Erasmus finaly in Gimnazija Lucijana Vranjanina, Zagreb

Gimnazija Lucijana Vranjanina is one of the most respected high schools in Zagreba and it was about time it started its Erasmus adventure. A group of teacher enthusiasts decided to join a project coordinated by the French-German school from Saarbrucken, Germany.

We were very interested in the subject of refugees since Croatia is directly involved in the question. Six teachers and 30 students started working on activities with a huge level of motivation and expectations. Students involved are from 15 to 18 years of age, both female and male.

Unfortunately, COVID crisis did alter some of our plans we continued bravely and are now well on our way!

You can check out all of our activities on our school website and our youtube channel.

The slogan and the logo for our project!

One of our first tasks was to choose the logo and the slogan for our project. Croatian students went to work right away and came up with some suggestions. Here they are...
Slogan suggestions:
1. Don't let the mask stop us now 
    to have friends in another town!
2. Learn from experience, not just from books
3. Get to know cultures by getting to know people
4. Travel, meet, learn - repeat!
5. Finding our (way) home.

Logo suggestions:

Unfortunately, our slogan and logo weren't picked but the Greek simply had the best suggestions. Congratulations to them!

This is us!

It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be to make a video. We wanted to do something different and we think we managed to do that. Hope you like our school and our presentation book!

Our school board!

These digital times haven't altered our creativity and will to arrange our board in the school hallway. Again our students wet hard to work.

Staff training in Saarbrucken!

Our teachers Nikolina Anić and Matija Pintarć were in Saarbrucken, Germany for a short-term joint teacher training. It was amazing to meet our partners live for the first time.

We exchanged a lot of information and experiences by comparing our schools and education systems. Thomas Sofias from Greece showed us the fundamentals of working with ArcGis. We also had time for informal socializing which is crucial for a project to work.

Our first mobility with the students!

Due to covid restrictions, we were unable to travel to Spain so Germany stepped in as hosts for our first mobility with our students. Teacher Helena and Marija accompanied Lucija K., Marta, Sofija, Lana, Lucija T., Gabrijel and Damir to Saarbrucken.

Five days went by so fast during which our students were involved in numerous amazingly planned activities. They enriched their language skills, met refugees, created podcasts, practiced nonverbal communication, and worked in a multicultural environment.

Farewells were hard and sad but we're looking forward to our next mobility with even more enthusiasm.

After our return home, we were happy to present it all to the rest of our team and all the students of our school that were interested.

We were in Greece!

The beginning of May was set for our mobility in Vrachneika, Greece. Our amazing hosts made us feel right at home as we embarked on a 5-day adventure. All the activities were fantastically planned and set in an amazing ancient environment. Again we took the opportunity to further enrich our foreign language skills as well as working in multicultural teams. Our social skills were put to the test as we interviewed the refugees.

ICT skills came into account when we created interactive maps using ArcGis to track refugees on their journeys across continents. Incorporating ancient history with modern trends in migration was the topic on two field trips we had to Nafplio and Olympia. It truly was an amazing experience, learning a lot along the way.

Partnerships were established, and friendships were formed. Greek food, sun, and sandy beaches made it all the more fun :)

The year is behind us!

We ended the school year with our annual Erasmus team meeting.

There was a lot to discuss as the school year behind us was very productive. We had our first mobilities, a lot of activities in school, we learned a lot, exchanged experiences, and had a lot of fun doing it all.

Next year should be the same if not better so there was also a lot of planning to do. We are especially looking forward to hosting all of our Erasmus partners in Zagreb and our school. Our Erasmus team is getting a bit smaller "thanks" to some pregnancies but we are very happy because of that.

Looking forward to the next school and Erasmus year!

See you all then!