Together… in the Winds of Change Erasmus Project

Project Title

Together… in the Winds of Change

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: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

This project brings together six schools, from extreme points of Europe, from Portugal to Turkey and from Latvia to Italy, passing through Romania and Bulgaria, with a set of common characteristics: a geographically disadvantaged territory, distant from the major urban centers of each country, with problematic social issues. In these territories, the School is one of the last opportunities for the younger generations to overcome the difficulties they face. We want to join efforts, in a logic of “local solutions to global problems”, by sharing good practices and go through experiences that can provide a solid basis for our students, especially those with learning difficulties and special needs. Another intention is to develop entrepreneurship and autonomy in students, so that later on in their transition to working life they will be better prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead. Hence, the title of this project “Together … in the Winds of Change”! We want to change attitudes and mindsets, reinforcing self-esteem and motivation in School. We want to bring the parents to School and make them see that the School is the shelter that can enable the young people to have a better life than their parents had.
This project advocates the four objectives of the EU Education Strategy (https://ec.europa.eu/info/topics/education-and-training): 1. Make lifelong learning and mobility a reality; 2. Improve the quality and efficiency of education and training; 3. Promote equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship; 4. Enhance creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at the levels of education and training. And with this project we will: promote the mobility of young people between countries from one extreme Europe to the other; share strategies that have already been validated in each country and to foster new education mechanisms, improving the quality of education provided; spread the ideals of solidarity, unity and harmony, highlighting the European matrix that we want to be “united in diversity”; and develop innovative strategies within and outside the classroom that make our students citizens proactive and equipped with the tools to disseminate a set of good practices based on entrepreneurship, cooperation and volunteerism in family, social and professional contexts.
The appropriation of the values of European citizenship is a clear concern of this project. We want our local communities to realize that they are part of a united Europe, and that a combination of efforts can result in change. The most fragile students with learning difficulties and special needs will be most benefited by sharing and collaboration among such distant schools. Students from each of the schools will interact with students from different countries, with their own cultures, habits and traditions, thus promoting solidarity and inclusion within a Europe that wants to be united in diversity.
Environmental promotion will be one of the strengths of the activities developed during the project, as schools are located in territories with excellent natural surroundings, ideal for training our students on the importance of protecting the environment.
Our main focus will be the development of learning strategies, based on a less formal education, through the promotion of activities, where theater, expression through arts, music, sport and contact with nature will be of paramount importance. Students will realize that the School is more than a blackboard, a table and a chair and that learning can also be based on learning by doing, sharing ideas and creating products that can be presented to local communities. Thus, we will develop strategies, carried out by the younger ones, opening the School to families and the surrounding community.
During six LTTAs, we will develop three student exchanges, where sharing experiences will have a multiplier effect on students with greater difficulties. Dissemination will be a priority so that the entire educational community in each partner school understands that 21st century competences can be revitalized through creative methodologies that enable students to acquire skills through action. Promoting out-of-school activities, in old age homes, day care centers, local associations, auditoriums and libraries will make this initiative a real project that goes far beyond school. Digital platforms will allow us to go further and will be a real open door to the world.
We are sure that by the end of the project we will have contributed to prove that Europe is a real space of solidarity and sharing, where it is possible to join forces for a common good! Isolation does not have to be a fatality, and that uniting wills and actions, it is possible to transform weaknesses in strengths and problems in challenges, to raise the motivation of those who sometimes a small incentive to change mindsets and overcome obstacles. Together… we will be the wind that blows and that brings the bonanza!!!

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 142750 Eur

Project Coordinator

Agrupamento de Escolas General Serpa Pinto de Cinfães & Country: PT

Project Partners

• Demircelik Ortaokulu
• Scoala Gimnaziala Vama Buzaului
• Incukalna pamatskola
• General Secondary School “Nikolay Katranov”
• IC La Pira Gentiluomo