High School for them. Stefan Żeromski, from the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year, has been implementing a multilateral project under the Erasmus + program called "The future belongs to seniors". In principle, it was to be a two-year project of European cooperation between schools, but due to significant difficulties in the implementation of both domestic and foreign activities, caused by the covid-19 pandemic, it was extended for another year and should end on August 31, 2023. The project is financially supported by the European Union, which granted us a grant of EUR 36 812 for this purpose. We implement it together with the following schools:

 

• EBI de Angra do Heroísmo, Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal

• Mollerlyceum, Ons Middelbaar Onderwijs, Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands

• Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore "A. Manzoni", Mistretta, Sicily, Italy     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b05-bb3bad5-3194-bb3b05-bb3bad5-3194-bb3b58-5bad5-3194-bb3b05dbad5 -136bad5cf58d_

• Vihdin lukio, Lummela, Finland

• Lycée Polyvalent Lycée des métiers du bâtimentet de la communication visuelle Balata, Matoury, French Guiana, France

 

The current project is the seventh consecutive European School Collaboration project implemented and coordinated by our school. It aims to sensitize young people to demographic changes in Europe and the problems related to the rapid aging of societies, caused by the extension of life and the decreasing number of births, and to familiarize its participants with the attempts to solve these problems by governments and local governments in various countries.

​

One of the most important elements of this type of projects are direct meetings of teachers and students of cooperating schools. Three such working meetings were planned for the last school year - in Matoury in French Guiana, in Lummela in Finland and in Mistretta in Sicily, but none of them took place due to the pandemic. The pandemic also prevented the organization of the meeting in the Netherlands, planned for December 2021. Bearing in mind that this school year should be three working meetings, if we want to implement the project as requested, we changed their order, trying to adapt to the epidemiological situation in each individual countries, which is not easy as the pandemic is only one important factor to consider. The dates of school holidays and exams in individual countries as well as other international activities of the schools cooperating with us are no less important. By the end of the school year, we managed to find exactly three dates that would suit everyone better or worse, so we were very excited about organizing the first meeting, which the Angra do Heroísmo school in the Azores undertook to host. The tension was also exacerbated by the uncertainty of the epidemiological situation and significant and variable boundaries. At the time when it was necessary to finally purchase tickets for the trip, only people with a valid covid passport and a negative coronavirus genetic test, performed no later than 72 hours before departure, were allowed to enter Portugal. To our great joy, the need for a fully vaccinated person to test negative was lifted exactly three days before we started our journey.

​

The meeting in Angra do Heroísmo was held on February 12-19, 2022. Five students and two teachers participating in the project participated in it. Apart from our group, the meeting was attended by students and teachers from all partner schools. All visiting students lived in the homes of their Portuguese peers, thanks to which they had the opportunity to learn about everyday life in the inviting country and make friends with the students of the local school, which often results in longer contacts and even visits during the holidays.

 

The first meeting of partners in European School Cooperation Projects is devoted primarily to getting to know the partner schools as well as the cities and countries in which they are located. Teachers also set a detailed work plan for the coming year and the dates of subsequent meetings. Our youth prepared multimedia presentations and films in English, in which they presented the school, the city and the country. Students from other schools showed similar presentations.

Angra do Heroísmo is the oldest and second largest city in the Azores, Portugal's archipelago of nine volcanic islands in the Atlantic, located on the island of Terceira. On a Polish scale, it is small, as it has a population of just over 20,000, but during the heyday of the Portuguese colonial empire, it was the largest port for transatlantic shipping, a must-see for sailing ships until the 19th century, when the steam turbine was invented, and its former importance perfectly reflects its architecture and urban layout.

​

Our partner school, Escola Básica Integrada de Angra do Heroísmo, is a state primary and secondary school of the middle and vocational type. About 1,500 students attend it. The school is very active in the field of international cooperation - students take part in many European school cooperation projects, both direct and distance. She has obtained the eTwinning School title, awarded by the European Commission to the schools most involved in international online collaboration in Europe, and her teachers are taking part in many in-service training courses abroad.

​

As part of the thematically related activities of the project, students in the international groups   developed surveys on the lifestyle of young people and family structure in our cities,   as well as questions for interviews with employees of the institution help, using the proposed questions prepared by individual schools. We also visited three institutions that care for the elderly, children and the poor: Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Cáritas and Centro Intergeracional de Santa Bárbara. In the first, we heard a presentation on the organization of care for the elderly in the Azores and their own activities in this field, in the second, we got acquainted with the organization of the collection of gifts for the poor and their distribution, and in the last one we heard about an interesting initiative in the field of childcare and the elderly, where both age groups have many activities in common, where they can enjoy mutual contact and learn from each other. We also met some of the class participants, and our two students even tried to crochet with one of the old ladies.

​

As part of getting to know the partner country, we had a guided walk around the historical center of Angra do Heroísmo and a trip to the viewpoints of Serra do Cume and Miradouro do Facho, from where we had a breathtaking view of the Terceira fields separated by stone walls and the Praia da Vitória bay, as well as to the volcanic caldera, where we saw the Furnas do Enxofre fumaroles, and entering the Algar do Carvão volcanic chimney, we had an exciting adventure of entering the interior of the earth. We were also supposed to go out into the ocean to watch dolphins and whales, but to our disappointment, as we were ready to meet the sperm whale, the Atlantic was too rough for such an escapade. So we only sailed around Ilheus das Cabras (Goat Islets), which gave us a taste of ocean shipping anyway, as we came back wet. Some teachers, including ours, went for a walk to the top of Monte Brasil. We also visited the local town hall, where we heard the mayor's extremely eloquent and linguistically great talk about the history of the Azores, in particular Angra do Heroísmo, as well as the geography and geology of the archipelago. Portuguese families spared no effort to let their students learn about local cuisine and customs, while Portuguese teachers played this role in relation to teachers from other countries.  

 

The meeting went smoothly, we had no health problems, and the Portuguese authorities waived the need for a coronavirus test on the sixth day of stay for fully vaccinated people. We are very happy that we were able to finally meet and successfully implement the planned activities, as it significantly increased the morale of all project participants and after returning to the country with new enthusiasm we threw ourselves into the whirlpool of local activities. After all, the next meeting will be held at the end of March in the Netherlands, so  should be well prepared.