Due to Covid-19 pandemic we had to introduce a series of modifications to the project.

First of all, we lost our Italian partners as they expected the pandemic to only get worse and therefore wanted to focus on safety issues. As for the remaining four partners our preparatory meetings were also affected by restrictions connected with the number of participants in groups conferencing online with teachers from LT,TR and RO. The students could not take part until early 2021 when they physically returned to schools. As a result, we asked the NAs for one year extra to be able to complete all aims and objectives we agreed to at the beginning and with the start of school year 2021/2022 we could get on with the mobilities.

The first meeting was designed for staff of partner schools. We aimed at presenting and comparing the P.E curricula in our countries and problems connected with lessening physical activity on the part of adolescents. We had the latter presented by an expert on the subject dr Piotr Szewczyk, the deacon of Physical Activity College in Kalisz. He revealed data concerning worrisome tendencies in European Union in general and more detailed for our countries. This lecture led to a further discussion in which the teachers agreed fully on the purposefulness of the choice of the main aim of our project. Having that information in mind and adding the worsened situation after the pandemic isolation and lockdown we modified the aims and objectives so that to ensure as much physical activity as possible.

Our school is very sport-oriented and we provide excellent facilities and opportunities for children to practice sports. The final two years students have a possibility to choose from proposed disciplines to practice for two of the four lessons assigned for P.E. We shared that with our project partners as it was new to them. Also, we spent most of the week to show them around and present all possibilities connected with physical activity, not only with sports played at school. Still, we agreed that accessibility alone is not enough, what is more important is motivation and company. Our conclusion was to enable our students to meet and enjoy their physical activity.

The three (and not four) mobilities were packed with various physical activities. All participants, including accompanying English teachers and less sporty students had a wide choice of sports disciplines and other kinds of movement such as e.g. dancing. It proved to be the best ice breaker and helped everybody to get to know each other in no time. Every mobility we tried to engage different students to make it possible to participate for as many as possible. They were playing team sports like football, volleyball, basketball, they could swim, cycle, play tennis and badminton, participate in orienteering and teach their new friends how to play their local or national sports. Still, dancing was the most popular one and they taught each other their favourite, typical for their countries, dances.

The teachers participating in the mobilities could observe the process of improving physical condition of their students, their rising English competences and social skills, cooperation on various projects and presentation skills. Also, the interest for cross cultural differences and rising awareness of their own national traditions became more evident to the students with every mobility. They were eager to spend time together actively, they were able to leave their mobiles behind for a very long time during the day. They had no time to get bored. While sharing their experiences with other students at school after returning from each mobility, the participants were very enthusiastic and energetic in popularising the idea of student exchanges in Erasmus+. They all agreed that it was a well spent time and made them more aware of the outside world and people living in it. Even those who had travelled abroad before stated that it was different. As to our school, Erasmus+ was gaining in popularity with every mobility and now all children in our school are familiar with the idea od student exchange and what it can mean to them.

 

The project partners- PL, IT, LT, TR and RO want to raise students’ awareness on how important sport is in our modern daily life, especially when many teenagers are becoming addicted to social media which leads to social isolation, obesity and more often it causes depressions that can even lead to suicide.

The aim of the project is to reinforce the meaning of sport as an alternative way of spending spare time, making friends, keeping fit, boosting motivation, energy and self-esteem, as well as a key element of a healthy lifestyle.

The activities of the project are designed to contribute to the aim – to raise students’ awareness of sports, including also the disadvantages and dangers related to it, improve interpersonal and communication skills, help students to share ideas about their cultures.

Students will cooperate to analyse and design sport-based products which will improve their team skills, intercultural collaboration, imagination, decision-making skills as well as critical thinking and creativity.

The objectives include:

O1. Raising awareness regarding the importance of practicing sports regularly

O2. Promoting safe and reasonable practice of sport as a way to improve self-esteem and motivation

O3. Helping students to develop an elementary analysis of different types of sports taking into account its positive and negative aspects

O4. Developing critical thinking

O5. Developing interactive skills and communication skills in international environments

O6. Developing intercultural skills as well as European awareness

O7. Boosting students’ creativity and imagination

O8. Developing a multinational web of active teenage creators of products related to the subject, from different European countries

O9. Developing a web of responsible teachers

As to participants, there will be at least 24 students from the work group selected at the start of the project (aged 12-14) from different backgrounds, at least one third of

the students are disadvantaged. We also intend to maintain gender balance. They will work in assigned teams on the local activities and some of them will take part in exchanges. Furthermore, they will work in disseminations activities as presenters, organizers or audience members. In total, there will be 96 learners taking part in exchanges. 32 teachers who teach subjects such as foreign language, Physical Education, social studies, ICT etc. will participate in students’ exchanges and 10 teachers will take part in the joint-staff training event.

The main events will be a short staff meeting in Poland and 4 mobilities for students:

C1- PL – Physical Education in secondary schools (joint staff training event)

C2 – LT – Sport as an attractive way of spending spare time

C3 – TR – The importance of practising sport

C4 – IT – Dangers related to practising some sports

C5 – RO – Sport as an important element of a healthy lifestyle

Before exchanges, students will make presentations and some materials related to the sub-topic of every meeting.

During the mobilities, students will attend the project workshops, they will participate in lectures, and visit some places.

They will also work in teams to design final products related to the topic of every meeting, make posters, prepare exhibitions, conduct debates on important issues related to different aspects of sport, practise indoor and outdoor sports etc.

During C5 – teachers will develop an additional product - a teachers’ guide on how to include the project-based lessons in the school curriculum.

Students will maintain their cooperation even when the project is over by using eTwinning, the project website, the project FB site and social media.

The project outcomes will include the skills, knowledge and attitudes gained by the students and specified in every exchange description and according the planned aims, effective cooperation among students and teachers, increased self-esteem, ability to work in a multinational environment, ability to express and justify their opinions, a better awareness of differences and similarities between the countries involved in the project.

The project results will include presentations made by students, videos, media articles, posters, materials from workshops designed by experts and also by students, surveys applied to students, questionnaires results, project dissemination platforms, teachers’ guide to be used during the project based lessons.

Final products will include an e-book, a calendar, a photo-story and film/films made by students.

The teachers’ guide will be utilized during the project-based classes.

The partner schools will use the content of the project and they will gain a valuable experience needed to carry out similar project in the future.

Students will be more actively involved in different matters of their local community and they will be able to write articles about local issues.

Teachers will be more involved in school activities and they will become more motivated to work. The partner schools will expand their European partnership network.

 

 

 

Nowadays, most teenagers are becoming addicted to social media and their usage of smart phones takes nearly all their spare time. They almost forget about the importance of doing physical activity, not to mention the pleasure and satisfaction resulting from practicing sports on a professional level. According to the questionnaires carried out in all partner

schools, we found out that most children are not interested in sports and some are rather unwilling to change this attitude.

The project partners – PL, LT, TR, IT and RO intend to teach their students how to do sports regularly in a way that does not require too much effort or money and to indicate a number of attractive ways of achieving this goal. Due to the project, students will be shown plenty of alternatives of spending their spare time and they will be encouraged to go on improving their physical resistance. We want to show them the disadvantages of using social media as well. They are going to practise indoor and outdoor physical activities at both national and international levels. The activities will also help students to develop interpersonal and communication skills as well as exchange different opinions and ideas with peers from various countries. The students to be taking part in the project will develop teamwork skills, they will cooperate to analyse and develop different products showing different aspects of sport (photo-stories, calendars, e-books, posters, films, etc.) and they will increase their creativity, imagination, decision making skills and international cooperation.

We have planned 4 student exchanges and 1 joint-staff training event:

C1 – PL – Physical Education in secondary schools (joint-staff training event)

C2 – LT – Sport as an attractive way of spending spare time

C3 – TR – The importance of practising sport

C4 – IT – Dangers connected with practising some sports

C5 – RO – Sport as an important element of a healthy lifestyle

During C2-C5 students will do lots of exciting indoor and outdoor activities intended to improve both their physical strength and also a number of key skills needed in our modern world. There will be also workshops organized by experts and people professionally dealing with sport.

The purpose of the meetings and of the local activities too, will be to explain learners how to take advantage of practising sports, at first as amateurs and then as possible professionals.

During the meetings, professional sportsmen will inform students on different aspects of sport, including disadvantages and popular myths.

Helped by their teachers and ICT teachers, they will also design an e-book connected with the advantages and disadvantages of sports, they will develop a film showing them doing various indoor and outdoor sports ad they will develop a photo-story about a healthy lifestyle.

In C5, teachers will develop a useful guide that will comprise the most important information acquired during meetings and based on final products.

 

The aim of this partnership is to provide students who come from different cultures and social backgrounds with a multicultural context, to boost cooperation between learners and teachers from European countries and also to provide activities that will help students to become more aware of the role of sports, especially in today’s world full of isolated, lonely and stressed individuals who prove to have problems with personal communication.

Students’ critical thinking will be also developed as they will be taught about the disadvantages of extensive practice of sport, including some extreme sports.

Specific goals:

O1. Raising awareness regarding the importance of practicing sports on a regular basis;

O2. Promoting safe and reasonable practice of sport as a way to improve self-esteem and motivation;

O3. Helping students to develop an analysis of different kinds of sport taking into account its positive and negative aspects;

O4. Increasing critical thinking;

O5. Developing interactive and communication skills in international environments;

O6. Developing multicultural skills as well as raising European awareness;

O7. Boosting students’ creativity and imagination;

O8. Developing a multinational web of active teenage creators of products related to the subject from different European countries;

O9. Developing a web of responsible teachers who will promote the reasonable practice of sport in the teaching process.

Objectives number 4-7 are related Horizontal Priority number 1 as learners will improve their multilingual skills (exchanges, online contacts and work), they will be shown how to develop a calendar, e-book, films and a photostory, they will boost their creativity and critical thinking, collaboration (during workshops and activities practised at exchanges and online cooperation)

We have established objectives 1-4, 6, 8 according to another priority which intends to develop intercultural and social, critical thinking skills as well as raise awareness of sport, healthy eating and negative aspects of social media.

Both formal and non-formal project activities will also be developed in such a way that will prove that physical activity can be a very efficient instrument helping young people to become a highly motivated, confident and responsible adult.

The third priority deals with cross-curricular cooperation such as ICT, social studies, English and other activities which promote cooperation and creativity.

Final products: a calendar designed and managed by students that will comprise interesting, relevant slogans/sentences and photos taken by them, an e-book related to advantages and disadvantages of sport, a film about the importance of sports (showing them practising various indoor and outdoor sports) and a photo-story about a healthy lifestyle where physical activity plays the key role.

The extra product will be a teachers’ guide on how to implement the project based activities into the educational process.

 

 

 

 

The project activities will include the following groups:

- Students in the project work groups chosen at the beginning of the project (at least 20 students, aged 12-14, coming from different backgrounds, one third from disadvantaged students, gender balance should be kept). The groups will carry out the project tasks locally and they will be chosen for mobilities (80 learners in total).

Furthermore, they will disseminate the project as presenters, organizers or the audience members.

- Students who are outside the regular work group will also take part in the project work - they will take part in the meetings about the project presentation, they will help organize the mobility hosted by their school and they will also host students from other countries if they want to do so. They will take advantage of lessons led by teachers who took part in exchanges. This way the teachers will disseminate the results of mobilities. They will also get involved in designing posters or any other materials needed to carry out given tasks.

- At least 4-5 teachers from each country will have an active role in the project. At the beginning of the project, they will be given tasks according to their teachers’ field and experience. They will also monitor the accurate implementation of the project according to the application form and they will also organize activities before and after the exchanges held in their country. Accompanying teachers who will participate in C2-C5 may be chosen from this group or, if necessary, other teachers will take part in the events. Two teachers from the management team will participate in C1– the coordinator and another teacher (foreign language, PE, social studies, etc.).

Other teachers will be responsible mainly for organizational aspects such as lessons held during exchanges, transport, activities coordination, supervising students carry out the project tasks, monitoring communication with host families etc.

Dissemination meetings that will be organized after every mobility will be targeted to other teachers in order to keep them informed about the project progress. The school headmasters will be involved in logistic, resources identification, they will establish contacts with representatives of local media and any other organizational matters. Teachers will let them know about the project progress regularly and will also suggest possible solutions to any unexpected problems.

Students’ parents will help their children accomplish the assigned tasks, they will contribute to the organization of a meeting, they will take part in cultural events and they will host students from partner schools.

Experts from different institutions and companies will be involved in the project too - they will lead workshops and will offer students some advice if necessary throughout the project.

 

 

The project will be managed locally and also internationally.

The management of the partnership will provide clear cooperation as well as effective communication tools between the partners and regular online management consultations   will be planned. These meetings will also be held at the end of every mobility and during the transnational meeting. In the first meetings, tasks will be given to every partner, they will be told about the way of reporting, they will be informed on the achievement and assessment indicators and the plan for the whole project work will be agreed upon. During the management meetings during the exchanges we will discuss conclusions about a given event, if it was effective or not, what can be done to improve future interactions and we will also talk about the action plan and details of the next mobility and what tasks to accomplish

between the current event and the next one.

The Polish coordinator will develop a template partner report to be filled in and handed in every two months – to make that every partner does the reporting in the same responsible way.

Tools like eTwinning and Skype/Adobe Connect or others will be used on a regularly. It will depend on the purpose and the situation.

The management meetings will be held on Skype, while exchange related or implementation-related discussions will take place on eTwinning or via other communicators agreed upon by the partners.

E-mail will be used to distribute official documents and the e-mail list will comprise contact people from all the partner schools to develop it as clear as possible. WhatsApp will be used for short talks. Before every mobility, practical information such as the agenda and the things related to the students’ accommodation will be shared, at least two months in advance.

All the partners will have the same tasks as far as local activities implementation, choosing the project team and the students, creation of various kinds of materials, dissemination activities, monitoring and the project progress reporting, assessment and the project impact, contribution to final results, contacts with local media and financial management are considered.

However, every partner will have their own assigned tasks such as:

- PL will develop the dissemination plan, the final report and will submit the results on EPRP; the school will host and

assess C1, the school will establish the eTwinning project page;

- LT will also host and assess C2, they will establish and update the project FB page;

- TR will host and assess C3, they will design the website of the project, will manage and update it;

- IT will be responsible for monitoring the regular communication between partners, and it will also host and assess

C4;

- RO will be responsible for the final format of the teachers’ guide and methodology for implementing the project-based lessons at schools; it will host and assess C5.

 

 

The first selection stage will take place in September 2020.

The project will be promoted among the students in the target group (12-14) via messages, meetings, project presentation, meetings with parents, social media posts, school websites and groups.

Then, students will have to write a motivation letter that will include the reason why they want to participate in the project, they will also have to say how the project will

support their personal or academic improvement, to what extent they are experienced in the project subject and according to which personal features they should be chosen.

Additionally, their level of English will be tested via an interview to establish their interpersonal and communication skills.

Disadvantaged students will be chosen according to the same procedure, but while making the final decision, the fact that they are disadvantaged will be of utter importance.

We plan to involve at least seven students out of 24 in total.

Such a big work group will work together on the project tasks but they will be divided into smaller groups, according to their abilities. Before every exchange, the participants will be chosen according to their work quality and involvement.

The selection criteria will be presented on a special notice board or on the school website so the whole procedure will be transparent and known to all the project members and any other people who may be interested in it. For C2-C5 there will be 6 students and 2 teachers–the school coordinator of the project and another teacher whose level of English is at least at a communicative level and who is experienced in managing projects, involved in the project work and who can highly contribute to the meeting. We will also take into account the number of lesson plans suggested after every mobility. Preparation stage

The students will be prepared as it follows:

- The project tasks – the exchange topic will be given to them as well as all the relevant materials (it must be done at least 1.5 month in advance).

They will start working and they will be supervised by the project coordinator and another teacher who will take part in the exchange.

- The second selection stage will be made according to their involvement.

- Practical preparations- after the students have been chosen, we will organize a meeting with their parents. They will be informed on accommodation, food, costs

- Group insurance and flight tickets travel will be bought as soon as possible to lower the costs.

- Cultural preparations– students will be asked to do some research about the host country and the region and make a presentation about it.

- Linguistic preparations– English teachers will deliver language classes to develop students’ vocabulary on the topic and to improve students’ conversational skills.

Support

- additional support (financial, psychological) will be provided to students who will need it.

- students will communicate with their peers from other countries on eTwinning and/or social media.