Stepping Up to the Sustainable Development Goals Erasmus Project

Project Title

Stepping Up to the Sustainable Development Goals

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

International cooperation is at the forefront of global politics for tackling issues such as climate change and health. Helping students to understand the importance of such cooperation for achieving common goals is vital in such a globalised world. The SDGs are at the centre of the international movement so bringing awareness of these to our students is imperative. It is only through this type of international collaboration that the idea of working as a common collective for the good of the environment and society can be fostered and help students engage with the importance of such collaboration in global politics. The aim of the project is to empower our students to take action and to value their essential role from a grassroots perspective.

The aim of our project is not only to introduce UN Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals to all our students, teachers, staff, and whole school community, but also to ambitiously implement a cornucopia of best practice by uniting our European schools in action. During the three-year-project we will introduce all the 17 Global Goals, focus on four of them and “create an army of goalkeepers” who will spread the change-choices even broader within our countries and Societies. The objectives are to develop pedagogy for critical thinking to equip students to research and actively work towards tackling the following 4 SDGs whilst developing critical thinking, communication, digital literacy and foreign language skills:

Goal 1 – Poverty
Goal 8 – Decent Work
Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption
Goal 14 – Ocean Pollution

During meetings participants will engage in workshops, lectures and visits to places of interest relevant to the SDG theme for that meeting. They will share their outcomes via presentations and discussions. Each institution will also undertake mini tasks between meetings to include UN Agenda 2030 SDG introductions, a logo competition, student research on poverty, pollution of oceans, responsible consumption & production, forced labour, slavery and human trafficking, photography assignments, recycling workshops, “Eco-school” presentations, videos, blogs and celebration of key theme days poll dates. They will also organise awareness-raising activities in preparation for European Sustainable Development Week and setting up youth leader groups within schools who will help raise their peers’ awareness.

The project will result in a number of outcomes to include a project logo, a series of presentations and teaching resources in various media forms pertaining to the four goals, an eTwinning space and project blogs in addition to improved interpersonal and linguistic skills of participants. Teaching approaches, methodologies and materials produced as part of the project will be embedded into the curricula in each school and will form the basis of ongoing teaching of these issues to further raise awareness amongst future generations in each institution thus moving towards sustainable change within each school. The project is designed to offer a balance of blended and experiential learning whilst deepening critical and creative thinking, building on prior knowledge, creating learner autonomy and cross-curricular expectations.

We foresee that the project will involve approximately 160 students directly and (6 x school population) indirectly, 30 teachers directly and 60 indirectly, 16 senior management staff,18 administrative/support staff, 400 parents and 18 external local businesses/providers/NGO’s.

Local businesses, NGOs or other external providers asked to take part in the project may benefit from increased publicity of their cause and may develop school resources that may be used to engage with other institutions in the future. The partnership will give each participating institution a firm foundation to embark on and further develop an European dimension to maintain lifelong learning. It equips participants with the necessary motivational skills to investigate and address local, national and global issues that are inherent in today’s society. It will be a driving force in improving standards within each participating institution especially when focusing on equipping the students’ basic skills needed for their future careers and lives. Ultimately it supports our young people to become better equipped European citizens with essential and inquisitive skills needed to explore their world, skills that will last for a lifetime.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 222553 Eur

Project Coordinator

Laanilan lukio, Oulun kaupunki & Country: FI

Project Partners

• LPO Antoine de ST-EXUPERY
• Skolgarantiföreningen r.f.
• I.E.S. JUAN ANTONIO FERNANDEZ PEREZ
• Ysgol Dyffryn Taf
• Agrupamento de Escolas Sá de Miranda