Our project challenged school communities to explore The European Cultural Heritage of all partners and engage in the wider curriculum through Pastimes, Sport and Craft, relating to cultural heritage. The activities documented in this mobility tool, were linked to curriculum requirements and respective School Development Plans. Through physical and virtual mobilities, independent tasks and careful monitoring of results, attainment was boosted and educational targets were achieved collaboratively.We addressed the problems and issues each partner faced through collaborative activities. We learned about each cultural heritage through meetings, physical and online, organised activities and involvement of twider school communities. We built on relationships to ensure participants and individuals/groups felt welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to participate in school /community life. Every participant learned something valuable about themselves, countries, personal well-being and well-being of peers. They were encouraged to learn transferable skills which now have positive impact on interpersonal skills towards peers and counterparts in school, local community, Europe and beyond.Sporting, crafting, practical activities and social interactions took place using a range of teaching /learning methodology, (Soft, Visual, Auditory and kinaesthetic skills,) Visits, presentations/sharing of information and pastimes boosted the holistic, contextual learning of history, geography, humanities, science, foreign languages, mathematics, literacy, culture and The Arts.Motivation of staff and children increased, well balanced citizens have emerged, who are more able to impact and shape the future cohesion of communities, bridge gaps between age, gender, disability, ability, race and religion. Personal and professional skills have also been challenged by new and interesting ideas, methodology, exchanges and observation, presenting itself in a deeper understanding of theoretical/methodological practice learnt from professionals, experts and peers - invaluable CPD, raising standards in teaching and chances for career progression. Participants from different social backgrounds experienced mobility, facilitating accurate interpretation of situations and enabling them to rationalise/modify their own understanding of other communities and draw unprejudiced comparisons and conclusions, based on their own thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours through positive interactions.Changed perspectives were achieved through the project activities.We explored and learned about cultural inheritance of Pastimes, which have passed down from previous generations representing history, identity, values and traditions. We invited lots of parents, Grandparents and children to share their pastimes together, giving opportunity to work in intergenerational settings, schools, homes, museums, community centres and schools. We visited visit historical monuments and buildings/ archaeological sites, towns and the natural environment and landscape, explored traditions, social practices, craftsmanship and knowledge and skills transmitted from generation to generation within a community which has rejuvenated interest which will now be preserved for future generations. It was reported that reduced time is spent on electronic games, TV and social media sites, that it has inspired everyone to explore traditional/new ways to offer inclusive activities relating to their own cultures, customs, traditions and beliefs, socialise, interact and communicate for themselves and encouraged their own active health and personal well being and motivation to learn. All activities can be adapted or differentiated for participation at an age and stage appropriate level and helped them to discover new skills and practise sociability, tolerance and to celebrate the cultural diversity of other peers across Europe. It provided an extension of intercultural/intergenerational participation and family learning opportunities and resulted in physical and shared collection of pastimes, activities, games and teaching resources,Increased sociability and motivation, confidence, social participation, creativity and educational achievement. We introduced a wider range of hobbies and pastimes which encourage children and adults to take managed risks and develop their own safeguarding skills, Enhance outdoor learning opportunities and problem solving skills We now have a shared bond with peers across Europe of belonging to, engaging with and preserving/protecting extended European community and collective cultural heritage It taught us to balance Inclusion and equity of all stakeholders and bridge the current gap in diversity, inclusivity, quality of teaching and learning and social networking opportunities. Our project has provided an exciting vehicle which everyone can drive forward at their own pace and in the direction which suits their needs and the needs of others

The project “Filmmaking journey: From scratch to screen” aimed at experiencing the value of film and its creation in education. It focused on educating students to use video in ways that are educationally enhancing, responsible and empowering. Through collaborative structured filmmaking projects our students learnt such skills and techniques as scriptwriting, understanding of lighting and sound, camera angles and different types of shots, storyboarding and scene planning, and video editing. We also created the right environment for the development of other valuable skills such as how to work collaboratively, assign roles, negotiate aims and meet deadlines, all of which was done in the target language (English), thus creating opportunities for genuine communicative language use. The project started with basic filmmaking training for the project coordinator and colleagues from each partner school during the first transnational meeting in order to have a clearly defined starting point from which our level of expertise could be increased. The training was conducted by an English-speaking expert from our associated partner The FMK Trnava in Slovakia. The trained participants collaboratively created the basic content of a filmmaking manual, which was gradually further expanded after each of the students' trainings (camera work, script-writing, lighting, sound, and video editing carried out either during the short-term student exchanges or online collaborative sessions on our TwinSpace), and eventually published online to help other teachers and students with school filmmaking activities. In a further step, the teachers also agreed in advance on the samples of various short films genres which were screened by our students separately in each institution and which followed a short introduction of short films background and theory. The schools also formed “Film clubs“, where after-viewing discussions about filmmaking, film ideas, and film messages were developed. Afterwards, five international groups (of 10-20 students from each country) were formed and the students discussed and chose some of the concepts and issues of media literacy to be explored through their collaborative process of short films making. The process itself was divided into 3 stages: pre-production (carried out mostly online through different online platforms but during personal meetings of students as well), production (carried out during short-time exchanges of students), post-production (the students' editing collaboration online and in the professionally-equipped film and radio studio on the premises of the FMK Trnava, Slovakia, assisted by filmmaking professionals). During all this joint learning and work, five international short films were created, which were officially screened by a wide public at the very last short exchange of students in Slovakia. The films were screened within the two-part “video news“, whose main goal was to cover all the most significant events and steps in the lifetime of the project. After the screening, the viewers were also invited to see the photo exhibition “Behind the scenes“, which depicted the project through the pictures taken during our meetings. However, apart from media literacy short films produced in joint-international teams, other forms of video production were explored, by having students also taken part in the two film competitions announced by the project coordinators and created additional short films in small national teams which were sent to different short film competitions and won different prizes. The project “Filmmaking journey: From scratch to screen” opened up completely new horizons for all participants. It brought such new experience, skills, and abilities to our students and teachers that its official end will definitely not mean the end of our filmmaking journey. For all of us, this project was just the beginning of our further quest into filmmaking.

Democratic Thinking in Education as a Medium to Overturn prejudices and Stereotypes is a KA229 School Exchange Partnership that involves 6 schools from Cyprus,Italy,Portugal,Spain,Belgium&Bulgaria.This idea will act as a vivid reaction to today’s challenges of great linguistic,cultural,educational,economic,technological&ethnic diversity in the school community at local&EU level.The study of the principles of Democracy linked to toleration,inclusion&empathy as agents for positive development&mutual understanding will give wider dimension to the EU concepts of active citizenship,civic engagement,social responsibility&respect for heterogeneity.The cultivation of democratic thinking in students as a learning living attitude by means of cooperative interaction&sharing of ideas is in accordance with the project’s strategic goal to raise a future generation with profound democratic values.Over the years,each participating school welcomed students of different origin&diverse socio-economical backgrounds thus all multiethnic schools try to embrace these differences&enhance all teaching practices,methodologies&ongoing strategies.The implementation of all short-term exchanges of students will stimulate all participants’ critical sense,encourage creativity&foster participation in activities evolved in the school community.Through commitment&creativity,school partnerships will generate strong community spirit,which makes a school more than just a building:it creates a learning environment where students feel the commitment of their fellow students,their headmaster,their teachers&their parents.This shared commitment will make the common goal a reality-better education.By implementing certain approaches to volunteerism,community involvement,team-building&collaborative learning,DEMOS will take a multicultural&transdisciplinary character,respecting different needs&points of view.Unfortunately,lack of motivation&participation sometimes arises so it’s upon the teachers’ ability&the programme’s sphere of engagement to inspire&empower students to become open-minded.Combining teaching with multimedia tools will motivate the majority of the digital born to take advantage of their digital skills&take targeted actions in the school community.The number of participants travelling abroad will be 4 students aged 13-17 with 2 accompanying persons.From the 1st transnational meeting,every partner school will have a clearer view of the partnership activities&the schedule of visits will be organized&further discussed amongst them.By recognising that «what we do not know,what we do not understand&what we fear» might change the mutual cultural perception,democratic collaborative participation will reduce isolation,increase tolerance&integrate the school community into the project’s idea of bringing EU citizens of different cultural backgrounds to work together under the same task.This project will raise its participants’ sense of responsibility&ability to work in a team of different people&it will also enrich their linguistic competence,using English as vehicular language for mutual understanding via online chats,e-mail conversations,videos&postcards.In terms of school’s long-term potential benefits,DEMOS project will improve all teachers’ daily teaching practice in launching different models of work in order to achieve better results&improve their IT skills in the learning process under the veil of multiculturalism.Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are expected to become more motivated,have more self-esteem,be able to live up to their capacity&have more faith in education,focusing on their talents&personal competences.The discovery of unique cultural assets&heritage in conjunction with the study of democratic culture at the school by networking with peers from different countries,can make teaching less bookish&more alive,giving actual meaning to learning too.All those involved in the project’s activities&multicultural events will act as multipliers of the new knowledge,skills&competences gained during the project,cultivating the notion that EU’s cultural diversity can be an advantage&not a disadvantage and, of course, can lead to a multicultural unity.As a conclusion,learning how to be an active EU citizen in a democratic multicultural community,while triggering a critical reflection on the meanings of social exclusion,marginalization,stereotypes&prejudices,is indeed a rigorous yet fruitful task.The students’ motivation to collaborate productively in conjunction with the usage of innovative pedagogical practices in the areas of e-learning&digital technologies will strengthen all participants’ self-confidence&it will reinforce aspects of cultural identity&tolerance building&brighten the schools’ international perspective.An education system elaborated in accordance with the founding principles of democracy&the human rights promotes the development of key competences&social practices that will foster togetherness&solidarity.

"CONTEXT/BACKGROUND Globalisation and modernisation are creating an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. To be active member of this world, individuals need to master changing technologies and to make sense of large amounts of available information. They also face collective challenges as societies – such as balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability, and prosperity with social equity. At the same time, competences are also a crucial factor in the ways that individuals help shape the world itself, not just to cope with it. OBJECTIVES Our project goal was to foster in students the required skills and abilities to ""decode"", cope with and improve the society around them: individual competences are a fundamental key for the success both of individuals and of the entire society. The role of the school system is therefore crucial in such phase: as individual competences are needed to help accomplish collective goals, the enhancement of key competences needs to be guided by an understanding of shared values of which teachers must be responsible and active agents. PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS The international dimension of DE.CO.D.E. represented an added value: colleagues from different parts of Europe worked cooperatively to reinforce the young human capital that is supposed to play a critical role in the future European economic, social and political performance. Most involved teachers have had experience in previous Erasmus+, so each of them brought their expertise for the final success; the teachers who were at their first experience were tutored by the expert ones, in a climate of international and mutual exchange of good practices. If the total mobilities were 185 (131 pupils/54 teachers), the overall number of involved people was much higher because even non-travelling students and teachers were involved in curricular and extracurricular activities, as a preparatory phase to each mobility and associated outcomes. ACTIVITIES/METHODOLOGY All schools and teachers worked transversally on the development of the 8 competences, so the innovative aspect of the project was given mostly by the methodology we used, not from the topic itself: the achievement of the transversal long-life competencies was guaranteed by the direct involvement of students, who became active and creative subjects themselves while mind-mapping, planning and carrying out activities in a cooperative and flipped environment. Students took part to create a set of ACTIVITIES which were carried out both before and during each mobility (including budget management and fund raising activities to develop sense of entrepreneurship): 1 “Listen to me""(repeated at each mobility) 2 “Surfing the net, surfing the history” 3 “My Erasmus travel experience”(repeated at each mobility) 4 ""A history of migration: yesterday and today"" 5 ""What colour are you?” 6 “Our shared cultural heritage"" 7 “The digital citizen: the 9 Ps"" 8 ""Cyber-education” 9 ""Let's STEM ourselves"" 10 ""I can create business"" 11 ""Budget Report"" 12 ""Gadget Report"" 13 ""Activity Report"" The entire project was carried out by dividing tasks and respecting schedules under the supervision of the coordinating school; all activities were regularly monitored and assessed. RESULTS/IMPACT The project furnished a framework of key competencies consisting of a set of specific competencies, bound together in an integrated approach. In a society where individuals are expected to be adaptive but also innovative, creative, self-directed and self-motivated, the DE.CO.D.E. went beyond the basic reproduction of accumulated knowledge: all activities aimed as a final result at involving a mobilisation of cognitive and practical skills, creative abilities and other psychosocial resources such as attitudes, motivation and values. At the centre of our planned activities was the promotion of our students' ability to think for themselves as an expression of moral and intellectual maturity, and to take responsibility for their learning and for their actions, for both their present and for future life. LONG TERM BENEFITS All the project results have become part of our curricula, to be exploited as OERs by all schools' staff (the official website will remain active for 3 years after the project end). If the short term impact will be measured while developing the project, the long term impact will need to be monitored, under the supervision of the coordinating school, for 3 years after finishing activities(in line with the dissemination plan).The potential long term benefits will be: - deeper understanding of the necessity of 8 competences within a lifelong learning perspective - a change of mindset in involved participants, resulting in a greater awareness and willingness to give one's contribution to improve the European society as active citizens on the move - higher school visibility, internationalization and desire to take part to future Erasmus+."

The general aim of this partnership has been to offer an interactive and multidisciplinary approach to the students’ knowledge of the Roman heritage in our everyday life. This approach has raised awareness of their European past and present as well as improved their digital literacy, communication in a second language and motivation towards learning.The five participating schools needed to improve their multidisciplinary teaching and innovation processes as well as their students’ key competences, academic achievement and motivation. Participating in the project has improved the schools’ teaching methods and increased challenge, innovation and motivation among teachers and students. It has become a significant input to help develop key competences and help students achieve their fullest potential.The project has been addressed to 12-16 year- old students and their main task has been to research and decide collaboratively on the contents for the INTERACTIVE TOOL we have designed which opens on pages with a basic DOMUS and a FORUM image both as representative spaces of Roman private and public life. It has been made up out of the collaborative work done by students, representative of the specific cultures united into a common European dimension. Students have gathered as much information from our own towns and heritage as possible and done research on different topics with the help of teachers from different subjects which have been involved at each school: Arts, Latin, History, Maths, Technology, Computer Science, Science and obviously English. They have worked on many different OUTPUTS: videos, historical recreations, book of recipes, Genial.ly presentations, impersonations, Kahoot games, Power Points, word glossaries, visual catalogues, e-magazines, etc. We have established different WORK LINES (engineering and architecture, transport and communications, social life (family, institutions and laws), food (olive tree, wine and cereal) and traditions, entertainment (theatre, gladiators) to be researched by students along the project. The results were shared and discussed at the short-term learning activities and decisions on what to include on the interactive tool were made.All the activities and outputs have been uploaded to both TWINSPACE and the PROJECT WEBPAGE which are structured into different sections related to the project. Our Etwinning project has been awarded the Spanish and the Portuguese Quality Label.Teachers involved in the project have also worked throughout the two years on THREE CLIL UNITS on Roman heritage in our everyday life. They have meant a lot of hard and collaborative work among the group of teachers but their contents and activities are very varied with an attractive and interactive presentation. They can be easily integrated into any school curricula and can provide any teacher with an interactive and easy to use resource. The units include collaborative tasks made by students at every short-term learning activity. They have meant a great opportunity for our professional growth as this multidisciplinary project has implied the acquisition of a wide range of competences.Teachers and students have worked on the topics in international teams following the project general plan discussed at the first transnational meeting and then revised at every teachers’ meeting we have had. Every coordinator has worked with a COORDINATING TEAM at each school. This team of teachers planned tasks and activities to be done by themselves or other involved teachers in the COLLABORATIVE TEAM, those who worked on specific topics on the project. That way there has been a good number of teachers involved in the project in most schools.TWO TRANSNATIONAL MEETINGS were financed by the Erasmus+ grant. During the first one the team of coordinators and teachers discussed the main topics of the project and planned what to do throughout the two years. The last one helped us to revise, gather and evaluate most of the things we have done and to plan the time to prepare the final report and what we must upload to the Erasmus+ platform result. Head teachers or school representatives were invited to the meetings to know how the project was being developed.Our FOUR SHORT TERM LEARNING ACTIVITIES have been a success. We had a plan of work and leisure activities for the five days and collaborative work planned for both teachers and students. The IMPACT of the project results on students, teachers, families and participant organizations at local and regional level has been assessed by different types of questionnaires, by video interviews and by direct observation. Two reports have been written on the assessment of the project.We strongly believe that the main outputs of this project (Interactive tool, CLIL UNITS) can benefit educational institutions as well as European schools and that it may have a great impact at all levels. They are freely accessible to the public at the website of the project.