2005/2006 Seventh Meeting
Oulx - Italy
Final Summary
G.R.Y.B.B.
GREEN – RED – YELLOW – BLUE – BLACK
The colours of friendship and solidarity
“To live in a school where you study to know the world, and where you want to understand the world in all its complexities”
This is the objective which has characterised, over the last years, the start and development of this international project at the state school of further education “Luigi Des Ambrois”. At the base of all this is the knowledge that “...to get to know others can be a big help to us in affronting different problems, because you have got to know a variety of cultures and ideas which put another perspective on things in general”.
1) Enthusiasm
An objective, an idea, an ambitious project which come together in a moment when we feel the need to give concrete answers to a specific question of our territory :
“Is it possible to do sport on an agonistic level and at the same time frequent a school, and obtain good results from both ? What strategies are used in the E.C. to combine sport activities with study ? What type of organization is used ? And how well is sport combined with varied ethnic values, with health, with respect for the environment and with scientific progress ?”
What better occasion to find out all these ideas than with the school project of “Comenius” development, and what better occasion to spread these ideas of sport values than the mountainous area which next February and March will be under the lights of the whole world for the Olympics and Paralympics for “Torino 2006”!
The project started in 2002, with some of the teachers from our school who were interested in all these ideas just mentioned, and who wanted to put together their ideas of teaching combined with sport. But you can’t just invent foreign partners. You have to work at it. And after three long and strenuous years, we have got to know and worked with various colleagues from Minorca (Spain), Koszeg (Hungary), Hoorn (Holland), Embrun (France), and Odry (Czech Republic - CZ). This working group used one language common to all – English – not spoken that well at first, but improving all the time and finalizing in the official document for the national agencies.
2) The idea
Sport is health. Sport is culture, local costumes and expression of values. Sport is respect for others and the environment in which we live. Sport is technology, scientific and social progress. Sport is history, communication, but it is also a game. Only an event such as the Olympics can bring together all these aspects and only one flag, the Olympic flag, can unite with its five colours these values, and those of friendship and solidarity. The programme of development of this project, distributed over three years from 2003 to 2006, saw to associate to each Olympic circle a colour; and to the colour some key-words and therefore a theme following the educational programme of “TOROC” – the organising committee of the 20th Olympic Winter Games “Torino 2006”.
School year 2003-2004 : Blue Circle : Education towards being healthy; - food and correct alimentation – doping – security in sport.
School year 2004-2005 : Yellow Circle : Sport and science, sport and sport culture; - the idea of progress ; - the importance of reaching certain aims – new technology and communication.
Black circle : Culture and languages ; - sport as a cultural event ; - the coming together of different populations; - schools, twinning and exchanges.
School year 2005-2006 : Red Circle : Sport and Paralympic Games; - Sport at school; - practical and theory ; - agonistic activity and competitions – accessible for everyone.
Green Circle : Sport and environment – sporting activities and equipment ; practical activity and the territory – agenda 21 and sport sustained.
3) A journey in common
A different idea of the project has been connected to each circle, according to whether it’s directed towards the teachers and students, or towards the families, and also the type of meeting involved.
Meeting about the project :
· Oulx (Italy) – October 2003 (for teachers and directors).
· Koszeg (Hungary) - February 2004 (for teachers and students)
· Minorca (Spain) – May 2004 (for teachers and students)
· Odry (Czech Republic) – October 2004 (for teachers and students)
· Embrun (France) – April 2005 (for teachers and students)
· Hoorn (Holland) – November 2005 (for teachers and students)
· Oulx (Italy) – March 2006 (for teachers, directors and students)
Organised activities
Presentation of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics “Torino 2006” in all the project meetings. (Activity organised by Oulx school coordinators for students, families and local population)
Preparation and publication of a “sport calendar”: three editions for 2004-2005-2006 with the diffusion of the European sport slogan – “Move your body, stretch your mind”(prepared by the students and school coordinators of Oulx)
Research, and learning more about sport and other disciplines (work developed by work groups of teachers from the six school partners)
Olympic games practised by teachers and students because it’s good for one’s metabolism to practice sport !
Photographic competition on an international level titled “Scenes for sport and brotherhood amongst populations”.
A symbol for G.R.Y.B.B. – a competition to create a significant symbol to combine sport and friendship amongst schools.
An international competition to make a video recording which shows all types of sport and various problems involved.
Sand sculptures with different themes
Newspaper project – reading and discussions on ideas of peace and on the Arabic- Israelian problems
International cooking project, with various country’s specialities for teachers, students and their families.
Days of peace and solidarity – “European youth sport forum”, 13-19th March 2006. The organisation of a week in Oulx for 350 students and 50 teachers, during the Paralympics, March 2006, with attendance at the Paralympic races and the final closing ceremony of the games.
Newsletter and web-site – use of work material put together by the school in Oulx and its distribution.
4) The Organisation
A European project, even though it is included in the everyday work of the school curriculum , does however change the normal activities of a school. We chose to have a very flexible organisation and tried to give priority to “who does what, how, when and why”. The coordinator of the project, with a big dose of enthusiasm hold together all the lines from the different European countries, encouraging the various foreign partners in their projects. The group of teachers involved in the work over the 3 years obviously have their work divided differently according to what part they are doing for the “five circles”. Everyone has their own responsibility and work role organised between teachers, students and families bringing together a final result that couldn’t be better.
5) The process of evaluation is useful to find out any mistakes in the functioning of the project G.R.Y.B.B. Certain activities can be changed or varied, and also the groups of students can be mixed-up or changed around with other students and teachers according to the work demand. “Reflect and know ourselves better before we can know others well”. This “self-evaluation” was very useful to the Italian coordinators. The quality and efficiency of the collaboration between the foreign colleagues got significantly better after the beginning of the second year: determinating factors were that we had got to know them better, and also we communicated with one same language . This allowed us to improve a united progressive evaluation starting from the observations made and putting them into practice in the various work laboratories.
6) The success indicators; we can affirm with certainty that after 3 years some colleagues, many students and some of the families involved have showed greater interest in all that went on in this international project; the hospitality in the families; different behaviour and comparisons; different cultural instructions.
As far as work was concerned success was shown from the start by the increase of the number of colleagues involved. Different ideas were passed from one to another and new technologies of information and communication have been amply used either for research of for disciplinary matters.
The students have replied positively to the proposed interests. In these 3 years from within the school there has been strong competition to be able to participate in all the things going on. Once the linking of the students had been done, the excellent hospitality of the families made for long lasting contact and friendship; sometimes even summer holidays organised together. Some students, who before were shy or contrary to the project, gradually came round to enjoying the experience and succeeded in being part of the class group and behaving in a different way towards their companions. It goes without saying that the students were very able in getting on with the other students and right from the start building friendship together.
During these 3 years bilateral contacts between schools started, and this last years, as an “extra” to the project and in preparation for the Winter Paralympics, eight classes have activated scholastic exchanges without any contribution from the E.C.or from local municipalities. The positive experience of the visits from the foreign partners in the first months of this scholastic year made for an increase in the amount who came for the Paralmpics “Torino 2006”.
These initiatives have created within the families occasions to confront themselves with other reflect, and have ideas themselves on creating new initiatives.
Not in second place, by any means, is the help given by various organisation. An association that is involved with sport and environmental education gave us a lot of information particularly at the beginning when the project was being laid out. Local councils and “ATL Montagnedoc” (the tourist board for the mountains), gave a lot of help to the school and frequently provided information and equipment for the work laboratories. It was fundamental the part played by “TOROC” (the Olympic Organizers) with their help in certain plans and donation of Olympic materials relative to the various countries involved.
7) Evaluate to then start again!
Three years of such a project, lived as intensely as this one is enough to make your hair go grey, if they are not already! But when you hear friends from other schools who ask you what our ideas are for the next three years you have great joy, but at the same time fear. Experience teaches us that obstacles can be overcome providing you have a leader group that is compact; we have seen that our solutions are often different, and not unambiguous, according to the school where you are at, and with what country you are dealing with, whether it be for traditions, cultural history or different habits, otherwise how could such different countries such as the Latin-Mediterranean ever be in agreement with the Nordic races or the Bohemians ?
For everyone taking part there is and always will be economic difficulties, but the huge efforts of human resources made for the success of the whole mechanism of this project and its contact, knowledge, friendship and solidarity. Today some of our colleagues are not worried anymore about speaking a foreign language; others don’t consider anymore that physical education is a less worther subject; others have understood that more things are alike than those that are unalike.
You may read the final summary in Word version...