Sports and Diversity

"The 6 participating schools (Bulgarian, French, Italian, Greek, Maltese and Polish) were both qualified and beginner partners, which allowed collaboration through the transfer of past experiences to help implement the planned activities. The agreed working theme ""Sport and diversity"" allowed the transmission of universal messages of tolerance and friendship. It allowed also for the development of team spirit and teamwork, with students working together on European heritage and sports-related issues. Our collaboration has helped to promote the values and benefits of sport, to develop personal links through creative workshops, to enrich the participants with cultural diversity and contacts between European countries.The planned activities on cultural diversity and sport helped participants to :-promote awareness of the European Union, -learnt to apprehend cultural and linguistic differences,-attain the set learning objectives, -collaborate on workshop activities, -deepen their knowledge of the language, culture and sports of the host country. LTTAs also allowed European teachers to exchange good practices and points of view (e.g. on existing facilities, lesson planning, student supervision), compare their career paths, discover different working methods, work instructions, warm-up sessions, techniques (collective and/or individual).All partners have developed the physical activities of participating students by implementing innovative outdoor activities (e.g. climbing and hiking). They were innovative because outdoor activities are never taught in urban schools and have never been practiced internationally.The fruits of our work were beneficial for the students, as we all contributed to raising awareness of a European culture of interactive collaboration through workshops and sports practices.Non-traditional sports events (outdoor physical activity, local sports competition, sightseeing and orienteering) allowed the students to identify local sports habits. The workshops were an opportunity for students to reflect and exchange views on sports issues among participants such as disability, equal opportunities, gender equality, managing safety measures, bad behaviour, doping and cheating."