Sharing our past; shaping our future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sharing our past; shaping our future

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: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

Sharing our past; shaping our future

The aim of the project is to create a European Studies Module that will ensure European study is embedded into teaching and learning in the participating schools as a long-lasting outcome. The module will be designed and written by children after exploring and sharing their past and investigating the needs and possibilities of education in the future. It is a project that will challenge the partnership schools to meet the needs of pupils and staff in an interesting and innovative way.
The project involves six primary schools from England, Spain, Poland, The Netherlands, Finland and Croatia. The children at the schools come from socially diverse backgrounds; many have limited opportunities to travel or communicate outside their locations and many have fewer opportunities than average. The project is a vital element to combat social isolation. The smallest school has just 49 pupils and the largest over 400; the pupils range in age from four to fifteen. The schools recognise that they need to connect these children with the Europe they belong to and encourage them to have ownership of their future education. The schools’ development plans prioritise encouraging independence and ensuring social inclusion; priorities which can be met through this project.
Now, more than ever, countries are examining their own heritage and what it means to be a citizen of a particular country. Through exploring education in the past, pupils will learn how their history is intertwined with how and what they learnt. Welcoming the similarities and valuing the differences between European nations, helps children to embrace positive changes and to make plans for the future which includes an ongoing appreciation of European culture. Additionally by examining education in the past and the ways in which gender, disability, social and cultural differences were, for example, causes for discrimination, pupils will plan for future learning which is focused on integration, social inclusion and equality.

The objectives are:
– to create a European Studies Module
– to develop critical thinking
– to understand the similarities and differences in cultural heritage between the participating countries
– to create a collaborative book about the history of education in the partner countries
– to enhance the access opportunities and participation of disadvantaged learners
– to advance language skills
– to develop ICT and media literacy
– to raise teaching standards through the sharing and confronting of ideas, practices and methods
– to develop the ability of staff to facilitate and implement the teaching of the study module

Alongside developing basic skills for life, pupils and staff need to be able to reach out to the European community in a way that they have not been able to previously, via first hand communication and a better use of technology, ensuring the positive transfer of skills and ideas which can be long-lasting and transformational. The project is designed to equip staff and pupils with all the tools they need to write the European Studies Module.

In order to achieve the objectives, pupils and staff will: undertake historical research; learn new ICT skills; have cross-generational dialogue; think critically about the changes in education and the differences between the participating nations; recreate a day of schooling from the past; collate historical information into an online book; learn games and songs from the past; think critically about national priorities in the past; develop ICT skills to present data; learn about progressive pedagogy from other nations; gain an understanding of current teaching and learning; visit Future Classroom Labs to explore new technologies and ways of teaching and learning; discuss together priorities for the future; design a future classroom and finally, bring together all that they have learnt to write a set of objectives for the studies module. Partnership staff will write an instructional guide for teachers in conjunction with the studies module, so that there is good provision for sustainability. The module will then be taught in the partnership schools through either geography, history, languages or citizenship lessons, or separately as a European studies lesson or club.

As well as the project impacting on participating schools, other schools and their communities, this project and its results could have a positive impact on many groups, such as historical societies, or those with a general interest in European studies, outside education. The European Studies Module, the comparative study and the Cultural Heritage book, will all be available as electronic copies.

A feature of the project will be a commitment by participating schools to share results of their ‘Year three’ – the year in which the module is being taught in schools. Partnership schools will continue their collaboration through the sharing of results and evaluating outcomes into the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 146379,3 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sherborne C of E Primary School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Stichting Confessioneel Onderwijs Leiden
• BEC DE L’ÀGUILA
• Jamalin koulu
• Osnovna skola Vladimir Nazor
• Szkola Podstawowa nr 42 im. Jana Brzechwy w Czestochowie