Open Minds Open Borders Erasmus Project

Project Title

Open Minds Open Borders

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: Pedagogy and didactics; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The project ‘Open Minds Open Borders’ reflects our primary concern which is to ensure that young people develop more inclusive and tolerant attitudes to those from other cultures and of other beliefs throughout Europe. Implicit within the project title is the question of how to address difference in a positive and affirmative way. Through collaborative working, students will have opportunities to learn more about other cultures, not just from those who are born and bred within Europe, but from those who have become European citizens for a variety of reasons, such as war, persecution or poverty. Through this collaboration their minds will be opened to the value of diversity, and thus borders will be broken down and become unimportant.

Alongside these intentions is the belief that students need to be truly ready for the digital world in which they will live and work as adults, and the project approaches this from the point of view of embedding ’21st Century Skills’. The starting point is the video ‘Shift Happens’ (https://youtu.be/emx92kBKads). This highlights the importance of ensuring the young people have a range of skills, be they cultural, physical and/or intellectual, with which to approach the 21st century way of life.

The project will take the format of transnational project meetings of 3-5 days to prepare activities for a student exchange which will take place approximately six weeks later. The six co-ordinators and subject specialists will meet in the host country to plan activities focused around specific topics, such as digital media, drama, the environment, history and politics, vocational education, languages and the use of ICT. A range of innovative and focused activities will be planned.

On returning to their schools, the co-ordinator and the subject specialist will work with a group of students to research and prepare for the exchange week. Each exchange week will have an outcome, such as a documentary, a piece of devised drama, a research project. In this way, students will have opportunities to look more closely at the concept of ‘borders’ and how to remove them, whilst at the same time developing a range of 21st century skills. The project will also enable both students and teachers to learn more about other countries and their cultural, political, social, religious and philosophical approaches, and they will have opportunities to meet new people, improve communication skills and generally broaden their outlook. In this respect we believe the project will be enriching for all. 2-3 of the students (more if self-funded) will then visit the host school to deliver the project to the other partners.

Each phase of the project will be thoroughly evaluated and the results published in a teacher’s handbook, which will be disseminated via the internet, conferences, seminars and workshops, inset, assemblies and presentations to the partners’ schools, local, national and international schools and other stakeholders, thus ensuring thorough dissemination, impact and sustainability beyond the end of the funding period.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 113253 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bennett Memorial Diocesan School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Eduard-Stieler-Schule Fulda
• Visser ‘t Hooft Lyceum
• Nya högstadiet i Ryd
• Imatran yhteislukio
• Liceo Scientifico “G.Galilei”