The Project

The partner schools

Borupgaard Gymnasium (Ballerup, Denmark) is one of the biggest high schools in Denmark. The school is situated close to Copenhagen withinstitutions, museums and universities which can provide further information and participate with academic aspects regarding this project. After attending the school for three years the students can move on to universities and other educational institutions. From next school year the school has 44 classes with 14 or 15 classes on each level. We end up having around 1200 students and a group of staff with more than 100 teachers For many years the school has had an extensive international focus and particated in different projects - mainly in Europe and China and South Africa.But since 2017 in the United States too. We are member of the Danish group Bycirklen where educational institutions and private and public companies work on projects between Wuxi in China and three local boroughs north west of Copenhagen. This work consists for Borupgaard of student exchanges between the school and Shibei Senior High school in Wuxi close to Shanghai. Besides that we participate every second year in conferences in China with educational aspects and teacher training. For the last five years we have been able to send graduating students from our school to China in order to give them the opportunity to work as assistant teachers in English at our school connection in Wuxi.

The Petrik Lajos Bilingual Vocational School (Budapest, Hungary) is one of the oldest and biggest vocational schools in the country with 1000 students and 100-strong staff. We specialize in Chemistry, Environmental protection and Information Technology. Our students are aged between 14 and 25. The students at general education are aged between 14 and 19. They prepare for their final exams and specialize in one of the 3 fields. Their final exam subjects include History and Social studies, as well as Literature. We have been taking part in Erasmus+ (formerly known as Comenius) for over 20 years. Our first projects focused on Chemistry and Environmental protection but since 2013, we have shifted the focus of our projects to different aspects of education, such as developing leadership skills (Training for LIFE: Leadership Initiative for Europe), the study of Maths in everyday life (Maths Around Us), defining the common cultural roots through the study of folk-tale culture (Our Common European Tale) or exploriring the architectural, cultural and social heritage of the lesser known neighbourhoods in the cities of the partner schools (Off the Beaten Path). Although the Petrik Lajos Bilingual Vocational School is specialized in Chemistry, Environmental Protection and Information Technology, it is one of its most important priorities to provide its students a wide variety of learning opportunities and nurture their talents in any possible way. The holistic approach in learning/teaching is visible in many aspects of the school's curriculum. Our students attend many contests in various topics and subjects. They always have very good results in various national exams. We always seek new opportunities and possibilities with international partnerships to engage, motivate and challenge our students. Our local curriculum consists of Media as a compulory subject and students have 2 History lessons per week. Embedded into their History curriculum, they also study Social studies. Our main motivation to join and realize this project is to give our students the possibility to further study European society, social studies, History and Maths in a more relaxed and international environment. History and social studies are often seen as vague, distant subjets by our students. We would like to bring these closer to them with this project, and show them that their lives are directly influenced by the lives of their predecessors. Mr. Ádám Szolnok, who also teaches Media will be the coordinator and one of the participating teachers of the project. He will be aided by History, English language, Information Technology and Maths teachers who will help the students understand the rather complicated topic. The History teachers will provide a broader historical context and the English teachers will help with the lingustic aspect of the project.

Vilniaus Simono Daukanto gimnazija (Vilnius, Lithuania) In the year 1993 on the initiative of Vilnius Pedagogical University on the premises of former kindergarten an exclusiveUniversity school in the city was founded. Right away the school became the centre of deployment of modern methodology, application of new coursebooks, co-operation of lecturers and teachers, trainee teachers practice arena,and the place where conferences and seminars were held. In the year 1997 the school was reorganized into secondary school and was awarded Simonas Daukantas name. The school had the first graduates in 1999-2000. With the increase of students number, the school premises became too small. In 2001 the school moved to bigger premises in Naugarduko str.7. In 2007 Vilnius "Ąžuolas" primary school was incorporated into our school. From September 1, 2007 year 1-8 students attend school in Naugarduko str.7, year 9-12 students – in J.Jasinskio str.11. In March 2009 Vilnius Simonas Daukantas secondary school was awarded gymnasium status. Vilnius S. Daukantas Gymnasium is one of the 20 best Lithuanian Gymnasium, according state exams results. The school is situated in the center of Vilnius, close to historical places and districts we planned to present in this project. Since 2009 the school has 24 classes every year, 6 in each level. We have around 740 students and 60 teachers. Gymnasium provides basic and secondary education for students of age 14-19. The school society members always use opportunity to take part in different projects : with other schools of Lithuania or international ones, like Nord+ and Erasmus. Participating in projects gives to our students great chance to improve communication and language skills, work in a team experience. We find the topic of the project very interesting for ourselves.

Escola Secundária Dr. Mário Sacramento (Aveiro, Portugal) is the head school of a cluster of school that comprises kindergartens, elementary schools, a middle school and a secondary school, totalling around 2000 students and close to 220 teachers. In this particular school, there are students from grades 7 to 12 (from 12 to 18 years old) and 3-year vocational courses in electromechanics, school aide, environmental management, and mechatronics. It is the top public school in terms of academic results in the city and the municipality of Aveiro, according to the latest school rankings, just recently published. Some students also have artistic education in cooperation with the local music conservatory. The school also offers sport groups (such as padel, futsal, basketball, badminton, dance, among others). The school is involved in several national and international projects, including EcoSchools, and has been part of the UNESCO Network of Schools for more than five years.

The Rosalía de Castro Multilingual IES (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) is a public center located in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia). In addition to educational levels such as Compulsory Secondary Education, Baccalaureate and Diploma of International Baccalaureate in
our center is also taught Professional Training concerning three professional families: Hospitality and Tourism, Physical and
Sports Activities, and Community and Sociocultural Services. Our center obtained the Erasmus Charter in the call 2014 and since 2018 the management of the mobilities has gone from being a task of the coordinator and some tutoring to being inserted in the project of center in which all the teaching team, in particular vocational teachers, are involved. Given our center's long tradition of European programs and partnerships in other types of education such as secondary and high school, including the international baccalaureate diploma, we had to integrated vocational training into European and international cooperation projects in order to respond to students' needs. We also have quite a long experience in international exchanges with schools from England, France, Germany, Portugal, Australia and the USA and hold the renowned San Clemente Literary Prizes since 1995. Once a year since then a jury of students from different countries decide which are the best novels written in Galician, Spanish or a foreign language. Among them are a few Nobel Prize winners, like Vargas Llosa or José Saramago, but also renowned authors from all over the world, like Paul Auster or Haruki Murakami, who share a couple days in the school and a dinner with our students at the Hostal dos Reis Católicos Hotel. With a similar dynamic, and since 2008, we also hold the Bento Spinoza Prize for the best essays written every year and, since 2017, Galician High Schools compete with their best science projects in the Stephen Hawking Prize with all the blessings from the scientist himself after he visited the school in 2008.

"Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Olimpiczykow Polskich" (Dlugoleka, Poland). Our school is situated in Długołęka - a large village near the big city Wrocław in Lower Silesia area. Our village – Dlugoleka is the second, next to Wroclaw village, which is in fact the suburbs of rapidly growing Wroclaw with its detached or terraced houses in numerous housing estates around Dlugoleka itself. Currently we educate about 250 students ( 16 to 19 aged ) and prepare them to the Polish final school-leaving examinations. We have about 30 teachers including educators and psychologists. We teach all the subjects required by the ministerial department to achieve secondary education. There are two class units representing two profiles on each grade level: biologically – chemical and majoring in social and history studies. The school is regarded to be the small one and the undoubtful advantages of that fact is its friendly, family - like atmosphere. We are also an intimate school addressed to all students who feel better in the school located far from the bustle of the city. Our school is also great for students who do not like and do not want to spend their free time on a long trip to schools in the city center. The students very often commute to our school on bicycles from nearby towns or villages and by train or buses. Such journey is much less tiring and time-consuming for them because they travel not like everyone - to the center, but in the opposite direction – to the outskirts. The students can find here peace and tranquility that they often need. Our goal is also to provide equal opportunities for rural youth and to reduce the differences between rural and urban youth and for this reason, we try to diversify teaching methods, offer and introduce our students to participate in various additional classes, competitions, groups of interest and to participate in projects as Erasmus or Erasmus +. Our school has already participated in such projects. We already have such experience. The last project we participated in ended in May this year. We want to get in touch about another project because the values associated with this type of project are invaluable, especially for students. In this process, one of the most crucial things is the ability to motivate students to learn foreign languages. Combining traditional class-oriented methods with the ones conducted during the project is in our opinion the best strategy. First of all, owing to project exchanges students break the language barriers, fight with shyness and fears to communicate with peers from other countries. Secondly, they acquire still new, concept-oriented vocabulary and use it to speak in everyday situations. Furthermore, international exchanges give students opportunity to develop not only academical skills, but also cultural and personal ones. They are the basis to help young people in aquiring some fundamental abilities and life competences. International projects are also best opportunity to learn local habits, admire a variety of cultural traditions, pick up some interesting facts about the region as well as meet local people. In this way, we believe that raising cultural awareness is one of the greatest benefits of international exchanges. It does not only allow students to learn new cultural or historical items, but teaches them tolerance and understanding differences. Finally, we think that meeting new people, integration, making new friends, keeping in touch or even further private visits, gaining new experience are the crucial value for both teachers and students.