Rationale of the Project
The motivation behind the project is to allow students from both countries to experience different cultures whilst broadening their knowledge of Mathematical and Scientific theorems and putting these into practise. The UK students come from an area of deprivation in the North West of England and it is unlikely that many of them would ever get the chance to do this if it were not for the Erasmus programme. The current economic status of European countries is affecting the employment opportunities of both sets of pupils. The schools in the partnership would like to help the pupils to become more active citizens in their community and at a European level, helping develop skills of awareness of their position in their context and the opportunities that arise when their skills have been developed. This will offer chance to improve their social level and move up the social ladder. The schools would like to develop universal common skills in ICT, maths and science, alongside MFL to improve the pupils chances of employment. The target group for this project will be 14-16. At this age the pupils are in compulsory education, however in the UK school not all are interested in MFL, but have opted to continue with their science subjects. Students in the Italian school have chosen this establishment for their scientific subjects. This project will allow pupils to experience first hand the commonality of science content across two different schools, experiencing different teaching strategies and use different equipment to learn the same things. They will begin to appreciate that regardless of where or how the subject is taught, the power of science knowledge is the same everywhere. They will use MFL in a full immersion context, in concrete situations of learning and ordinary life. We will offer this to up to 15 students in each school the opportunity of a concrete mobility to learn transversal skills for employment. This will allow the students from both schools to experience the culture of another school and country and allow them to make friends for life and help increase their aspirations for life. The project will also help increase students understanding of languages. The Italian students struggle with their level of English and the National push on UK children to learn foreign languages fit into this. The two schools involved in the partnership have pupils coming from families belonging to a medium to low social economical background. The catchment area of both schools is quite wide, the students come from little villages as well as urban areas. The pupils experience outside the immediate area, the opportunities of travel and knowledge of other cultures are very limited. The pupils unfortunately cannot see the use of modern foreign languages in their limited context, therefore are not motivated to develop language skills. The current economic status of European countries is affecting the employment opportunities of both sets of pupils.
Priorities
HORIZONTAL: Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences
YOUTH: Promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people
VET: Supporting the uptake of innovative approaches and digital technologies for teaching and learning
Creativity and culture ICT - new technologies - digital competences
Teaching and learning of foreign languages
Priorities
HORIZONTAL: Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences
YOUTH: Promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people
VET: Supporting the uptake of innovative approaches and digital technologies for teaching and learning
Creativity and culture ICT - new technologies - digital competences
Teaching and learning of foreign languages