EU Programme: Socrates II, Comenius 1: School partnerships.

Description: Comenius 1 covers (A) School Projects, (C) Language Projects and (C) School Development Projects. All aim at enhancing the European dimension of education by promoting transnational co-operation between schools.
Any topic of common interest to the participating schools in a School project (A) is eligible. The project will form part of the pupils' regular school activities and will aim to involve several classes.
Language projects (B) aim to improve pupils' motivation and capacity to learn foreign languages. Pupils from two different countries learning languages work on a topic of mutual interest. They also undertake a reciprocal class exchange lasting at least 14 days.
School development projects (C) aim at improving school management and pedagogical approaches through transnational cooperation on a topic of common interest.
The deadline to submit Comenius 1 projects is normally the 1 February of each year.

Who may apply?: Schools, university student associations, school teachers, non-teaching education staff, (heads of institutions, counsellors, inspectors, etc), teachers training centres, adult education institutions, associations and non-profit organisations, public authorities, private companies running learning schemes in general, social and cultural education, educational research institutes, and other institutions providing educational opportunities for adults

EU Support: The following transnational mobility activities are supported within School Partnerships (Comenius 1): (a) Project meetings: meetings between staff and pupils from participating schools, for project planning, implementation, evaluation, etc. (b) Teacher exchanges: each teacher carries out mainly teaching activities at a partner school in the project. (c) Teacher placements related directly to the project theme, in a business or in the non-governmental or public sector. (d) Head teacher study visits, directly linked to the project activities, to reinforce the school management’s involvement in the project.
Class exchanges in Language Projects are open to pupils aged 14 and above (min. 14 days, including travel). Support is for up to two adults per group of 10 pupils.

Grants for staff are for transnational travel and subsistence costs. Grants for pupils are only for transnational travel costs (pupils should stay with host families on a reciprocal basis). In School Projects and School Development Projects, support for transnational staff mobility usually covers 4-6 persons per school per year. In Language Projects support is given to one person per school to take part in a project meeting before the class exchanges begin.

Transnational mobility grants for pupils normally enable some 2-4 pupils per school per year to attend project meetings of School Projects and School Development Projects. The grants encourage the active participation of pupils in the project and the project meetings between the participants.
The mobility of entire classes can only be funded in the context of reciprocal class exchanges in Language Projects.

Relevance for Lesser-Used Language communities: Language projects must involve 2 schools from 2 countries and focus on the learning of foreign languages. Priority is given to the “less widely used and taught” official languages of the EU. They are open only to the official languages of the institutions of the EU, plus Irish and Luxembourgish, the official languages of Iceland and Norway, and the official languages of Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria.
But most projects are not language-specific, and many have been set up between lesser-used language groups, using their own languages.

Contact :
European Commission
Directorate-General for Education and Culture
Unit A3 - School Education
Rue de la Loi 200
1049 Bruxelles
e-mail: comenius@cec.eu.int

URL:
Comenius- European Cooperation on School Education

More information:
National Agencies for Comenius
Decision No 253/2000/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 January 2000 establishing the second phase of the Community action programme in the field of education 'Socrates'.