Ankara 25-30 Ottobre 2015

ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO “Via Santi Savarino”

ROMA - ITALIA

1)“Santi Savarino” (pre-primary and primary) - place of Management:

Our organization is a comprehensive school composed by kindergarten, primary and secondary from 3 to 13 years old. It’s composed by 4 buildings :

2) “Grimm” pre-primary

3) Rosalba Carriera (primary)

4) Ottorino Respighi (lower secondary with musical section)

Our primary and pre-primary schools work full-time from 8:30 to 16:30 and children don’t go to school on Saturday.

Approximately the number of children is 1100 and the teachers are about 115.

Laboratory activities are also held for art, music and theater-related projects

Physical education in our primary school has the frequency of one hour per week and this is a limitation of our system.

Students generally attend out of school their favorite sports. Some private associations paid by parents carry out sports, music, and reinforcement of foreign language courses after school lessons.

In the lower secondary school the time is from 8.10 to 2.10 p.m.

Our schools are located in an area called “Tor dè Cenci- Spinaceto” that is a suburb of Rome.

It rose up around years 1960/70 and it is a suburban, popular outskirt, in the southwest of Rome, connected by public transport to downtown where lies our ancient historic beautiful City…

…This is a place far from the chaos and traffic with green areas and clean air.

Recently, in the area, we can register a growing presence of Eastern European and Extra European communities. This immigration flow mostly aims to the elders people care because we don’t have an efficient public health system capable to help families in the care of elderly people.

The social level is mixed, all socio-economic background, largely made up of low-middle-class and some problems of unemployment.Part of the district is also inhabitated by medium upper class and their children attend our schools.

Most families are “mono-parent” because of families’ and marriage crisis.

We have also an immigrant community whose children don’t speak Italian very well with different mother-tongue that have also problem of integration.

Thanks to this project, we would like to increase European social values in the young generation. We work on a healthy lifestyle and we work hard to enlarge the mentality of our students inspiring their curiosity for learning and creativity and we are convinced in our educational school task.

We wish to spread the use of second language, at school, developing curiosity towards the rest of the world, intercultural exchange, and tolerance.

We already carry on few inner projects, like food education, growing vegetables in the school garden and cooking them in the school canteen…

…recycling trash and use some of them to make handcrafts by re-use, raising also the sense of responsability towards the enviroment.

Often our school has looked for the cooperation and contact with grandparents to save and strengthen ties with children.

Ties with children

CooperationSharing

Precious Resource

In our area there is an elderly center where grandparents use to go to meet and spend time together.

In a capital city it's becoming more and more difficult to find some time to share with them and families are very busy with work, so grandparents are precious resource in family run.

In the team involved in the project there are ICT experts, film-makers, art teachers, English teachers, quality and performance evaluation teachers and we are all hard workers teachers.

What we did about this project:

We illustrated it, in our teachers meeting, so that even those who don’t participate could know it;

We published it on school web site;

We organized a meeting to inform parents and grandparents about the project as they are fully involved in it; 

…

Each classroom represented one of the eight partners countries with their symbols and cultural aspects seen by children points of view;

 We celebrated grandparents day at school, on October 12th. It has been a day of old stories, traditional Games and food …

…

We had contact with an elderly center in the area to settle meeting with children.

We had contact with Departments of University of Roma Tre and Tor Vergata, and one of them will organize a workshop for our partners when they’ll come to visit us.

We couldn’t have the chance to involve local press. But we’ll do our best to make it possible.

IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITY

 As Erasmus Project Implementation Team we are committed to carry out the activities planned in the various steps set by the project , but also to take steps in implementation of the Project within our context to give it the widest visibility.

Once a week, during the daily break time at school, we intend to have the contribution of grandparents to teach traditional games and play with them under the guidance of teachers.

We intend to make monthly meetings with grandparents on various topics: stories, songs, crafts, handcrafts, board games, cooking, gardening, etc ... with laboratory managed by grandparents and guided by teachers.

We will contact the local authorities, cultural associations, volunteer, ONG that deal with elderly people.

We will invite experts about third age (doctors, psychologists, ONG) to tell the children about the benefits that can derive from the mutual exchange of love, experience and knowledge between the two generations.

For Christmas Time, we will organize an exhibition in the school about old toys and objects from the past titled “Christmas in the attic”.

By the end of the year we could realize a fair of creativity where the grandparents or parents help their children to build a toy or an object of any type with wasted or recycled material.

With the permission of the families of the students involved, we will make events where grandmothers prepare ancient recipes and cakes “Grandma Goose recipes”

We will perform choral singing on traditional songs, sung by children and grandparents, eventually involving the orchestra and choir (quaiar) of the school.

We will invite parents and grandparents to be a "teacher for an hour“ to tell about games and toys of their childhood and also making educational work in their respective areas of competence and experience;

The children will teach their grandparents a today’s game.

Acting a play among parents, grandparents and students.

Strengths Weakness

Opportunities Threats

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The project is innovative as it gives to the community , parents and grandparents, the opportunity to participate to something that involves them personally, allowing them to be protagonists in making concrete proposals.

The work of the teachers team and the resulting positive effect on the sense of responsibility of students and their families, improve team spirit and collective motivation.

The grandparents availability and the wish to stay with their grandchildren in the place of knowledge in a lifelong learning perspective, to convey wisdom, affection and experience receiving in their turn energy, affection and new incentives.

The difficulty of the team to manage the inexperience of the community in offering an active and creative contribution, could create interference and confusion of roles.

The social background of a big city outskirt may eventually discourage the continuity of participation by the elderly.

The intensity of the school program and the numerous educational activities could discourage some teachers from joining such a project with very ambitious objectives and contents.

The required involvement may either cause excessive and additional workload or the responsibility towards third parties, foreign partners and the National Agency.

Weakness

Cultural exchange between different European countries, in the mutual understanding of their educational systems, teaching styles and comparison with different social realities.

Relationship between different generations, a theme felt and shared in the partners countries.

Conferring to our school a central role in the neighborhood and community life as a cultural center.

Involving local authorities, associations, NGO, already active in raising awareness and, as much as possible, the territory and related agencies in the world of education or culture.

Opportunities

Children, teachers, parents and grandparents have the opportunity to compare themselves with unknown school realties far from them, and in combining these new ways of thinking and acting to their one, can obtain nothing else than mutual exchange and enrichment.

Opportunities for disadvantaged children to interact with the others at the same level in playing games, counting also on the sense of security that the presence of grandfathers can inspire.

Recognizing to the games a crucial role in the development of a child’s life giving to it the right space in school activities.

Gleaning to cultural heritage of games of the past thanks to the memory of grandparents otherwise destined to be lost; developing those social skills that the old games aroused, unlike those of our time much more virtual.

Opportunities

Neglecting the National Curriculum or slowing it down, obtaining in that way a contrary result not appreciated by the families.

The wide range of the project and its articulation may be difficult to manage in the long run in the everyday commitments of a teacher.

Inability of some members of the team to support the stress of schedule changes, the hard work, even in extra time.

Work overload for few teachers and irresponsibility of others.

Threats

Changing lives, opening minds