The project has actively been presented in various media and the participants have also kept our schools well aware of how the project is proceeding. The project has been in a few newspapers, in the Finnish teachers’ unions’ magazine and also on TV in Spain. We were also invited to tell about our project in a national Erasmus+ meeting in Helsinki. On school level we have used Instagram, Facebook, school blogs and morning assemblies to inform other students and teachers.

The teachers involved have also learned a lot from each other. We now have a better insight on how things are done in other schools/ countries and our ICT and organising skills have improved. All in all, we have had a great group, which has worked very well together.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119955 Eur

Project Coordinator

Alppilan lukio & Country: FI

Project Partners

• FEMDL- Ntra Sra del Pilar
• Gymnasieskolan Vipan
• Bischöfliches Gymnasium Augustinum