Let´s get fit for Europe ! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Let´s get fit for 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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

In this first school partnership (KA2) primary school project in the regional school administration in Hannover, Germany, we will cooperate with a school in Carlow, Ireland. Exchanges between primary school children are rare, but with shared European ideals we are taking up the challenge. Both schools have benefited from Erasmus projects in the past and all team members have experience in KA1 projects – most recently having worked together on a KA1 project on inclusion.

The EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity (2014-2020) clearly highlights that improved outcomes in child health are possible when regular physical activity and good eating habits are established at an early age. Primary school settings are ideally placed to raise awareness and change behaviours as part of a multi-dimensional approach to child health and education. It is important for member states to share good practice and explore interventions impacts in different settings. Our common project will focus on developing positive relationships to physical activity and healthy food among pupils and their families.

Our age-appropriate approach focuses on the emotional rather than the intellectual aspect of learning. The Sports Topic will utilise a variety of hands-on METHODS for children to exchange ideas, including presenting national sports to each other; sharing ideas about healthy eating; cooking and eating together, sharing recipes and tasting typical foods; and discussing the role of food, sports and exercise in their respective countries.

The main OBJECTIVE of the project is the exchange of good practices: for Carlow ET to improve the involvement in sports and games in a formal and informal context; for Grundschule Wasserkampstrasse to improve the provision and use of ICT in their school.

METHODOLOGY : Experiential learning for all project participants will include pre-planned educational themes assigned to each semester incorporating ideas from the project – games, sports, outdoor activities, instilling a sense of enjoyment and fun when taking part in physical activites. We will also look at healthy eating habits, use of languages and ICT to forge friendships between pupils and staff members in both schools.

Various ACTIVITIES will focus on sports-friendly school concepts, getting to know and actively participating in indoor and outdoor sports, ICT workshops and teaching and learning of foreign languages. There will be two training events with about 10 teachers going abroad in total. They will be from different subject departments and of varying age and experience. The four pupils exchanges will be with 10-12 year olds, with about 45 pupils and 10 accompanying teachers traveling on different occasions in total. Each school will be hosting two sports-related short-term exchanges of pupils. And a long-term teaching assignment of one teacher will be the final activity.
In total, there will be about 750 pupils involved over the course of the project. The PRODUCTS and results will be presented on the Twinspace.

IMPACTS: We feel that the partnership between our primary schools will be instrumental in engaging our young pupils positively with the idea of European cooperation. By focusing on sports and well-being we can establish an age-appropriate approach which isn’t dependent solely on language but on shared European values of respect, sporting behaviour and intercultural learning. This intercultural experience will broaden the horizons of all people involved in the project. It is hoped that by improving the physical health of staff and pupils it will lead to better overall sense of mental health and well-being, something to which both schools attach great importance.

Further BENEFITS: As part of our learning, we hope to work with our pupils and staff to acquire some language proficiency in foreign languages, specifically English for the German pupils and modern foreign languages (MFL) for the Irish pupils. MFL are soon to be introduced to primary schools in Ireland and the school in Carlow would benefit from having a native German teacher work with the children as part of the project.
Teachers from Germany will expand their professional development of CLIL – increasing their use of English language to communicate with pupils in non-core subjects, an initiative which has already been positively received in their school.

This two year project, based on European level collaboration, will have people coming from different cultural, social and religious backgrounds working together. Intercultural and social and emotional learning lead to acceptance and higher tolerance. In these challenging times, that impact cannot be stressed enough. This project could become an example for future school partnerships.We MUST work together for Europe’s future – starting at primary school level. Overall, our schools are better places to teach and learn in from having our shared experiences with our European neighbours.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 52550 Eur

Project Coordinator

Grundschule Wasserkampstraße & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Carlow Town Educate Together National School