Contact Person: Ms Llucia Mercadal Garcia
IES Josep Maria Quadrado was founded in 1953. It is placed on an island, on the western coast: it is isolated both to be on an island and on the west coast. Besides, Menorca is not the main island of the Balearic Islands, so in fact we are subject a double insularity (from the continent and about Majorca). Moreover, the mother language spoken for most of the students is Catalan, although, at the same official status as Spanish. Menorca was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, in recognition of its high environmental values. The insular condition of Menorca and its geographical location in the center of the western Mediterranean, explains its rich history and heritage. Our school has an important number of immigrant students from the entire world. Most students are local, some others come from other villages in the island attracted by our educational programs, especially vocational studies and there is a great number of students taking part in educational programs for students with disadvantages and disabilities, and also for
talented students. Some of students cannot afford to pay for the class books so they participate in the so called “recycling books program”. Due to the fact of living in a small island, an educative program is the only way for most students to go abroad, to have cultural experiences or scholar exchanges. So for most of our students this is the only possibility of a European experience. That’s why with the cheapest possible transportation and living cost our students have had much more mobility than required. The international relationship of our school has been very intensive since 2000. We have involved in Comenius projects and others for 12 years. The most of our high school has been involved in Comenius projects and other school projects, even those ones who –because of several reasons (e.g. financial, linguistics, social, etc.)- at the beginning did not want to join. We have never had any problem or trouble with students or participants: they are usually active, open-minded, and ready to work and learn, both in team and individually. Our students speak Catalan and Spanish. They study English as a foreign language and some also study French (our high school is also involved in an exchange program with a school of Valence, France). Some groups are involved in the program of European Sections in English. We believe participation in international programs is an excellent opportunity to improve English skills and know other cultures.
Panayia Theoskepasti High School
Contact Person:
Panagia Theoskepasti Gymnasium, is a Public Secondary School, situated in a picturesque seaside area near the archaeological center which is the heart and pearl of our small town, Paphos. It is a multicultural school that has only recently been established -2002-. It hosts 340 pupils and 50 teachers. About fifty per cent of our pupils come from immigrant families from several European countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, England and also others like Georgia, Russia, Syria, etc. Many of them face several problems like racism, xenophobia and poverty. These characteristics of our school resulted to list it in a different category of schools facing similar problems, called EPA, (Educational Priority Area). Pupils who face these problems usually tend to leave school so they are induced in this program, (EPA) and follow a certain
daily schedule which is different but parallel to the regular school timetable and we manage to keep them in school and avoid dropouts. We are also involved in Ecological projects and we participate in international and European contests and programs such as PISA, Young Reporters, Mentor and others.
Our town, Pafos is situated in the southwest of Cyprus, about 12 km away from Pafos international airport. About 30,000 people live in Pafos which is mostly a tourist area. It’s located near the sea with beautiful beaches and it is full of important antiquities. That’s why it has been declared by UNESCO, a town of international cultural heritage, a thing which made us very proud. Unfortunately our island has been divided by force into two parts since 1974.The North part is occupied illegally by the Turkish army. Despite the continuous negotiations and talks between our leaders there has not been any fair solution to unite the island yet. This is our national issue which made us find this project interesting as we do feel isolated and would like to meet people with a similar problem. Another factor is that we are geographically isolated as we live in an island. Our school has always been innovative and has been taking part in European and international projects (already three
international prizes). We consider it a priority to cooperate with other educational institutions and bring our pupils in contact with pupils from other countries to meet and accept people with different cultures, learn languages, get experiences, and get prepared to enter the real world without xenophobia and racism and become conscious European citizens.
Bundeshandelsakademie und Bundeshandelsschule Judenburg
Contact Person: Ms Elisabeth Cresnar
The BHAK/BHAS Judenburg was founded 38 years ago. Originally, the need for the foundation of a commercial school had been recognized by a group of entrepreneurs in the small town of Judenburg, who initiated a private commercial school that was taken over by the federal state. Judenburg used to be a well-known flourishing trading post in medieval and post-medieval times, in the industrial revolution it developed into a busy “steel town”. In recent times, however, demographic trends reveal a tendency to leave the smaller towns in the Mur Valley and migrate to the capital of the federal province. The preference for big shopping areas located outside the town centers has left its traces in the once busy high street. Our school has a good reputation and this helps us to maintain a comparatively high number of students in spite of these demographic trends. From the very start of the HAK Judenburg, both teachers and the management have focused on widening the students’ horizons: We introduced French and Spanish in addition to English as foreign languages, we motivated students to go abroad, if possible, to do work practice abroad, to spend a year-or half a year in (mostly) English speaking countries. “Think globally, act locally” was (and still is!) one of our mottoes. Meanwhile, things have changed, because we have many immigrant students who, in most cases, cannot afford travels and stays abroad. We know that well educated students are a very valuable asset for any country, especially for an area, where recession is leaving its mark. In addition, we support integration of students with immigrant background through arranging sponsored activities, projects that link both immigrant and Styrian students in order to enlarge mutual understanding of different cultural backgrounds. The group of students who will –if we have the chance –participate in this project are highly motivated to work at a subject, exchange ideas with colleagues from abroad, they are curious and very expectant. They attend a class that is specializing on soft skills and team work; this is why I think that they will benefit enormously from taking part in such a project.
Jurisich Miklós Gimnázium (JMG)
Contact Person: Mr István Mátrai
Jurisich Miklós Secondary Grammar School can be found in the 800-year-old small city, Kőszeg often called the jewelry box of Hungary. This is the oldest grammar school of the county: it was established more than 334 years ago. Its current building is 104 years old, where a very open-minded faculty teaches about 450 students aged 14 to 19. Because of our attractive programs (bilingual education, advanced groups, program for disadvantaged but talented students) our school is attractive. One third of the students is from Kőszeg, another third lives at the dormitory. Mentally or physically the students are not disadvantaged, but many of them have serious financial problem. Also – as all over Europe – less and less students live in a complete family. For most of our students this is the only possibility of a European experience. (That’s why with the cheapest possible transportation and living cost we have always had much more mobility than required.) The international relationship of our school has been very intensive for a long time. We have been involved in Comenius projects for 13 years. The 70 % of the faculty have been involved in these projects, even those ones who – because of several reasons (e.g. linguistic) – at the beginning did not want to join. We have never had a problem with student participation: they are active, open minded, ready to work both in team and individually; host guest students, organize exhibitions, give lectures, etc. To summarize why we would like to take part in this project we have to mention the followings:
A really good, open school has to help its students to get acquainted with culture, mentality of other nations. Our students would like to take part in interesting programs, learn more and more from each other with benefiting the advantages of the project work. The big majority of the faculty would like to take part in the project because this way not only our students but also ourselves learn a lot with this. For all of our students – particularly for the students of the bilingual teaching program participation in any project is a great opportunity, but during our projects so far the students also had the chance to study a bit from other languages. In this project – as also in some previous projects – our institution will be the coordinator. This does not mean we will play a dominant role in the project. All partners will be identical, except for the administration – it will be our responsibility.
Participanse (JMG)
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