Sounds of the City Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sounds of the City

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: Creativity and culture; Social dialogue; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

ART PROJECT AUDIOGUIDE

The project consists of a collaboration between the subject areas of Art and Language ,
developed by secondary students for other secondary students.

Bertrand Russell college is a school for 1200 students in the age 12-18. The school has adapted internationalization within its curriculum. This is the second year. As a member of the Global Citizen Network we intend to organize an exchange with students abroad. The exchange will help to make the school more international and will encourage colleagues to participate in school partnerships in Europe. The designed programme has a strong focus on English conversation and critical thinking. Both subjects are represented in our school policy. Bertrand Russell College has planned to start as a TTO school in 2020. This exchange with the bilingual school in Madrid is a valuable partnership. In the school policy we mention increasing citizenship. This exchange will contribute to that. We have planned to extend the partnership with a school in Finland and The Baltic States the next years.
The objectives we would like achieve are making the school more international, increasing citizenship and stimulating students to share ideas with peers in Europe. Concrete results would be producing a larger number of participants of the Cambridge English Exam and wanting to produce is an ART PROJECT AUDIOGUIDE, that can be used by students and adults to explain art pieces in the museums. According to these objectives, supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences is a linked priority. The basic skills we would like to acquire are English speaking skills and the key competences such as critical thinking, understanding WHAT? and citizenship. The other priority we mentioned is building capacity for organisation and recognition of learning periods abroad. This priority is mentioned because it is important for colleagues to be encouraged going on exchanges and getting used to an international approach at school. Promotion would work via creating a website or sharing the work on etwinning or social networks and visiting the monuments/museums using the audio guides.

Fifteen students and three teachers will go abroad. The students are around sixteen years old. The profile is secondary school (havo/vwo). The students have to do an assessment and they have to write a motivation letter.
Students of The Bertrand Russell College will join class at IES Francisco de Quevedo and participate in English class. The Dutch students will be hosted in Spanish families. The Spanish students will visit in advance cultural heritage in Madrid and make an audio tour guide of the artworks and places they have visited in the local museums, like Prada. The visiting students use the ART PROJECT AUDIOGUIDE made by their peers to understand what they see and share their own experience. This final product can be used by other students at school and visitors in the local museums. This project as a combination of language and art will encourage the students to observe and think about their observations.
The activity consists of creating audio guides of works of art presented in museums of our cities, or of other monuments and significant buildings. In the case of Madrid, we will analyse works from the Prado, Thyssen-Bonamassa and Reina Sofia museums, as well as other monuments downtown.
The guides will be recorded in English, and the aim will be each student expressing their personal aesthetic experience. The audios should invite to think, question and reflect on the message that the author wants to convey through their work, without providing a concrete answer, but supplying information so that the listeners build up their own interpretation.
By using eTwinning the students get to know each other before the date of exchange. They share stories and photos. Students will be supported in the process by their art teachers.

Participation in this project will contribute to the development of the involved schools in the long-term because participation of this students will affect other students in the school. Participation will inspire to gaining commitment and showing participation the next year. The exposure of the Bertrand Russell college will emphazise a more international attitude. The exchange will strengthen our TTO and our programme of global citizenship.
We would love to continue with our Spanish partner school in Madrid. When both schools have experienced this project once, we can expand the exchange programme with more partner schools. We can use the same concept more often and decide which schools would be the best partners to realise high quality and structural relationships. The school will share the experience within the group of Dutch partner schools of OVO Zaanstad (seven.) In this school group we are the pioneers and hopefully others will follow. Bertrand Russell college takes part in different platforms, such as TTO and Global Citizen

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 32533 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bertrand Russell College & Country: NL

Project Partners

• IES Francisco de Quevedo