Tyska Skolan Stockholm, Stockholm (SWEDEN)

The German School of Stockholm has a history of more than 400 years of education. The ages range from Kindergarten to the German and Swedish international Baccalaureate. At the moment there are 598 students. The school is a bilingual school with German and Swedish as the predominant languages, but there are also many pupils with other backgrounds. At the moment 13 languages are spoken at our school. Foreign languages – English, French and Latin – are as important as the strengthening and development of German and Swedish. Other subjects taught include Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, History, Geography, Socio-Economic Studies, Sports, Music, Art and Drama. Extra-curricular activities include music, vocals, film, an environmental group, dancing, and various clubs, like a library club and a science club. The school offers work placements in Sweden and abroad, students take part in different school exchanges, e.g. with institutions in Germany and the French International School of Stockholm.

Being a bilingual school with students coming from different national backgrounds we have a natural international focus in our work. However, a participation in the Erasmus+ project would be a unique chance to involve more students in activities that are centered around connections with other European countries and deal with European history, presence and future. They could meet with students from other European countries, and work on issues that are crucial to living conditions, their identity and their future. By this, we want to foster a way of “European thinking”. As our school houses students from varying socio-economic backgrounds, being funded by the EU also would enable students with low income background to experience inter-cultural exchange on a whole new level.

Key people in charge of the project will be the coordinator and a team of teachers, all experts with respect to their subjects. The coordinator is experienced in the areas of international exchange and intercultural learning arrangements though has not yet worked within an Erasmus+ project. The school participated in a former Comenius project in 2005-2007, yet all the participating students have completed school by now and even most of the staff enrolled is no longer present because of the regular circulation of expatriate teachers. Most of the teachers involved are familiar with interdisciplinary teaching, all of them with project work, the integration of it into the curriculum, ICT, evaluation and speak at least two foreign languages.

www.tyskaskolan.se

Escola Palcam, Barcelona (SPAIN)

Escola Pàlcam is a semi-private state-funded school in the city centre of Barcelona. It was founded in 1956 as a small school and has been growing ever since in the district of Horta-Guinardó. Nowadays, we have about 1,600 students ranging from Preschool to Baccalaureate and Vocational Training and about 100 teachers. As a school, we have been working for the last ten years in quality processes and we obtained the ISO 9001six years ago. We have also been working on strategic plans for the improvement of the education offered, aiming at foreign languages, technology and values. Our students study robotics since preschool and take about 10 hours a week of subjects in English until they access university. Besides, we have been implementing several measures to ensure that our students get the most of their education.

We have an innovation department that promotes initiatives that will lead to a constant updating and improvement of the methodologies used in class. In the last few years, we have introduced project-based work, cooperative work, flipped classrooms and problem-based learning. We are going to start using tablets and digital materials instead of traditional paper books from grade 5 on. This will allow us to increase and improve cooperative work and our flipped-classroom approaches to achieve a learner-centered type of learning.

For us, international exchanges are also a key element. We have been having exchanges with schools from Denmark, Poland, Germany, England and the Netherlands. Moreover, we coordinated an Erasmus+ project from 2014 to 2016, and we are partners in an ongoing project called Europe- United diversity 2017-2019. We consider these projects an excellent tool to expand our students’ horizons. We have a whole team of teachers devoted and committed to these projects as we want to keep giving these opportunities to our pupils. In our team, there are teachers from all the areas involved, and our international projects have become a top priority for them. This project will allow us to join some of the objectives we have as a school into one single project. We will be working at an international level, together with three European schools, exchanging beliefs, perspectives and experiences with them, and raising the awareness of our students regarding the main problems our societies are going through. All of this within a methodologically innovative environment, joining technology and learner-centered approaches. The people in charge of the project will be a team of teachers with wide experience in international projects and exchanges. They will be led by Marc Miret, in charge of International projects at the school. www.palcam.cat

IES San Sebastián

s a five-minute walk from the town centre of Huelva. The school consists of two buildings connected to each other. The main building houses Secondary Education and Vocational Studies classrooms, specific computer rooms, a Music room, a Languages lab, a multi-purpose space (gym, lecture theatre, a stage) and the library with regard to facilities, the school Administration and Management Team offices (Headmaster, Head of Studies, etc.), the Teacher's room and seminars. On the other hand, larger rooms for Bachillerato and some more computer rooms are in the second building. There is a big playground with two versatile sport courts. At present, there are about 75 teachers in the staff and the number of students enrolled in 2014 was 952, distributed as 40% of students at Secondary Education and 60% at Vocational Studies and further education for adults. There are morning and evening shifts. The students' ages range between 12 and 20 in Compulsory or Post Compulsory education, older in the case of adult groups.

Formal learning offered at IES San Sebastián: Compulsory Secondary Education, Bachillerato, Vocational Training at Intermediate Level (Administrative Management, Commerce, Microcomputer Systems and Networks) and Higher Level Training Cycles (Commercial Management and Marketing, Management Information Systems Network, Web Applications Development, Administration and Finance). Blended and e-learning modality through Moodle has also been taught for over five years both at Secondary and Bachillerato for adults. Our students belong to a varied socio-economic context. Most students belong to a working-middle class, with some financial, social and personal problems (parent’s separation, divorce). There are even cases of students at risk of social exclusion which require special attention from the Social Services and the Counseling Department.

Students at Vocational studies come from very diverse socio-cultural levels and are highly motivated; they have high expectations regarding their academic results and access to work life in the future. Furthermore, the school has been participating in the K1 modality in Erasmus+, performing their training at the workplace period in other European countries: UK, Italy, Malta and Portugal.

To conclude, it is important to highlight that our school is fully updated in new technologies; most of the classrooms are equipped with OHPs or digital boards. Most teachers are highly skilled professionals.

www.iessansebastian.com

IIS Benedetti Tommaseo, Venezia (ITALY)

IIS Benedetti Tommaseo is a state secondary school in central Venice, attended by around 1,150students from all the lagoon islands and a few foreign pupils from Eastern European and Asian countries. The 5-year school (from age 14 to 19), which participates in the National Evaluation System, features four profiles: traditional scientific lyceum, applied sciences, modern languages and social-pedagogic sciences. Its aim is to prepare students for university. The subjects taught include Italian, four modern languages and literatures, Latin, Mathematics, Physics, ICT, Philosophy, History, Psychology, Sciences, Art history and drawing, Religion, Pedagogy. A wide range of extracurricular activities include workshops and courses of drama, astronomy, photography, film-making, choir, chess, piano, ECDL, preparation for language certification exams (English, Spanish, French and German). Class exchanges take place on a regular basis with Spanish, German, French and British high schools. Special emphasis is given to preventing drop out: students with weak performance are offered remedial classes and reinforcement of their learning skills through peer-to-peer and Feuerstein methodologies.

Since 1996 we have been regularly participating in Comenius and Erasmus+ projects which have attracted the energy and enthusiastic work of teachers, parents and students. Working on a common topic through many cultural angles as well as collaborating with other European schools has always proved highly motivating for both teachers and pupils. Being able to host students from various European countries, visit their schools, present the results of class activities to an international audience are compelling experiences, valuable opportunities to overcome cultural barriers and prejudices, establish long-standing friendships, improve English and IT skills, develop self-confidence. Students from low-income families often have their first experience abroad through the project. The project will be run by the coordinator and a team of teachers. The former has positively coordinated the previous E+ project and participated with her English classes in more projects. The team of teachers, which has effectively cooperated, is ready to welcome new participants. The long experience in European projects, even as coordinating school, is testimony to good project management and communication skills. Some teachers have high level ICT skills necessary to train and support students during digital productions such as short films and documentaries.

www.liceobenedettitommaseo.gov.it

Lycée général et technologique Jean-Baptiste De Baudre

s located in Agen in the South-West of France, halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse. The region is rural but some food-processing industries are located here. Most students were born in the region. Some of them are second generation immigrants from North Africa.

Over the last ten years, the school has headed towards international objectives with the opening of a 'European class', with the training of students who are not French speakers, with an increasing number of cultural exchange programmes. The school has also been deeply involved in European projects such as Leonardo, Erasmus and finally Comenius. A partnership with different European countries (Spain, England, Portugal and the Netherlands) has proved to be very enriching and has encouraged teachers and the school staff to go further in this approach to encourage students to be more open-minded, to discover new cultures, to see European mobility as an asset for their future, both educational and professional. In a difficult economic and social situation, we think it is very important that our students do not feel restricted in their vision of the future and keep a positive picture of Europe.

www.lyceedebaudre.net

Majorana Laterza

econdary school in Putignano is a comprehensive grammar school with four specializations: Grammar school specializing in humanities, Grammar school specializing in modern languages, Grammar school specializing in science, Grammar school specializing in applied science. The school has recently moved to new premises with 45 classrooms, 10 laboratories and numerous other very modern facilities. The staff comprises the headmaster, two deputy teachers, the school secretary,67 teachers (among which 7 are part of the middle management), 6 office clerks, 3 technicians and 11 school employees (janitors).

Presently the school is attended by 820 students. 51% are specializing in science, 7%in applied science, 16% are specializing in humanities and 45% in modern languages.55% are from the various parts of the town while a further 45% have to face a short journey every day to get to school. At the moment we record an increase of 50% of new enrollments for next year so there will be about 900 students next September. All the students study English in their curriculum, 220 study also French of which 50 study Spanish as third language and 170 study German. The school also offers: Modern Language certifications/Computer Science certifications/Psychological support (especially in order to lower down the percentage of drop outs)// Career guidance (orientated either to job or higher education).

Modern language stays abroad (either EU funded, PON, or paid by the families)In the past 5 years the school has shown an increasing interest in transnational activities including 5 Comenius Multilateral partnerships with 120 mobilities and 22 partner-schools , 28 students in Individual Mobility for 3 months each, 26 incoming students on Individual Mobility for 3 months each, many students have experienced longer training abroad under the Programme Intercultura too which normally sends students from all over the world to the Majorana-Laterza.

As far as teachers are concerned, the school has recently experienced one Comenius teacher's training grant for a Science teacher to improve her English, one incoming job-shadowing of an ICT teacher from Spain, two teachers are attending CLIL formal training. Moreover, the school has organized class exchanges with a school in Belgium, two schools in Germany (both of which have applied for two KA2 together with Majorana-Laterza in 2014, we are trying again this year), one in France and one in Spain (the latest is currently involved in a Strategic partnership application as well as last year).Relationships between us and theses schools are constantly improving even if with no EU funding.

Majorana-Laterza has normal and constant contacts with: Putignano Town Council and provincial authorities/Experts on term contracts for student, teacher and general staff training/Experts on term contracts for management and computer maintenance/Local associations (at the moment we are hosting either a Grundvig and an Erasmus+ meeting with local Youth associations)/Putignano branch of the national health service/Insurance companies/families, junior schools, university, local media. Majorana-Laterza has been chosen by USR Puglia as ERASMUS+ training school for the surrounding area. The training given has raised great interest and participation among the teachers of all levels of education.