Sabro-Korsvejskolen, Denmark
The project’s impact on the school:
When we started on the project
“Citizenship Locally and Globally our scho-
ol was already on the track of working wi-
th” The world Citizen” as a pedagogical
ideal and aim for our students. This pro-
ject has gotten us even further down the
track, and we have profited from the ex-
change of ideas and experiences from our
partner schools.
The advantage of having very different
school forms in a project is, that we get a
broader picture of how to approach certa-
in aspects of education, and the teachers
who have participated in the project me-
etings have all been inspired in their own
practice in one way or another.
The themes Citizenship and Democracy
have been two of our working headlines,
and it has been very interesting to learn
about the difference in the concept of be-
ing a citizen and democracy. And that we,
in our ten European countries, very much
have the same set of values, despite
different ways of putting them to practice.
As for democracy.. we had very intere-
sting discussions, and an understanding
of the short comings of democracy.
Bullying has also been a working headli-
ne, and the exchange of ideas and
practices in the project has been an inspi-
ration, and in January 2012 our
Students Council are launching a campa-
ign about bullying with posters, flyers and
role plays in all classes.
Our school has also decided to work with
a profile of being a school with an interna-
tional profile. Every year we have an In-
ternational week,
and all classes
participate in ra-
ising funds for the
lesser fortunate
and learn about
the way of life in other parts of the world,
very much inspi-
red by our Spa-
nish partner.
Creativity is
another headline.
And it is somet-
hing we strongly
feel is going to be an important aspect of
education in the future, and the project
meeting about Creativity put a spotlight
on this aspect in the school. We made a
survey among the teaching staff to esta-
blish the extent of the creativity in tea-
ching, which was quite impressive. That is
something we hope to develop in this pro-
ject, and maybe in a future project.
Some of our students have had the privi-
lege to participate in meetings, and that
has been a big adventure for all of them.
After the meetings they have kept contact
with students from partner schools, and it
has changed their ideas about the coun-
tries they have visited, and their ideas
about young people in other cultures.
For the teachers involved in the project it
has been an important project. Not only
engaged, inspiring and innovative. It has
also been an important project, because
being 10 partner schools means that a lot
of teachers meet and part, but throughout
the whole project, there have been an at-
mosphere of friendship, openness and
world citizenship.
Evaluation from
Vestsiden ungdomsskole, Norway
We have been lucky to participate in the
project Citizenship, locally and globally.
What impact has the project had at our
school?
First of all; for the teachers involved in
the project it has been great. To meet
other teachers and discuss school mat-
ters is important. We practise language,
communicate, share ideas, learn about
other schools, experience a whole lot.
For our pupils
who have partici-
pated in some of
the meetings, it
has also been va-
luable.
They have made friends from other places
in Europe, learned to tolerate and include
foreign people. They have seen the eve-
ryday life in private homes in different co-
untries. They have opened themselves up
towards people from different cultures.
At our school we have made some chan-
ges concerning the Student Council, inspi-
red by ideas we have gotten in the pro-
ject.
We have had a week where we focused on
communication. Using creativity through
painting, art and drama the pupils were
involved in different work in groups during
this week.
We have answered a questionnaire about
social skills among the students,
and the results have been discussed in the
Comenius group.
There have been discussions at our school
about the possibility of having an optional
subject called Citizenship, and from the
next year it seems that the Norwegian
School Department is going to include sub-
jects and International student deve-
lopment will be one of them.
Riga Secondary School №13
Evaluation of the project impact on school
life
Taking part in the project gave us a new
impulse to look upon the
problem of upbringing the citizenship po-
sition in students.
Nowadays it is not an ordinary lesson in
the chain of various kinds of lessons, but
organized aimed process dedicated to the
development of students’ social activities
with the main accent on acquiring social
skills and citizenship experience.
Social skills should be the most needed
abilities, which could be widely used in li-
fe. Positively developed social skills give
the person chance to communicate witho-
ut any problems, to meet interesting per-
sons, to receive such job that is actual for
the person, be independent, be ready to
make a choice, be open for multicultural
cooperation. In this aspect we pay great
attention for organizing meetings with
prominent personalities of our country for
our students.
Our guests du-
ring the last 2
years were –
former presi-
dent Vaira Vike
– Freiberga, Mr.
Nils Ushakov-
sRiga mayor,
ambassadors of Russia, Lithuania, France,
China and USA. In the frame of our own
school programme dedicated to the deve-
lopment of social skills and abilities were
organized role–plays “You are responsible
for all”, “If I were a president”, “In what
country I wanted to live”. The aim of the-
se activities is – to inform future electora-
te about elections, the roles of voting, to
create the feeling of responsibility for own
decision, to form interests and feelings of
participation in the activities on
the local and state level. As about such
aspects as tolerance and social communi-
cation we offer such long-termed projects
for the students from Form 2 – till Form
12: “Cultures Rondo”, “Russian Ball”,
“Volunteers”. In October 13, 2011
our school celebrated its birthday jubilee
– 60 years as the school was
founded. This period was very important
for forming such qualities as proudness
for school and its success, popularization
on the capital’s level school achievements
in subject competitions, sports competi-
tions, success on the State Exam and
scientific projects for senior students.
Every student had a definite task in order
to create together with his classmates
the beautiful picture of school life, and
one more plus: students’ parents were al-
so involved in this process and that was
very special it united different groups of
parents, different generations!
One more important aspect of our partici-
pation in this project is revision of our
School Parliament status and structure. It
was decided to invite students from all
classes in the participation of planning
school activities. The idea was to create
industrious Parliament, that could genera-
te own ideas and realize them. Another
important moment was to give possibili-
ties for students to create informal rela-
tions, administrating qualities, and make
a step forward to organize his/her own li-
fe, activity and personal upbringing.The
project gave us the chance to re-think the
sense “Bulling”. We work in different
directions: upbringing the feeling of tole-
rance, to raise the cultural level of the so-
ciety, to work with families, psychological
support for children who behave
aggressive and for Our team worked out
special programme “Bulling”. The idea is
that every group of school members
(teachers, supported personal, students,
parents) should be involved in this pro-
cess. We worked out booklets for stu-
dents, teachers, parents – “Outsider”,
“Aggressor”, “Is everything OK with my
child?” Reasons for aggression could be
various, but the main (noticed by tea-
chers and parents) the contradictions be-
tween the student as an individuality and
rules accepted by school. When the stu-
dent is not involved (actively, positively)
in the study process he starts to be
aggressive, that is why the most impor-
tant task is to find something positive in
such a student and involve him step by
step in the creative study process where
he could demonstrate something special
and attractive for others and be ready (by
himself) to experience the first feeling of
being important and interesting to others.
Thanks to the project we used the oppor-
tunity to take part in the further educa-
tion courses for the teachers in the frame
of Comenius programme – Tatjana Striga-
lova attended the course „Creativity and
Learning” (The Learning Teacher Network,
Course SE-2011-135-001, Sliema Malta,
18-22 October 2011).
Students as developed personalities
should unite in their study
activities not only fundamental knowledge
of different sciences but at the
same time form social skills and abilities,
connected with their own
creative potential, be ready to solve not
usual tasks, be ready to think
independently and creatively.
So our tasks and aims as teachers are:
respect to other cultures,
nationalities and other humane valuables
qualities (to work in a team,
respect to others, personal responsibility)
From our point of view the main goal of
this project is – creation of
education atmosphere, which motivate
the student to be active in the
study process, to activate the methods of
teachers’ work, to minimize the
school risks (aggression, neuroses, anxie-
ty).
So we can formulate like this – to teach
students in such way that
the wanted to study, students should at-
tend school with joy and wish to
receive knew knowledge.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL JURIJA VEGE
IDRIJA, Slovenia
The Comenius project Citizenship, locally
and globally, affected our school
very much – both teachers and students.
The teachers who took part at the Come-
nius meetings reported to the rest of the
staff at school about the work we were
doing. We also carried out some works-
hops and gave different materials that
were presented at the meetings to the te-
achers who might find them useful.
We presented
what other
schools were
doing in connec-
tion with
citizenship to
our history and sociology teachers. They
found the experience useful and helpful
as they started with a completely new su-
bject this year, called European Studies.
In the past years we did not pay so much
attention to bullying as we thought this
mostly took place in primary schools and
not so much in secondary schools. As we
school is, what the student-student and
student-teacher relationships are.
We were happy to see that students feel
much better at our school than
they did in the primary school.
At the beginning of the school year before
the initiation ritual the school psychologist
carried out a questionnaire as to what are
their feelings and fears and attitude to
this ritual. The majority of students said
they find it interesting and are looking
forward to it if this is organized and supe-
rvised by the school.
Our school has had Student's Council for
many years, but this year a new
'president' was elected and this has im-
proved the students' cooperation.
Different activities have been carried out,
among others also a charitable event
where students sold Christmas cards that
they had made during the
agreed at the meeting, we encouraged te-
achers to discuss bullying in different sub-
jects.
Quite a few teachers were fond of the ide-
a and included bullying in language les-
sons, biology and psychology lessons.
This has now become part of each year’s
plan. Also, whenever we learn about bul-
lying among students, we react immedia-
tely and we also try to be more attentive
as to what is going on in the halls. The
school psychologist carried out a qu-
estionnaire as to what the atmosphere at
Art lessons. The money was used to cover
certain expenses of the students who can-
not afford them. The event was a great
mixture of students' creativity and chari-
tableness. We got the idea from the
experience in Denmark.
Our school has been putting a lot of ener-
gy into encouraging creativity. Students
have had a chance to attend different cre-
ative courses. This year we have set a go-
al to encourage students' creativity not
only in different afthe school.
Our school has had Student's Council for
many years, but this year a new
'president' was elected and this has im-
proved the students' cooperation.
Different activities have been carried out,
among others also a charitable event
where students sold Christmas cards that
they had made during the
Art lessons. The money was used to
coverclass. The rules are mostly connec-
ted with their behaviour towards each
other and the rest of the school.
Every class also participates in special
practical courses with a school
pedagogue and in similar courses with a
school psychologist. They learn to
accept and respect each other’s differen-
ces. They are also trained in nonviolent
communication, mediation, conflict-
handling and the school rules against bul-
lying.
What is more, apart from class meetings
and courses, there are also may school
events to improve the whole school inte-
grity. Through many
school programmes, pupils learn to help
others in need. Pupils are also involved in
many projects connected with anti-
bullying policy. During different classes,
they prepare anti-bullying posters or le-
aflets. Our students also prepared anti-
bullying social advert presented during
our meeting in Slovenia. After preparing
it, the participants admitted that it chan-
ged their point of view on this problem,
made them more aware of it. Also the
rest of the school society shares this opi-
nion.
If it comes to students’ council, we star-
ted our work this year with fresh ideas
and eagerness. Thanks to exchanging in-
formation with friend from other coun-
tries, our students could choose the ideas
that are also perfect in our school and
start working with them. First of all we
decided to introduce so called “the idea
box” so not only members of the council
can introduce some concept for voting but
any member of our school can help us he-
re. We also clarified the fields of responsi-
bility for each student, write rules for us
to give as much as possible for the good
of the whole school’s society.
To summarise, The Project Comenius: citi-
zenship locally and globally had definitely
big influence on our school in all the po-
ints presented above. certain expenses of
the students who cannot afford them. The
event was a great mixture of students'
creativity and charitableness. We got the
idea from the experience in Denmark.
Our school has been putting a lot of ener-
gy into encouraging creativity. Students
have had a chance to attend different cre-
ative courses. This year we have set a go-
al to encourage students' creativity not
only in different afternoon courses, but
during the lessons, too. We organised
workshops for the teachers where we sho-
wed them how to use different drama
techniques in class. Quite a few teachers
liked the techniques and they started
using them in class. Social skills techniqu-
es were also presented to the teachers
and especially class teachers found them
useful when trying to build team spirit in
their class.
The students who took part at the Come-
nius meetings were enthusiastic about
them. It was an extremely valuable inter-
cultural experience that they are never
going to forget.
We have managed to carry out an infor-
mal student exchange with the Austrian
school (ahs Heustadelgasse in Vienna).
Two students went to Vienna for two
weeks and attended lessons in German.
They learn German as their second fore-
ign language and the experience broade-
ned their knowledge to a great extent.
The host families were hospitable and this
was again an invaluable experience.
Independent High School SPLOT
The Project Comenius: Citizenship locally
and globally had quite big influence on
our school.
First of all, it drew attention of not only
student but also teachers to
the very important issues such as social
skills, citizenship, bullying, student coun-
cils and creativity.
The Comenius project helped us to learn
more about values in our own country, di-
scover how much we have still to offer.
We had a unique opportunity to learn mo-
re about other countries, and the informa-
tion was much more valuable as we could
have met and seen things we were
learning about.
At the same time the national identity
grew as we were presenting and learning
about values in all the countries from Co-
menius project. We could share our expe-
riences and ideas with others. All that
showed us that we share a lot of values,
which definitely developed a common Eu-
ropean identity.
To emphasize our common identity in our
school we also organized international
Christmas Eve which hosted the represen-
tatives of thirteen different countries. All
of the participants saw that as another
perfect occasion to meet new, interesting
people and exchange information about
our countries and national traditions.
In the field of social skills such as student
-student, student-teacher, or school –
society interactions, we observed a huge
improvement. We all admit that our com-
municative skills developed thanks to our
meetings and workshops. We learned how
to communicate easily and without any
misunderstandings not only within our
own country but to communicate with pe-
ople from different countries and cultures.
Thanks to that, we observed that many
students became more tolerant and they
overcome their prejudices about other co-
untries and even their national pride was
increased by the frank interest of the stu-
dents from the other Comenius Project
countries.
In our school, the group Public Achieve-
ment operates very successfully. This gro-
up consists of our young, active students
and teaches them responsibility, creativi-
ty, decision-making skills, selfreliance,
sensitivity to social problems and readi-
ness for cooperation.
This group takes part in different actions
as volunteers. This year it was actions
helping unwanted pets which live in ani-
mal shelters. They also organized the
event titled “adopt a pet” when they were
helping little pets find homes.
During Christmas time, almost all stu-
dents from our school took part in the
event called “Ekipa świętego Mikołaja”
where they firstly collected some needed
products from the clients of groceries,
then prepared presents, and delivered
them to poor children dressed as “young
Santa Clauses”.
Students from our school also joined the
social event prepared by the Nowy Sącz
City Council to make our city cleaner and
even more beautiful place to live in. They
also came out with the idea for winter.
After classes, student were meeting and
building bird feeders and later planting
them in the neighbourhood to help our
flying friend survive winter.
As far as the problem of bullying is con-
cerned, there are many different actions
that are practiced in our school to prevent
bullying. First of all, every new class goes
for an integration trip which helps in ma-
king new acquaintances.
At the beginning of the new school year,
all classes have meetings with their class
teachers, where they decide on rules in
their class. The rules are mostly connec-
ted with their behaviour towards each
other and the rest of the school.
Every class also participates in special
practical courses with a school pedagogue
and in similar courses with a school psy-
chologist. They learn to accept and re-
spect each other’s differences. They are
also trained in nonviolent communication,
mediation, conflict-handling and the scho-
ol rules against bullying.
What is more, apart from class meetings
and courses, there are also may school
events to improve the whole school inte-
grity. Through many school programmes,
pupils learn to help others in need. Pupils
are also involved in many projects con-
nected with anti-bullying policy.
During different classes, they prepare anti
-bullying posters or leaflets. Our students
also prepared anti-bullying social advert
presented during our meeting in Slovenia.
After preparing it, the participants admit-
ted that it changed their point of view on
this problem, made them more aware of
it.
Also the rest of the school society shares
this opinion.
If it comes to students’ council, we star-
ted our work this year with fresh ideas
and eagerness. Thanks to exchanging in-
formation with friend from other coun-
tries, our students could choose the ideas
that are also perfect in our school and
start working with them.
First of all we decided to introduce so cal-
led “the idea box” so not only members of
the council can introduce some concept
for voting but any member of our school
can help us here. We also clarified the
fields of responsibility for each student,
write rules for us to give as much as po-
ssible for the good of the whole school’s
society.
.
IIS BODONI-PARAVIA, TORINO-
ITALY
Comenius project is an important and
growing component in IIS BODONIPA-
RAVIA school system. As in the past, tea-
chers are personal intended to
play a key role in school improvement un-
der the existing form of Italian’s
instruction, (no students left behind), as
well in the new reform of the
secondary school. However, there remains
considerable debate as to whether, how,
and under what circumstances project
schools improve the
outcomes of teachers and students who
attend them. Also, for every Comenius
project.
Anyway for CITIZENSHIP LOCALLY AND
GLOBALLY the following tools were deve-
loped: questionnaires were distributed to
the students to collect information on the
the specific activities planned. Contacts
were also realize to the participant tea-
chers, collecting information on their fa-
miliarization with the English video edi-
ting, their experience on collaboration wi-
th teachers in their school and with tea-
chers from other schools, the reasons why
they got involved with the project and
their expectations from the project in re-
lation to themselves and their students.
Finally, questionnaires were distributed
to participant students, or debate
in class-room, collecting information on
the reasons they got involved with
the project, the communication they had
with other students and their
experience from the implementation of
the project.
The results of the project evaluation fol-
lows.
The participating teacher in the project
considers that the collaboration of
his school with other schools in the Euro-
pe was usual activity within school
practice. However, collaboration with
schools from other
countries was an activity different for
each school, for each situation that
has recently started to develop. The stu-
dents were selected according to
their teachers and parents and their En-
glish and video competence. So,
the same for the adult student. Through
the project, we have an
enhancing communication between te-
achers/students from different
countries, group-work, information sear-
ching from various sources and
improvement of teachers'/students’ pre-
sentation skills.
The activities planned in the school inclu-
ded: publishing self-presentation
in English, working in groups, searching
information related to sources
and types of citizenship in local areas,
communication
with experts on issues and finally a pre-
sentation of the results of their
work in a school by a complete realization
of a 10' movie.
National School of Arts, Varna
Evaluation of the impact of the project
This is the second multilateral Comenius
project for our school. One of our
main motivations to join the project Citi-
zenship was to improve Selfgovernment
among the students in the school and to
increase the actual
role of School Student Councils in the pro-
cess of Self-government.
The choice of topics for each meeting was
particularly relevant to the students of
Grades 6-12, and these were the target
student groups participating in the pro-
ject.
Only a small number of teachers were
able to travel to the meeting
destinations in Spain, Slovenia, Norway,
Latvia, Austria, and participate in
the workshops and lectures that were
offered during these visits. But they
brought lots of materials, including lectu-
res, scripts for role playing and
movies. These materials were translated,
adapted and used in the everyday work,
particularly by the teachers who act as
class advisorstheir number is about 30 in
our school. This made a larger group of
teachers to become participants in the Ci-
tizenship project.
Social skills
Travelling with students and testing their
language and intercultural social
skills made us, the teachers, realize how
important is real life, out of class
experience for preparing our students to
become active sitizens of the EU.
Since joining the project, we have esta-
blished partnerships with the City
Municipality to send our school students
to assist with international guests
at international cultural events in our city.
Citizenship
The topics of this project inspired two
classes – 10A and 11A to join
efforts in starting a campaign to protect
some of the historical and cultural
treasures in our city, to draw the support
of city officials in this task, as
well as to increase the awareness among
young people of the importance
to care about the invironment and the ci-
ty where they live. The project
incuded a game organized by teachers of
math and history. In this game,
students had to investigate and find cultu-
ral artefacts hidden in different
locations, and the winning class was re-
warded with a cultural sightseeing
trip.
C.E. Joan XXIII, L’Hospitalet,
Spain
The impact of the Project on our school is
strong, mainly for the staff, teachers, stu-
dents and their families.
Impact on the different departments of
the school, which have been involved in
the Project.
-The impact is deeper on the Psycho
Pedagogic and Orientation Department, as
it has collaborated not only preparing the
meetings but also sending teachers to
them, as well. The topics of “Bullying” and
“Social skills” are full developed and prac-
tised their methodologies in classes.
Other school
departments
which take ad-
vantage of the
project are:
-The Foreign Languages Department, as
their students are aware that foreign lan-
guages are important to communicate
with the rest of Europeans.
-They also realize that the classes of
“European Citizenship” are really worth as
they get prepared to live the diversity of
people and languages;
-The Social Sciences Department, mainly
the History and Geography subjects are
improved by widening their horizons in a
practical way through the contact with the
different associated members countries
reality. The topic “Democracy” is devel-
oped in these areas;
- The Art department has been enriched
by the contact with the partner colleagues
specially the music and visual arts.They
have been very active principally in the
development of the topic “Creativity”
Impact on the staff of the school.
-The Director and Headmasters give sup-
port, collaborate and are informed of the
development of the project and the Direc-
tor participated in one meeting and the
headmasters will participate in next meet-
ings. The rest of the staff helped to pre-
pare the first meeting in our school.
Impact on the teachers
Many teachers have helped the project.
Some of them just recommending activi-
ties or showing interest. Others have been
more active participating directly in the
meetings. These teachers later have in-
formed the rest of the teachers’ commu-
nity and have given very positive rapports
of the work done before and during the
meetings.
Impact on students
They are the object of the project, since
the strategies, methodologies and prac-
tises discussed among the different
schools are fully devoted to them. -The
students who travel to the meetings tell
the rest their experiences spreading the
importance of citizenship and participation
to the others.
-Students are in charge of the topic Stu-
dent Councils. All who travel to the pro-
ject meetings already participate in differ-
ent commissions. This fact has propitiated
more than usual number of voluntary stu-
dents who want to participate actively in
the school council and the rest of commis-
sions
Impact in families
-Families are informed and the project is
disseminated during the meetings with
parents and through the school magazine.
Parents find the project very important
and it represents a plus value for the
school.