Saying goodbye

 This space has been quiet for some time. Teachers and students of this project have gone through difficult times - just as everyone around the world. This made working on this project really complicated. Homeschooling is not the ideal condition for working on international projects. Our last project meeting in Italy has had to be postponed and in the end cancelled.

So on Friday, 26th February we relived the project in a virtual party:

Apart from good memories there was a virtual buffet:

Talking to each other was a nice experience as comments show:

Pentapolis Upper Highschool

Pentapolis Upper Highschool is located in the region of Serres in Central Macedonia, more specifically in the Municipality of Emmanouil Pappa (population 21.000 inhabitants). It addresses the inhabitants of 8 neighboring villages. The student population consists of 43 boys and 43 girls from rural families and a number of 9 foreign students (10%), economic migrants from neighboring countries and students with learning disabilities identified. The staff of the school consists of 17 teachers, of various disciplines, 11 of which are permanently placed here and have a high level of qualification, such as postgraduate degrees, second degrees, educational training at the Ministry of Education (on teaching methodology, pedagogy and management) or ICT training in other institutions. The purpose of the school is twofold, and has been shaped in accordance with the Ministry of Education specifications and the Vision of the Teachers (Act 2, 7-9-2012): 1. On one hand to develop students’ intellectual, social and emotional potential. 2. On the other hand to prepare for the national examinations so as to pursue a place in the higher education institutions and later in the professional field. The financial resources of the school are very limited, but with rational management they meet the needs of the school and with the good cooperation with the local community (Parents and Guardians’ Association and the Municipality) we have been given the opportunity in the last three years to create a School Library and a Research Hall in previously unused spaces in the building, as well as to embellish the school premises, hosting a permanent exhibition of a local painter. The school has extensive experience in European eTwinning programs in English, in international networks such as UNESCO - ASPnet and Junior Entrepreneurship (Junior Achievement). It seeks to develop a culture of co-operation, especially in the context of larger school units, in both student competitions and teacher training activities.

Our website is http://lyk-pentap.ser.sch.gr/j3site/

Kaufmannsschule II, Hagen, Germany

Today we would like to introduce the coordinating school from Germany:

Kaufmannsschule II is a vocational school specialised in economy and adminstration with full-time
and part-time students which make up a total of about 2,000 students. Part-time students are
apprentices in the areas of legal jobs, the retail sector, freight forwarding and office assistants. 

Fulltime students attend the school to acquire a qualification to study (Fachabitur or Abitur). Two
important subject areas in line with the special focus of the school are Business Administration and
IT for business applications. The school also offers subjects of general education like Maths, P.E.
and German while teaching Business English and Spanish as foreign languages. The teachers of the
school support different kinds of projects to facilitate special interests or talents of students, such as
a three-week course in Business English in London for gifted students (they have to earn money for
the fees by working in local companies during the summer holidays), visits to different regional
companies (professional orientation), a student exchange with a Spanish school or an advertising
project in cooperation with the city of Hagen and Europe in Hagen.

We believe that students can acquire valuable competences in taking part in different types of projects that very often cannot be easily measured or assessed as it changes the personality or attitudes of the participants. The school has also taken part in one successful EU-funded project and is active on eTwinning. Kaufmannsschule II runs its own content management system based on moodle which is used for teaching and the school has taken part in eTwinning projects since 2007. Looking at its pupils it is very striking that the school is very multicultural. In the current school year the school has students from these countries: Germany (85.6%), Turkey (7.5%), Italy (2%), Greece (1.6%), Serbia (0.8%), Bosnia (0.8%), Portugal (0.8%), Poland (0.3%), Croatia (0.2%), Russia (0.2%) and Syria (0.2%). Considering that many students have a German passport the migrational background is even larger taking into account that more students have roots in other countries. The class 11bs2 is a case in point: Whereas all pupils are German their parents and grandparents come from 11 different
countries. In this schoolyear the Kaufmannsschule II is teaching two classes of refugees who were
displaced during the current crises. Regarding the religious beliefs among the students are
Protestants (33%), Catholics (29.5%), Muslims (22.1%) and Orthodox (1.7%). The rest is distributed
among others (3.5%) and no religion (10.2%).

The heterogeneous background also applies the stundents' educational backgrounds. As a school of secondary education students decided to attend Kaufmannsschule II having visited other schools before, such as grammar schools, comprehensive schools and other secondary schools.