GERMANY
IGS Maifeld, founded in 2009, is a secondary school offering three different courses of education. 70 members take care of 760 students. Students are taught in German, English, Maths, PE, Religious Education, Natural Sciences (Chemistry, Physics, Biology), Social Studies (History, Geography, Politics), Arts, Music, Drama and - starting in 6th grade - one additional "Wahlpflichtfach" compulsory subject, they have the choice between different subjects such as French, Latin, Environmental Science and Technology, P.E. and Health, Art, Media and Computer Science, and Social Studies and Economics). Students enter this school at the age of 10 years in 5th grade. Starting in 7th grade students are taught on different proficiency levels in the subjects English, German, and Math (later also sciences). Students may leave our school after 9th grade (Berufsreife), 10th grade (Mittlere Reife) or 13th grade (Abitur). The latter is the kind of certificate needed to enter universities. Students leaving after 9th or 10th grade usually start an apprenticeship. Raising people's awareness of internet security and strengthening the need to evaluate news and their truthfulness is an important issue of our time and needs to be taught. To meet this need, we have a club called the “Digital Heroes” which tries to raise an awareness of how to use the internet responsibly. In year 7 all students need to participate in a compulsory safe internet training. In year 11 all students are trained to differentiate between good and bad internet sources.
To exchange experience with students and teachers from other European countries and to develop together with them ways to become critical citizens, who are able to use the internet and social media wisely. Furthermore we want to foster international understanding and develop an active and conscious European citizenship. Ms Sarah Eckstein (teacher for English, German, method training in form 11 and Religious Education) together with a permanent team of 3 other staff members (Ms Tina Boehmer – English and Social Studies - and Ms Yvonne Koehler – English, German and IT, also leading the “Digital Heroes” project) will mainly by in charge of the project. But all other staff members actively support the idea of nternationalism and common learning. This will be our second project. We are currently the coordinator of the Erasmus+ Project “Think Global- Act Local: Our Forest (2019-1-DE03-KA229-060108). Besides that we have an ongoing School Partnership with a School in France (Vineuil) and have had annual exchanges with that school since 2014.
TURKEY
Tevfik Serdar Anatolian High School is a public secondary school, founded in 2001 It is located in the center of Trabzon. Trabzon is a historical harbour city which offers convenient transportation and accommodation. There are also three universities one of which is a technical one. Our school has has 825 students (ages 14-18), 56 teachers, 2 administrators and a headmaster.As physically considered our school has strong substructive with its ICT and technology labs as well as internet and interactive smart board opportunities in all classes. We also a public open science fair every year.Students present their science projects there. As a school we offer a variety of opportunities for each students to develop their creative talents, in class and after school. The student, with the dedication and enthusiasm of the staff, have produced outstanding performances in the field of sports, arts and science. our main objective is to enable students to use technology and science, to be aware of the importance of their own learning and to grow in our students a critical sense and self confidence.
The school has maintained a multilingual program for more than twenty years, being highly consolidated at the school. As for European programs, our school has extensive experience having worked on numerous e-Twinning projects, Comenius project as a coordinator (2010-2012-Multilingual Living Magazine), Erasmus+K2 as a partner (2017-2019-Let's Learn Let's Play) and participated in two K101 projects for teachers. All our experiences of European cooperation have been extremely satisfactory for everybody involved during all these years (students, teachers, parents and even local authorities).
The project staff consist of three language teachers and an ICT teacher whome are experienced in projects. English teachers in charge of running the project in case one of them leave her post in the future , others will take her role. They all have certified competences in English and experience in educational project management. If someone leaves their post, we can select another key teacher among our experienced staff.
GREECE
2 EPAL Kavalas is a public Vocational secondary level school. Our institution provides educational opportunities to people who intend to expand their knowledge and skills and also receive lyceum degree. We offer educational opportunities which help in adjusting to technological, economic, social and cultural developments and to obtain vocations according to the employment policies parallel to economic development, through our educational programs. We prepare students to get to the job market or to continue to the University. We have several departments as: Engineering, Electricians, Computer science, Electronics, Hairdressing & Beauty, etc. Number of teachers is 42 and number of students 310. Ages of students 15-18. In addition, a big proportion of our students are migrants or one parent families who live in remote villages of the region under the danger of exclusion and of being considered second class students. Some of our students are economy immigrants from Albania, Georgia, Bulgaria etc.
Lately refugees from Syria are living in a camp next to the school and some young refugees are students of our school. Furthermore, many of our students come from families with low income and from rural areas that have to cope with financial problems and living at the limits of poverty This fact means that our school plays an important role in the social and cultural life, by providing not only education but extracurricular activities, stimulating their creativity, facilitating the students, creating conditions of inclusion and integration, understanding of different cultures in a common European context.
During projects our target groups will have the chance to get cultural exchange and get the opportunity to learn the values promoted from EU. The only possibility for our students to get in touch with the foreign realities and cultures is to get involved in international projects. The key person in charge of running the project will be MSc Kalliopi Ntolou, engineer, master degree on Adults & Environmental Education who gained a lot of experience with the European projects, in case she leaves her post, the headmaster of the school will take over her role. At 2 EPAL Kavalas there is available all the appropriate experience in organizing and participating in sport events and competitions, music and dance festivities, activities for the protection of the environment and relevant projects. It is an educational provider with experience in organizing structured courses for each of school subjects on different topics involving in learning process:
- human rights, peace and war fighting, acting against violence, prejudice and bullying, gender equality, interculture, tolerance, social inclusion
- creativity and innovation in teaching and training, outdoor and indoor activities and encouraging environmental responsibility by using art, music,
dance, theatre, sport and ICT, safe internet.
- fighting early school leaving
PORTUGAL
Externato Marquês de Pombal is a school from Ensinus Group that is beggining the internacionalization process. Be part of that group is for us a guarantee of quality in our Erasmus processes, since our internal partners have a lot of experience to share with us. Our school has around 150 students, 18 teachers, and is locatted in the center of Lisbon. Our students have ages between 15 - 20+ and we have four general courses of secondary school. None of them is vocacional.
This year, as said, we are beggining our internacionalization because we think that abroad we can find colaborations that will motivate our staff and students. We want to share perspectives, methods, tools, and everything that can substantiate improvements for our students and school.
Regarding the project theme, we see in correct use of internet and information platforms a key area to the future of our students and, specially for their education. Students nowadays have a great amount of information, easily accessible, that they must learn how to use. Students must develop criterion and critical thinking in order to avoid easy manipulation and wrong choices during their social and professional lives. In the same way, they must be aware of the dangers of adition that some online tools can bring, and a good method to do that is sharing cases of addiction and methods to treat and avoid them. Thus, we think this project will develop a very important work in a fundamental area. Key people that will ensure the good running of the project in Externato Marquês de Pombal are Prof. Joana Gonçalves (Erasmus coordinator) and Prof. João Branco (headmaster).
ITALY
ISIS di Setificio Paolo Carcano school is deeply rooted to the textile industry of Como and it was established in 1896 to provide specialized training to the people who were employed in the silk industry.
Isis Setificio High School, located in Como , north of Italy, with around 1,600 students aged 14-19.
Our school offers five different courses:
● Fashion and textile courses.
● Chemistry and textile evening courses.
● Chemistry and Biotechnology courses
● Graphic and Communication courses
● Scientific High School courses
● Arts High School courses
It is equipped with
● 61 classrooms with a projector and a sound system working with cable or wifi, or electronic whiteboard;
● 7 computer laboratories with a total of 196 computers;
● 1 mobile computer laboratory (30 laptops, 1 touch screen 65”)
● Multimedia conference room (100 places, projector with sound system, 1 touch screen 65”)
● 3 3D printers
● Online school register
● GSuite (email and classroom) active for students, teachers and employees;
● Website and social networks
Setificio School is attended by about 1,600 students that come mostly from middle-class the cognitive and social skills which have been highly improved . Not to be forgotten are also the beneficial effects on teachers which have the opportunity to get to know different educational systems from which they can learn different teaching styles and to share any educational issues.
ROMANIA
``Ion Agarbiceanu`` Higschool has a history of over 60 years and is the only Theoretical High school in Jibou. Our students prepare for higher education and most of them succeed in entering the faculty they desired. Teachers are well prepared and constantly want to improve the quality of their teaching as well as the school experience of our pupils. We have 436 students and more than 60% live in villages near our town which makes us a High school with a large number of rural students who commute. The rural areas around our town are not exactly the richest; therefore, almost each family makes an effort in sending their kids to school. Some pupils come from one-parent families or face serious financial problems. Others are part of large families and their parents have difficulties into sending them to school.
Another part of our students is represented by minorities and some encounter difficulties in finding their place in school life. Nevertheless, we try to involve all categories of students in our High school’s life both in educational and in extracurricular activities. We have talent shows, we have karaoke afternoons, special programmes for special days (Halloween, Mother’s Day, National Day, EU’s Day, etc.) and lots of other events destined to help students interact as much as possible and come in contact with traditions of minorities. Most of the students know many local customs and traditions belonging to minorities that live among us, but we consider that coming in contact with other cultures will enable them to become more tolerant, more open to new and more sociable.
We also have special needs students that we try to integrate in school activities and community. Being such a diverse and challenging group of students we try to offer them a large variety of activities to choose from: environmental activities, festivals, projects on certain topics, trips, shows and many other. Our students can choose from 3 main departments: Mathematics-Informatics, Natural Sciences, and Philology. Each department has encouraging and hardworking teachers who try, as much as possible, to include modern and traditional methods in everyday teaching. All 30 teachers promote peace, tolerance, freedom, EU values and acceptance of other traditions and ways of being. Even though we encourage and facilitate tolerance and appreciation of other cultures, we cannot offer our students first-hand experience except through Erasmus+ projects. We have not taken part in a mobility project before but our students hope to be part of one someday. Most of them have been exposed to other cultures only from what they saw on T.V. or on the Internet, which is completely different from what one can experience in real life.
