Guidelines Erasmus in Schools for ESN Sections 1
Content 1. Project description 3 1.1 General description 3 1.2 The European Platform 3 1.3 Erasmus in Schools package 4 2. Contact schools 6 1. Request the contact details of the schools 6 2. Share expectations 6 3. Sign the contracts 7 4. Prepare the visit 7 5. The Visit 7 6. Discuss the follow-up 8 3. Recruitment students 9 4. Preparing the students for the visit 11 5. After the visit 12 5.1 Certificate 12 5.2 Share your material 12 5.3 Register your activity 13 5.4 Evaluation 13 6. Motivational words 14 2
1. Project description 1.1 General description Erasmus in Schools (EiS) is an activity within SocialErasmus that was established to familiarize students with Europe and European citizens, their traditions and customs as well as to overcome stereotypes. EiS offers an opportunity for international students to get closer to the local communities they live in and an opportunity to promote their home countries. At the same time EiS gives local pupils an opportunity to get a firsthand experience of other cultures. In the Netherlands ESN cooperates with the National Agency, the European Platform (EPF), on Erasmus in Schools. The basic concept of Erasmus in Schools is that international students studying abroad visit local schools and give lessons about their country, culture and traditions to create cultural awareness among local students. The lessons are customized to fit the local pupils at their respective educational level. Erasmus in Schools activities are beneficial for international students who will be practicing/practice their presentation, teaching and organizational skills while at the same time they are making new friends. Their involvement provides them with a chance to experience and better understand different educational systems while giving local students a fun and interesting experience that they will remember for a lifetime. EiS activities also offer ESN sections a chance to build strong relationships with local schools, educational departments and city officials. Providing deeper and richer activities that both international and local students can benefit from will strengthen the image of ESN sections and ESN in general. The efforts of local sections and international students have the potential to spike local students' interest for studying abroad and promote active citizenship, respect and acceptance of cultural differences. 1.2 The European Platform The European Platform internationalising education inspires by demonstrating how internationalisation adds value to today s education. They enjoy sharing success stories and support internationalisation in education through our broad knowledge, and financially by offering government grants. Staff members and ambassadors provide professional advice. 3
Primary and secondary establishments as well as teacher training institutions can benefit from their expertise. The goal of the EPF is that all pupils in primary and secondary education receive a foundation based on internationalisation, in order to inspire and prepare them to study, work and live in an international environment. In addition, the European Platform provides support to schools wanting to establish internationalisation as an extra distinguishing aspect of their school. The European Platform also encourages the internationalisation of teacher training institutions for primary and secondary education in the Netherlands. ESN The Netherlands and the European Platform started a cooperation in May 2014 as both share the mission, vision and aim of the project. The European Platform focuses on contact and preparation of schools while ESN the Netherlands focuses on the ESN sections, and the sections focus on the preparation of the students. For more information regarding the European Platform check their website: www.europeesplatform.nl 1.3 Erasmus in Schools package ESN and the EPF together created a package in order to provide tools for schools, ESN sections and students to organize EiS visits. The website contains the following: You can find it here: http:///content/material 4
1.4 Erasmus in Schools Coordinator From ESN the Netherlands Anne de Heijde coordinates the project on the national level. She is in contact with all local coordinators via the SocialErasmus coordinators mailing list, phone and social media. You can contact her with all the questions you have via: eis@esn-nl.org It is an honor to have been selected as this year s Erasmus in Schools and Mov in Europe coordinator. With these projects I will focus on (informal) education and promoting mobility to students and work closely together with the European Platform and other National Agencies. Bringing international students and Dutch pupils together; learning about each other s cultures and countries, while bringing international students closer to their local communities and promoting mobility to the Dutch pupils. Where EiS focusses on secondary school students, ME s aim is to promote mobility to university students. Mobility activities, such as a study abroad fair is most likely something you are all already familiar with, or organize yourselves. One thing ME will do is to hand you insight in opportunities to do so even more! About me: I am a law student at the University of Amsterdam, in which city I also live. The past year I ve been a local board member of ISN Amsterdam and have been actively involved in various fields of our Network. If you have any questions about Mov in Europe or Erasmus in Schools, do not hesitate to contact me. I m looking forward to meeting you all at the SIM! 5
2. Contact schools The first thing you need to do when you start to organize/ing an Erasmus in Schools visit is to contact an school. These sections will explain the different steps of the contact between the ESN section and the school. 1. Request the contact details of the schools The European Platform promotes the project to their schools and stimulates them to engage in this project. Schools that are interested in participating in the project can sign up via the ESN and EPF website. The European Platform collects the details of the schools and their specific interests. You can request this information by sending an e-mail to erasmusinschools@epf.nl. Furthermore you could call Elvira Arkenstijn: +31 (0)23 553 11 50. 2. Share expectations After receiving the contact details of the schools in your region interested in participating in Erasmus in Schools you make an appointment with the school to share your expectations regarding the content and frequency of the visit. Schools have different reasons to engage in the project and have different demands regarding the courses in which the students can give a presentation. It is necessary to know whether they are interested in a presentation about the country of the student or a topic specific presentation. 6
You could consider the following types of visits: Language villages: e.g. German or French Regular presentation about the country of the international students Playing games or sports Geography lessons of the international students country A story, myth or legend from their country An international student and a student of the Netherlands/Dutch student who have been abroad, share stories and experience to the pupils. Don t forget to discuss the following: Date of the visit: it is recommend to plan at the visit at least a month in advance as you will need the time to recruit and prepare the international students. Duration of the course Amount of international students Content of the visit Frequency of the visit 3. Sign the contracts When the ESN section and the schools both agree with the expectations regarding the visit it is time to sign contracts. These contracts prevent both parties to redrawn from the agreements set regarding the visit. The contracts include the date, content, frequency of the Erasmus in Schools visits. 4. Prepare the visit In this phase your main focus is the recruitment and the preparation of the international students. The contact that you will have with the school will be about last-minute changes. It is recommend to send the teacher responsible for the visit a reminder one day in advance. 5. The Visit At arrival at the school you as representative of ESN, start by introducing the students to the teacher. Make sure that everything will go as agreed upon. Be open and helpful to both the teacher and the students. If things go differently than expected, stay professional and be flexible. 7
6. Discuss the follow-up If you have time to discuss future visits during your visit it is great, but as you and the teacher might be busy it could be relevant to plan a separate evaluation meeting. During this meeting you will discuss if there will be future visits and if one of the parties needs to change things. Start this meeting with an evaluation of the collaboration as there might have been things that went different than expected. Finalize the meeting by setting a new date. 8
3. Recruitment students After reaching an agreement with the school it is time to search for international students to carry out the visits. The frequency and type of promotion depends on your city and the amount of students needed. As you don t need that many international students for the visits it is best to ask students that you know are capable. By doing this you can explain the project to them in detail and ensure that you bring students capable of presenting to the school. In this personal approach it might be helpful to keep the following in mind: Explain the benefits of EiS for them: contact with the Dutch citizens & improving their presentation skills. Students are very proud of their cultural heritage and therefore more than excited to showcase their country. Use examples of other students who have done a visit before. Let them talk with each other. Not all students are as direct as Dutch students and might be afraid to give a presentation. Be understandable and support them. If the personal approach is not sufficient or the demand exceeds the amount of students you could consider the following communication tools: Tools Use Website Facebook Movies Place an explanatory piece about Erasmus in Schools on your ESN website. You can use the introduction of these guidelines. Even if you decide to use mouth-to-mouth promotion it is recommend to include a piece on your website for stakeholders. Let the Erasmus in Schools coordinator know which link she can use to place on the National ESN website. Fanpage: share the pictures & videos of visits Group: include students that will participate in the visit to share questions & doubts before the event Event: promote the date of your visit Use movies from other ESN sections or create your own movies in order to make the project more alive 9
Flyers This is a useful tool to attract students that are not so involved in ESN yet and won t be reached with your other information tools. For students that are already involved in your section it could be used as a reminder. ESN the Netherlands and the European Platform provided you with the flyers below: Lecture talks To give extra awareness about this project you could reach huge groups of students my giving a short presentation in lectures. 10
4. Preparing the students for the visit The preparation of EiS depends on which context, what class and subject the international students will focus on e.g. if the EiS activities are organized during a special day at the high school. Take into account that there are students that are nervous for holding a presentation in not their native language. Organize a preparatory meeting with your students: depending on the amount of students that will take place in the you can decide on a type of meeting. If the projects becomes really big in your section you can organize meetings for all the students that will take place in the project. Print the guidelines for students and hand it out to your participants Send some examples of presentations of former students to your participants to inspire them. You can find some examples on the website of ESN the Netherlands. Be available for the students if they have any questions. 11
5. After the visit 5.1 Certificate After the visit it is very important to recognize the contribution of the international students. Firstly remember to thank students for participating - you can provide them with the certificate provided by ESN and the European which you can find on the website. You can use the certificates in the promotion of your Erasmus in Schools activities as they are accredited by the National Agency. 5.2 Share your material It is important to share your material after your Erasmus in Schools visit in order to promote the project to future participants, other schools and stakeholders because: International students might become motivated to take part in this project as well after seeing photos or videos of former participants. Make sure that you will ask permission of the teacher or parents in case you take pictures of underage students. Presentations of former students could inspire new students for their presentations Material, articles, photos and videos are useful to show other schools what the project is about and to motivate them to get involved. Use your material to show your universities and HEI s that your international students take part in Erasmus in Schools. 1. Facebook Except publishing the pictures on your local fanpages you can publish them on the following websites: ESN the Netherlands: https://www.facebook.com/eisthenetherlands ESN International: https://www.facebook.com/esnerasmusinschools?fref=ts Furthermore you can share posts published on these websites that are relevant for your local students. Always use the hashtag #ErasmusinschoolsNL in all your posts regarding the project. 2. Twitter When posting tweets regarding Erasmus in Schools always use #ErasmusinschoolsNL. 12
5.3 Register your activity In order to measure the size of the project in Europe ESN international collects all numbers of Erasmus in Schools visits. Furthermore they collect the number of international students, native students and ESN ers involved. Please register your Erasmus in School visits via this link: http://www.esn.org/webform/socialerasmus-event-report-form 5.4 Evaluation As the cooperation between the European Platform started in May 2014 and the package has been launched on the 11 th of August 2014 the project will be continuously improved. Therefore we need your input and tips for improvement. Please let the students fill in this evaluation form right after the visit, remind the schools about it and fill it in yourselves as well. You can find the evaluation form here: http:///content/evaluation 13
6. Motivational words We have asked the sections what would motivate and what is motivating them to carry out Erasmus in Schools. Here are some encouraging words from local sections to you. Read it and you might find some inspiration for you, your board and for your international students. Experiencing local schools in the hosting country is a important mean of getting to know more and more the quotidianity of this country. Erasmus is not only living in another country for half or a whole year, but is an opportunity to know deeply another reality. Exploring not only the university world, but also lower grade schools (which means, dealing with the local new generations) would complete the Erasmus experience. Giuila Pilia - ESN Venezia It s an opportunity to spread the knowledge of the Erasmus and other international projectsincreasing the knowledge of ESN Riccardo Vetrugno - Milano Bicocca Our motivation is the connection between the international students and the local community. It s interesting how the international students can contribute in the education in local schools. With their knowledge about specific subject or by giving some inside about their countries. Kiril Nikolov - ESN Lund To spread European brotherhood to younger people; to get new followers and active members not only for ESN sections but also for charity/social association. Chiara Trauzzi - ESN- Assi Parma. 14