Youth and healthy habits Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth and healthy habits

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: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Health and wellbeing; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Teachers at Saint-Louis High school located in Brittany, France, noticed that the pupils had many health-related problems. The situation was assessed by a qualitative and a quantitative study. Both studies brought out that students were tired, stressed and sometimes felt bad. They had harmful lifestyle habits that also affected their performance at school
This was why the teachers searched for some partners who had to cope with similar problems.
Three schools located in Kiel (Germany), Pärnu (Estonia) and Budakeszi (Hungary) joined the upcoming project.
According to the WHO mental health is “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”. Therefore the partners intended to highlight the importance of sport, safe behaviour, healthy food and proper biorhythm. Moreover they wanted the students to be able to take care of their own everyday life.
Taking these aspects into account as well as the learning aspects shared by the young European, the project focused on…
• the importance of a healthy lifestyle and of sport
• key competences : improving language and ICT learning, reinforcing creativity and socialization
• the European culture and citizenship
For this purpose the teachers involved used innovative educational approaches such as learning by playing and making students play an active role in designing and implementing activities. Extensive use of ICT for communication, planning, collaborative learning and dissemination were meant to be key elements of the project.
The 4 partner countries recruited 12 participants each year from diverse backgrounds both male and female students, aged 14 to 17 (144 pupils involved throughout the 3 years).
The learning activities were held twice or three times a year.
We chose quantitative as well as qualitative instruments to assess our achievements:
• Surveys
• Assessment questionnaires
• CEFR indicators to measure the students’ English level….
Over the three years, we have achieved the following results:
• a common blog,
• a common logo and motto designed by the students,
• videos with interviews of food experts or athletes
• an exhibition about students’ lifestyles, eating habits and physical activities,
• a lecture for parents held by dieticians or health professionals,
• an exhibition and a digital guidebook about :
– positive influences of physical activity on health
– healthy biorhythm
– eating habits
– risky behaviours and unhealthy products
• a board game with cards
• digital web-based games (quizzes, crosswords…)
• tournaments of grassroots sports for the participating students
• a report about a local or national event related to food and eating habits
• a written menu and a well-balanced meal prepared by students and shared by students, teachers and parents
• a digital portfolio to keep track of the experiences and skills obtained thanks to our project.
This is meant to have the following long-term impacts:
We have raised our students’ awareness on the importance of healthy habits by providing them with appropriate information. We have sometimes helped them modify their behaviour if necessary: healthier and more balanced students are more focused. As a consequence we hope we have enabled them to improve their school performances and therefore their skills.
The pupils have strengthened their social and personal skills such as self-confidence and their capacity to take the initiative.
Eventually our project aimed at enhancing European understanding through transnational project meetings, language and cultural studies that go beyond traditional short stays abroad in host families.
To finish, we have designed Open Educational Resources to be shared with the educational community on the European platform.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 162510 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ogec du Levant & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Budakeszi Nagy Sándor József Gimnázium
• Ricarda Huch Schule
• Pärnu Raeküla Kool