Sport, Health, Addiction and Relaxation in Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sport, Health, Addiction and Relaxation in Education

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Health and wellbeing; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

Our project developed from research we carried out into the issues facing young people and the impact this has on their learning and student retention. Life for young people today is highly stressful with pressure to look a certain way and to be ever present online. This is having an impact on their health due to inactivity, unhealthy diet and substance abuse in order to fit in and also to help them either lose weight or look fitter quickly. This in turn can lead to a lack of motivation to learn and early school leaving. The 6 partners from Norway, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Germany and the UK all have a common interest in healthy diet and sport. Sport participation has been proven to increase activity, improve mood and combat obesity and diabetes, but it is often difficult to convince young people of the benefits as it involves more effort on their part.

Students first created a survey about lifestyle. We benchmarked the results with European and WHO statistics and used this information to feed back into our training sessions and outcomes.

Our project then created an eBook designed by young people, which will help teachers to motivate their students to improve their lifestyle through relaxation, diet and active sport. It can also be used by employers to motivate their young workforce to become more healthy It contains information about the partners, the results of the survey, newsletters, case studies, video clips and activities which teachers can use to promote healthy lifestyle. This was our key outcome and can be found at https://issuu.com/shareerasmuska2/docs/erasmus__ka2_share_new?e=31517398/64403542

We developed and trained student ambassadors who can now run events and training sessions in healthy living and can motivate their peers to change their lifestyle. These ambassadors have commented on how much more motivated to learn they have become through the project. This will benefit not only educational establishments but also employers as they will have access to a healthier workforce in the future. The training was delivered via 5 student/teacher learning/training activities, each involving 2 teachers and 2 students. At every stage students researched an aspect of unhealthy lifestyle before the session and then worked together to provide solutions which can be found in the ebook. This includes healthy recipes, relaxation techniques, sporting activities and information raising addiction awareness. Students gained Europass certificates to recognise their learning outcomes.

In addition we have created a five-language digital application – audiovisual guide for smartphones about the ancient Stadium of Messene and the Palaestra which has been donated to the Greek Ministry of Culture in order to be uploaded onto the site of ancient Messene. Furthermore we have developed an ethical code for fairplay in sport and a video presentation about the Olympic ethos. We used Facebook, Whatsapp and eTwinning as platforms for communication and created a project website http://erasmus-share.net . We held a Teachers’ conference in Poland for local schools and colleges promoting Erasmus+ and our project.

We have impacted on a wide range of internal stakeholders, including more than 400 students and more than 60 teachers directly and over 800 staff and students indirectly. The project has encouraged students who are disadvantaged in some way to participate either through direct involvement in the training sessions or through events run by the student ambassadors. This included students at geographical disadvantage, those with emotional, physical and psychological barriers to learning and refugees and migrants.

We believe all stakeholders will benefit from the results of our project as young people become more healthy and motivated to learn. This, along with the opportunity for them to work alongside their European peers has helped them better understand the common and different issues each partner country faces and so make them more aware European citizens. Through the sharing of best practice, teachers now have new resources available to them to help them plan their classes and improve results. Employers will benefit from a healthier and more knowledgeable workforce in the long term.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 123618,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

The Isle of Wight College & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Zespol Szkol Ponadgimnazjalnych w Szydlowie
• Siauliu “Romuvos” gimnazija
• Geniko Lykeio Arfaron
• Städtisches Maximilian-Kolbe-Gymnasium
• Gausdal videregående skole, Pierre de Coubertin