Sport as a mean to foster healthy behaviours and allowing equal opportunities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sport as a mean to foster healthy behaviours and allowing equal opportunities

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Health and wellbeing; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

The project “Sport as a mean to foster healthy behaviours and allowing equal opportunities” was prepared by a partnership including six secondary schools belonging to Italy, Poland, Lithuania, United Kingdom (Wales), Spain and Portugal with different backgrounds, but with common interest in improving their working methods, share experiences and improve life quality of their students aged between 13 and 15 years.
Looking at the problem of risky behaviours that youth are running in their daily lifestyle, the indifference towards youth with disability, the difficulty to accept immigrants, the aim of the project was to promote a healthy lifestyle through sport practice and outdoor physical activities, increase awareness about risky behaviours, fighting against addictions to boost physical and psychological well-being. At the same time was faced the problems of integration among different cultures, social inclusion and disability. Sport was a mean to look at diversity as a chance to improve themselves and the others, discuss how different countries cope with social inclusion and equal opportunities, foster integration and equal rights, allowing awareness-raising about the problem of disability. The project allowed to reduce the problems of early school leaving and involve youth with low basic skills.
In the different schools, according to the faced topic, were involved all classes of the same year in the main activities, allowing all students of the same age to take part in the proposed activities.

The objectives were faced through six main topics, each one in different periods during the three years of the project lifetime: Youth Health and nutrition, Sport practice against diseases and obesity, Addictions and risky behaviours in sport, Sport and disability, Sport against racism and xenophobia, Sport as a mean to foster social integration.
Each theme was faced by schools organizing different activities integrated in their normal learning schedules, defining an E-twinning project concurrently, introducing in each topic lifetime a learning activities where students and teachers could share results, experience different method and cultures in the hosting school, define and refine the better means to achieve a multiplier effect and a sustainable impact on their own organization. Afterwards a public conference/event was organized by the participant organizations about the faced theme in order to share the results and boost the multiplier effects on local communities.
Schools exchanged experiences and good practices on the project topics developing a common methodology and students were also involved to prepare different products.

The project had a deep impact on the participant schools as they implemented the working methods through a common cooperation, exchanging experiences of good practice through networking, defining innovative practices to modernize the learning programmes. The students had benefit of learning new skills, reflecting on a permanent change in their daily habits and they acquired self confidence and increase their social and personal development. They have improved their sense of tolerance and solidarity towards the others above all those having less opportunities.
Some of the participant schools agreed to apply for a follow-up of the project in order to deepen the topics and define good practice to be adopted permanently in their schools. In addition they defined the possibility of permanent exchanges of students to offer them a european experience as an essential background for a individual.
The impact on local communities and neighbouring schools was significant. With the latter, thanks to the project, have been defined cooperation relationship and support to prepare international activities under the Erasmus+ programme.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 276430 Eur

Project Coordinator

Istituto Comprensivo di Nole & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Vilniaus Adomo Mickeviciaus gimnazija
• Agrupamento de Escolas D. Afonso Henriques, Santo Tirso
• Zespol Katolickich Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych nr 1
• Coedcae School
• Casa de Escuelas Pias de Monforte (PP. Escolapios)