Same but different

The title of our project “Same but different” opened diverse possibilities for working on and thinking about. The EU Strategy 2020 proclaims important strategic targets which were also addressed in this project: our schools tried to work on integration, inclusion and social protection in order to tackle poverty and social exclusion.Reducing the rates of early school leaving is a challenge for all of us and will enable children to live in dignity. The background is clear: Europe is in motion and the number of immigrants and refugees is still a challenge for politicians and for inhabitants of all European countries and especially for the European Educational Systems. In previous Comenius-Projects we had started with this as our target and we wanted to continue our work and to progress further.Our objective was, and is, to foster better understanding between people and cultures, to show the profits of diversity and finally to help prevent and resolve intercultural conflicts. We started in our schools with our students from different countries and with different cultures and religions and with different profiles. We were five schools from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain and combined a variety of school types from primary (Portugal) to secondary (Denmark, Germany and Spain) and vocational schools (Italy) which permitted different views on students. Some of us had students with migration backgrounds and with inclusion needs.Thus, we were able to combine our experiences and learn from each other. Through our activities we tried to develop intercultural competences, enhance learner autonomy and team competences by collaborative and experimental activities during our transnational meetings and the pre- and post processing. We are sure that the positive and motivating experiences we had will have a long-term effect on staff, current pupils and on colleagues in the future and lead to a more sustainable impact for each partner school.The main activities undertaken and the results attained during our transnational meetings are the following: a Logo-Competition and T-Shirts for students and teachers with the Logo to enhance corporate identityinformation about the school community by creating a school board with regular information > promotion and disseminationstudents presented themselves in eTwinning - profilesquestionnaires about personal experiences and attitudes towards discrimination, racism etc.used and created learning and teaching materials (analogue and digital ones) concerned with the Intercultural Gamesinclusive and intercultural games (this was a thread in all activities and meetings)exchange about future plans and dreams (“Tree of life”) and developing how to deal with stereotypes and prejudicesparticipation in an eTwinning Project: International School Day of Nonviolence in January 2017– with photos, posters, balloons, etc.external workshops with museums and cultural institutionscultural visits during learning activities and project meetingsmeeting asylum seekers and institutions which care for refugeesa “Fusion Menu” by cooking together and combining a variety of recipes from all partnerstreasure hunts in various countriesvideos made by students and staffphoto booksregular evaluations pre- and post processing of the activitiesattending classes in the foreign countriesexchange with colleagues and students to compare and discuss educational methods, different ways of inclusion etc.sport activitiescultural presentations (dances and traditional or local customs)creating a radio programme with (traditional and modern) music and interviews with the studentsa show with and for studentsICT- Workshops with studentsfarewell parties and presentation of resultsa “Book of Cultures” where all of us added our experiences during the activities.reports to the public in our homepages and local presscontacts and presentation of the project in an eTwinning platformSome longer-term benefits are the following:Students, families and staff were able to practise their foreign languages, especially Englishbecame more self-confident and motivated to make a greater effort to go on learningenhanced intercultural learning by our common activities and knowing the families, friends, schools and all day-life of our partnersfostered ICT-skills by creating chats, presentations, website- reports, videos, photo-books etc.Teachers of different countries started to discuss learning methods and materials and will keep in contact and go on exchanging ideas and materials. A further project is in progress in order to inclusive materials and supporting students with special needs.