The first exchange visit of the project

CONTEXT
The first short-term exchange of groups of pupils within the Erasmus + project “Hand to Hand – Together in Europe”, reference number 2018-1-RO01-KA229-049337, took place between 25th February and 1st March, 2019. The visit was hosted by the cluster “Agrupamento de Escolas de Samora Correia” located in a suburban area in western Portugal.
“Agrupamento de Escolas de Samora Correia” has 9 educational establishments, the Headquarters School, as well as the Basic School of Porto Alto. It also comprises 2 elementary schools, 2 basic schools and 2 kindergartens. The organisation serves 2,091 pupils, 142 pupils with Special Educational Needs and has 153 teachers. Two of the schools are known as reference schools at the level of Autism and Multi-deficiency.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY
The first short-term exchange of groups of pupils hosted by the partner school from Samora Correia was dedicated to the activity of the club “Nature wonders”, on the topic “Cultural and intercultural dimensions”, and had as main objectives promoting the natural heritage from all partner counties, as well as exposing the target groups of pupils to the Portuguese education system and culture.
MONDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2019
The first day was dedicated to the meeting of the five teams representing all partner organisations involved in the project: Romania, Italy, Turkey, Latvia and Portugal (as host country). Each team comprised 8 participants, out of which 2 teachers and 6 pupils aged 12-15.
The first activity organised by the hosting school involved all participating students and teachers and aimed at improving civic responsibility and behaviour, teamwork, empathy, learning to understand and accept differences, dealing with feeling and managing emotions. The warm-up activity took place in the school Gym and was a funny and entertaining way of knowing each-other better, communicating and interacting.
The guests were also invited to visit the cluster “Agrupamento de Escolas de Samora Correia” and have a walking tour in the city of Samora Correia to visit the church and the Palace of Infantado in order to get familiar with the Portuguese educational system and with the architecture and specificity of the area.
The second part of the day was dedicated to the planned activities within the club “Nature Wonders”. Each partner school prepared a PowerPoint Presentation of 5 different activities contributing to environmental protection which were presented in turn by the pupils involved. They also talked about all the activities carried out and the works created within the club “Nature wonders” from November 2018 until February 2019.
TUESDAY, 26TH FEBRUARY 2019
The second day of the mobility started with a walking tour in Lisbon where we visited Jeronimos Monastery (Mosteriro dos Jeronimos), one of the most important landmarks of Portugal and the Coaches Museum (Museu dos Coches) where we could admire the largest and most valuable collection of coaches in the world.
Both the teachers and the students were also involved in a team activity called “Amazing Race” which was meant to improve communication skills between participants, team spirit, multi-cultural dialogue and experience, self-acceptance, positive attitude and to increase civic and environmental responsibility. The activity was also a great opportunity to find and admire, at the same time, some of the most important and fascinating buildings in Lisbon.
WEDNESDAY, 27TH FEBRUARY 2019
On the third day of the mobility we had the opportunity to visit Companhia das Lezirias, the largest agriculture, cattle and forest farmstead in Portugal. The visit contributed to educating participants to think “green” and to broaden their knowledge of vines and rice, livestock, bee breeding and cork plantations.
The activities continued on the hosting school premises and referred to the importance of preserving cultural heritage and patrimony and to local and national cultural and tourist events. The pupils had the opportunity to promote the tourism in the countries and areas where they come from, through presentations of different tourist events. The teams raised the interest of the participants through the informative materials about some national festivals related to the environment in their country. They also presented educational materials on the preservation of the natural heritage of each country emphasising details about some of the most fascinating places in the world.
The dinner organised by the hosting parents was a great opportunity to get into direct contact with the local community and with the Portuguese traditional cuisine.
THURSDAY, 28TH FEBRUARY 2019
Another activity promoting healthy lifestyle in harmony with nature was the visit to the Guincho beach area of Cascais, popular for surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. Here, both the pupils and the teachers were involved in various sports activities aimed at improving personality and civic behaviour, interaction, tolerance and positive communication.
FRIDAY, 1ST MARCH 2019
The last day of the mobility was dedicated to choosing the finalist logo of the project through an online vote by the pupils. Also, the hosting coordinator administered an online feedback questionnaire in order to assess the opinions of all participants about the activities carried out during the short-term exchange of groups of pupils.
The programme of the day also included a meeting with all coordinating teachers to discuss about the project’s execution and to analyse the project’s progress. There were also discussions about the project activities which should be carried out for the second short-term exchange of groups of pupils in Turkey, as well as organisational and financial issues.
The second part of the day was dedicated to signing official papers and giving certificates of attendance. We also expressed our gratitude to our hosts for their hospitality and for all the work they put in organising the project activities.
CONCLUSIONS
The activities hosted by the partner school from Samora Correia were highly compatible with the pupils’ learning development needs and had a maximum impact both on them and on the participating teachers. Participation in this mobility benefited the involved participants through the objectives pursued: awareness of policies and procedures aimed at conserving natural resources, preserving the current state of natural environment and reversing its degradation, better solutions to help manage a wide range of environmental problems and challenges facing our world today, open-air educational activities contributing to environmental protection, promotion of digital learning and improvement of digital skills, sharing an overall picture of the European Cultural Patrimony involvement and greater proximity to national cultural heritage.
Participating in this project mobility brought teachers the opportunity to improve their knowledge of other educational systems (curricula, evaluation, education polices, status, working hours, salaries), to improve the social and organisational competences which contribute to their professional development, to develop their ICT proficiency and to increase the level of motivation, satisfaction and willingness to integrate new methods of teaching in class.
The overall experience of participating in the first short-term exchange of groups of pupils in Portugal was highly positive and proved to be the beginning of a very efficient and beneficial collaboration between the partner organisations involved.