Impact of the project on

participating schools

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.