What we do

Living in Europe is something we all do, but most of the time we take for granted that everybody shares and accepts the same backgrounds, traditions and expectations. Our project aims cater for the coexistence and inclusion of all students in a new context, to open students to intercultural and multicultural learning, to respect for the differences between culture at home and abroad, to encourage students to look for new and creative ways of communication, to avoid early school leaving and disadvantage and to widen scopes towards a European mind and citizenship. The four schools committed to this project have been witnessing dire circumstances that prevent students from achieving a positive academic performance, namely hard economic situations that have forced families to immigrate to other countries, skyrocketing unemployment that has made them have difficulties to make ends meet, or different kinds of impairments which place them in disadvantage in relation to other classmates. Thus, the first step will be to invite a large number of pupils in all schools to tell us about their experiences, fears, hopes and difficulties at school. Students and teachers will analyse all these situations, will discuss them in assemblies and committees and will learn new ways to solve conflicts. We will hear real testimonies about integration and inclusion at school and will create a protocol on good practices. We will also work on how to become an active and responsible citizen in their school and community. Eventually we will try to reflect on a potential European identity and citizenship. This way in the two years of the project we will try to cover all levels, from local to national and finally to a European dimension, which will lead us to a global identity and diversity. Participants will be students between 14 and 18 years old from the four schools There will be one mobility to each country where students will carry out activities on multiculturalism, early drop-out, better school performance, immigration, integration, inclusion, disabilities and school harmony under the philosophy of learning by doing, that is to say, active performance, reflection and discussion will make students (and teachers) understand situations better and more quickly and find solutions on the spot. Thus, debates, round tables and teamwork will be key concepts in the development of the project. The job will be done as an interdisciplinary curricular activity using English as the language of communication and supervised by the teachers with a particular accent on web-based activities and a constant focus on assessment of the desired aims thanks to checklists created ad hoc. In between mobilities we will show what has been done in the mobility and will apply and experiment with the new methods and ideas. At the same time, we will prepare materials for the next mobility.