The+Comenius+Programme

**The Comenius Programme ** **What is it? ** The Comenius programme was established by the [|European Union] , aimed at bringing students and teachers in different European countries together. Organisations involved in the school education sector from different European countries can work together in various ways through the programme:


 * [|Schools partnerships] : enable school co-operation and class exchanges;
 * [|Regio partnerships] : co-operation between different regions;
 * [|eTwinning] : internet platform for teachers and schools

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Comenius "mobility" actions enable individuals to travel abroad to take part in a project.These are also larger-scale actions, with organisations from different countries working together to develop, promote and disseminate good practice and innovation in school education.Comenius Assistantships give future teachers the opportunity to spend up to ten months at a host school in another European country, to enhance their knowledge of other European languages, countries and education systems, as well as to improve their teaching skills. Comenius In-Service Training grants enable teachers and other school education staﬀ to participate in in-service training activities in another country. Comenius School Partnerships support the cooperation between schools from diﬀerent European countries and invite them to implement joint learning projects for pupils and teachers. They help pupils and teachers to gain more knowledge in the project’s topic and improve their skills in teamwork, project management and information and communication technologies (ICT). Comenius Regio Partnerships support the cooperation of local and regional authorities with a role in school education. The eTwinning initiative takes advantage of the possibilities oﬀered by the Internet and digital media to promote European school cooperation, collaborative learning and project based pedagogy. Between the period 2000-2009, the Comenius project supported 466 multilateral projects and nearly 50 Comenius networks.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Schools apply for 2 years funding, and must wait a year between new projects/funding. A school can only apply for one Comenius project at any one time. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Some example Projects ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">VISTA **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">– Violence in schools training action: Developing whole school in-service training against violence in schools. Introducing more creativity and freedom in schools can, in view of extensive changes affecting the young generation, cause negative symptoms. Projects like VISTA, with both whole-school approaches and political initiatives, also provide useful suggestions as to how to cope with these problems. The main output was a one-week European in-service training course with an accompanying training manual and website. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">IIATM **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> - Implementation of Innovative Approaches to the Teaching of Mathematics (2003-2006): This project saw four expert institutions from the UK, Czech Republic, Greece and Germany work together to improve the learning of mathematics. They created a book titled: ‘Creative Teaching in Mathematics,’ which aims to make maths enjoyable. Field studies have shown that the project is developing a valuable way ahead in mathematics teaching. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Comenius at GFS - **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">As part of the Comenius Programme, five European schools (in England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and including GFS in Germany), are in partnership. They collectively produce Newsletters in which students write articles on school and community news, for example: projects such as the environmental project at GFS, school renovations, work experience, school trips and local cultural events. In March 201, students from all five students met in Diepholz to work together and discover the rich heritage and future of the Neiderschsen region.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">PRESENTIA **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">– Training of School Education Staﬀ on School Absenteeism in students from 12–16 years old: Lack of schooling and low or irregular attendance is often a symptom of family situations and/or socio-economic disadvantage. Schools, parents, public institutions and other support systems came together in Presentia to help reduce absenteeism. The protocol created proposes following a cycle of detection and assessment, intervention, follow-up and referral or termination of speciﬁc cases, together with a holistic focus on inclusive practices. It also recommends who must act, how, and when. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">For more information, see the website <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #800080; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: auto;">[] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">-Interview- ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">We spoke to a teacher at <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: auto;">[|Gymnázium //Zlín//] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">, who has recently become involved in setting up a Comenius project involving a school in France and a school in England. The project is based around sustainable development - school gardens will be established where students can work and they will think about things like //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">where does their food come from? // //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Who pays for the transport? // And, //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">how many calories do you take in everyday? // <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">I asked the teacher how her and the school got involved in this project: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">“One of our former students, she was in France and she got in contact with the school and they emailed us and we were like ‘Yes, yes, yes! We will go for it.’ So we applied for the preparatory visit and I went there, three weeks ago, just to see. And we agreed on everything and we were on skype conference with the other [English] school.” // <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">There are several advantages in such a project. The opportunity for students to improve their language skills and the experience of travelling to another country, meeting people from different cultures and sharing ideas//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">. // Such projects can open minds.//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> “They might go for summer, they might make friends.” //In this particular project, there is also the hope that students will gain more insight into the topic ‘sustainable development’: //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">“Maybe they will start thinking about this food, okay, it comes from China, it gets here on a ship. Someone has to pay for it.” //For the school, projects such as this can add to their prestige and reputation. “//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">And also, we are encouraged to work across all the subjects. So now we can involve Biology, cos we can go in the garden together with the Biology Teachers. And this also seems to be very useful for the school.” // <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">We also asked her what difficulties or problems she had run across. The main problem was //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">time. // <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">“As a normal teacher, teaching 26 lessons a week, I don’t have much time to do the paper work. And there is a lot of paper work involved! So I do this in my spare time, and Yes I went for one week to France, but so much work behind this, people often don’t realise. And in France, they have people specially for this, working only on the projects, filling in all the paperwork. But here, you must do it whenever, and you are not paid for it.” // <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">The same was also true when we enquired about interdisciplinary learning. At the moment, organising interdisciplinary links between existing classes requires time that many teachers simply do not have. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">‘Let’s do it for our students. For our future, maybe.’ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Many thanks to Petra for her interview! :)