4th High School of Volos
Our school is a secondary junior high school which has approximately 220 students in all three classes and 30 teachers. The pupils are taught all the basic subjects as well as three foreign languages ( English, German and French and they are also involved in environmental and cultural programmes according to our national curriculum. Our eTwinning projects received national and European quality labels as well as the European Mevlana Prize for Intercultural Understanding. Furthermore, another eTwinning project was also awarded the First Prize in the 11th National eTwinning Competition in Greece. Our school’s involvement in the project will focus on improving the English language skills as it is the project language but also we want to give the pupils an opportunity to access the partner countries languages. We also aim to improve pupils ICT skills as they will be given the opportunity to be responsible users of ICT by being aware of proper use of new technologies. We want to make sure that what we research and learn from our partners will not be one time experience, but will transform and become a true part of our new way of teaching and a more motivating way for our students to learn. We hope to influence teachers from other schools through our positive experiences.
Agrupamento de Escolas Cego do Maio (AECM) - PORTUGAL
It is located in Póvoa de Varzim, a city situated 25 km from Porto, the 2nd biggest city in the country. It is a school cluster, with pre-school first cycle (6-9 years old); 2nd cycle (10-12 years old) and 3rd cycle (12-15 years old). The AECM integrates within its area of geographic influence, four schools distributed as follows: the headquarters school Cego do Maio (500 students); primary school/kindergarten Século (400 students); primary school/kindergarten Pedreira – Argivai (150 students); primary school/kindergarten Giesteira (150 students).The AECM encompasses several neighbourhoods of social housing where a considerable number of socially disadvantaged families live. Meeting the many challenges resulting from these structural problems, the AECM has organized over the past years a set of answers and resources to face them, in order to improve the global conditions of children and adolescents and their school success. So, besides the national curriculum, classes are organized with specific programmes to support students with learning disadvantages and encourage students motivation, as well as an offer of extracurricular activities, such as sports (badmington, dancing, roller skating, canoeing), Clubs ( theatre, robotics, Arts). We launched a pioneer project of Mindfulness to help students, teachers and staff to combat stress, improve focus and increase resilience. Our school also includes students with multiple disabilities in the two Specialized Support units for multiple disabilities and Congenital DeafBlindness. School is highly motivated in participating in this project as the topic and objectives outlined are in line with the school's educational project.
Goetheschule Neu-Isenburg - Germany
We are a public secondary school in Neu-Isenburg, a city of 37.000 inhabitants, closed to Frankfurt/Main. Currently, about 950 students are enrolled with a staff of about 80 teachers. Learners with a foreign background constitute approx. one quarter of our students (53 nations). Our students are 11 to 18 years old and aim at passing the "Abitur", the examination which allows them to enter university after the end of their school career.
All our students do learn English as their first foreign language. As second foreign language they can choose between French, Spanish and Latin.
At our school, we offer programs responding to the special needs for gifted children and for students who face problems (dyslexia etc.).
Since many years, our school was/is involved in different exchange programs with various European countries.
http://www.goetheschule-neu-isenburg.de/
COLLEGE JEAN MONNET – EPERNAY – FRANCE
Context:
Our school is a public secondary school in the center of Epernay, 130 km North-East of Paris and 30 km of Rheims. Being so close to these cities, we can have an easy access to cultural centers. It's named after one of the founding fathers of Europe: Jean Monnet.
School starts at 8 am and finishes at 4:30 pm, except on Wednesdays (midday).
Our 38 teachers are in charge of teaching the different compulsory subjects (1 subject per teacher) and 7 adults supervise the students when they don't have classes.
Students:
Our school is a medium-sized one with 483 students, aged from 11 to 15 (from 6ème to 3ème) dispatched in 18 classes. They come from very different social backgrounds: 51% are from socially deprived backgrounds and 25% are from priviledged areas.
Programs:
Our teaching methods are mainly based on projects and team activities, to strengthen and develop languages, art and culture, using new digital technologies. Our students have to validate the A1 and A2 levels.
In order to help them improve their skills, we put the emphasis on:
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an educational project to teach differently according to their heterogeneous needs,
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a great access to different digital ressources and tools (computers, tablets and their own cell phones),
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working within groups of different skills and needs, or in groups with a reduced number of students.
Our motivation:
First, we want to give the same chances to all our students who come from different social backgrounds. So, to fight for equality and let them succeed, we use inovating teaching methods to unite all the students and create a united group.
Our previous experiences really contributed to achieve this goal significantly: the students were able to develop their motivation for learning and thus succeeded better at school.
Then, we want them to be more open-minded to Europe, to the world, and get new knowledge on different cultures.
Finally, we want to help them build their European citizenship and maintain a close relationship with European countries and people.
Our team:
Our team is composed of 6 teachers (French, English, Spanish, Maths, Science and PE).
