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Thematic area: Education
(primary)
EU Programme: Socrates
(Comenius 1)
Name of project: Citizenship
in the Cyber Age
Lead institution/Consortium
of Partners: St Joseph's
Primary School, Milngavie, Scotland
Description of the case study
Introduction
The Scottish and Swedish partners of a previous,
successful Comenius-funded project wished to continue
their contacts so a funding source was sought
to assist this, with a view to starting a three-year
project in the 2002-2003 school year. A school
from Catalonia, the main teaching language of
which is Catalan, was deliberately sought for
inclusion in the project.
Selection of possible EU sources
of funding; finding, collecting and analysing
calls for proposals
The lead school has a Comenius co-ordinator with
the specific task of monitoring the relevant EU
calls for proposals.
The school already had experience in designing
proposals for EU calls, gained in a previous Comenius
1 Project. It made full use of all the available
information announcing the call for proposals,
through two sources: the Europa (http://europa.eu.int)
website and the British Council website (http://www2.britishcouncil.org/socrates).
Other sources of funding
No other sources of funding were sought, because
Comenius 1 projects are precluded from using other
sources of funding. The schools' input was, of
course, staff time.
Partners
The team was set up with five schools in five
countries being involved:
Peter Quail: St Joseph's Primary School, Milngavie,
Scotland
Karin Israelsson: Uslands Skola, Alnö, Sweden
Carme Florit: CEIP Santa Anna, Premià de
Dalt, Catalonia
Giovanna Knasso: Scuola Elementare Kassel, Florence,
Italy
Florin Maris: Scoala Cu Clasele I-VIII Nr. 2 Lugoj,
Romania
The Scottish co-ordinator had already worked in
another project with the Swedish partners.
Aims/purposes of the project
The emphasis was on (i) developing Citizenship
within the curriculum and (ii) providing the pupils
with an opportunity to develop their ICT skills
in context.
The project was specifically designed to highlight
the European Dimension through the topic of Citizenship.
By involving the pupils in purposeful use of ICT
the project brought added value to the educational
process in each partner country.
The aims and objectives were initially matched
by the Scottish co-ordinator for the National
Priorities set out by HMIe (Her Majesty's Inspectors
Education) for schools in Scotland.
Once these objectives were identified, they were
then shared over the net using the "Partbase"
website (see below), then discussed with individual
partners who joined the project. Variations were
made to the aims and objectives to meet the needs
of individual partner institutions and their national
educational system (see below).
Problems/difficulties in designing
the proposal
The experience gained in the first project by
Scottish and Swedish partners was used to inform
the design of the project.
As regards the level of implication, responsibility
and participation of each partner is concerned,
it was proposed and accepted that the Scottish
school would co-ordinate the whole project, and
that each partner would co-ordinate work within
their own establishment but would keep regular
email contact with all partners and in particular
with the co-ordinating school. In fact, email
was established as the prime means of communication
between partners, although annual face to face
- co-ordinator meetings were planned and carried
out.
Because of this means of communication, the contribution
of the partners did vary to some extent, both
at the design and later in the implementation
phase, depending on their access to IT and internet
connections. The Scottish and Swedish partners
had greatest access, while the Italian and Romanian
partners had least access. Furthermore, allowances
had to be made for the differing ICT skills of
the staff in each school and of the co-ordinator
(in fact, he also functions as his school's ICT
Co-ordinator.
In the opinion of the co-ordinator, the inclusion
of at least one experienced partner can help a
project avoid a number of problems in organization
and timing. Their first project threw up problems
in these areas and their experience was valuable
for the following project.
All prospective partners perceived the problems
and challenges in similar ways. They had a positive
approach to the problems and a shared desire to
solve them to the advantage of the project.
Co-ordinators from each school met in Catalonia
to discuss each institution's problems and seek
agreed solutions. Three main problems for partners
were detected: (1) ensuring the continued delivery
of a nationally agreed curriculum within each
partner's establishment, while still carrying
out a programme of work agreed for the project;
(2) translation facilities available to each partner
school; and (3) the inequality of provision of
ICT in partners' establishments.
To cope with these problems, Catalan and Scottish
partners agreed to share ICT expertise, while
Catalan and Swedish partners agreed to help with
translations where necessary.
Analysis of stakeholders
No actual study or survey was carried
out prior to the designing process, to identify
potential beneficiaries of the project, because
the issue was straightforward: the beneficiaries
of the project were to be the pupils and staff
of the schools involved. A survey of those involved
in Scotland produced a positive response to initiating
this project, following on from a previous, successful
one. Nevertheless, though the pupils and staff
of participating schools were to be the prime
targets, there was always a clear intention that
knowledge about the project would spread to the
wider community.
The interests of the various people or organisations
with regard to the problem or challenge were studied
by holding discussion in each prospective partner
school, with staff and managers, to determine
if participation in the project was possible.
However, the beneficiaries of the project - the
pupils and staff in each establishment - were
not directly consulted over the design process.
Staff were involved at the initial stage but pupils
were never involved in the design process.
Selection of the topic
The issue of citizenship in Europe has a clear
European dimension and fits into the priorities
laid down in EU policy. So too does the development
of IT skills.
The Italian partners seemed to have some difficulty
with certain aspects of the "Citizenship"
element of the project. Matters concerning "conflict
resolution" were felt to run contrary to
the requirements of their education authority.
The titles of elements of the project were re-worded
to suit the requirements of some partners.
Setting up a team to devise
and design the proposal
The Scottish co-ordinator placed information about
a new project on "Partbase", an EU-funded
web database of groups interested in Comenius
Projects. "Primarily designed for Socrates
(Lingua E and Comenius 1), Partbase is an easy-to-use
tool which enables you to find partners in other
European countries for your school's European
projects. With Partbase you can:
(1) record the details of your institution and
your ideas for a project on the database, so that
potential partners can read them; and
(2) read details of other institutions' ideas
for a project, so that you can decide with whom
you'd like to work":
http://partbase.programkontoret.se/frameuk.htm
The Scottish co-ordinator specifically contacted
the Swedish partners, who had been responsible
for a project funded under an earlier call for
proposals in the same programme. Indeed, the Scottish
and Swedish partners had worked together on the
previous project. The Catalan (Spain), Italian
and Romanian partners were invited to join the
project. The Italian school had worked on a previous
Comenius 1 project with other partners, but the
Catalan school had not worked on a previous project.
The Romanian school had not worked on a Comenius
project before but had some experience of linking
with other schools in the EU. All this experience
helped in the designing process.
The contacts ensured the inclusion of experienced
partners who could communicate in English but
who used a "less widely known" language.
Self-evaluation
systems (ante, ex, post)
The proposal designer took into account the potential
risks on the success of the project regarding
one of the eligibility criteria: Comenius Projects
can only run with 3 or more partners. To reduce
the risk of the proposal being rejected or the
project collapsing, five members were sought.
Some of the agreed evaluation procedures were:
· Continuous monitoring of the progress
of activities within the project by maintaining
a log of all email and correspondence sent which
is displayed in each class.
· Regular updating of information by email
between all partners, regarding progress of the
agreed diary of activities,
· The establishment of a Comenius Bank
Account and the monitoring of expenditure using
school based software.
· Meetings between the Head Teacher and
co-ordinator to evaluate progress.
· Displays of work produced by our own
pupils and pupils from partner countries.
· Feedback from parents, staff and pupils.
· Communications/comments from partner
schools.
· Advice from Education Quality Officers
with responsibility for International Relations.
· Partners sharing experiences at Project
Meetings.
Working
language(s)
It was agreed the working language would be English.
No language skills other than this language were
available in the Scottish School. All the other
partners had a least two additional EU languages,
one of which was English, available in the school
curriculum.
The project was specifically aimed at including
people whose language was less widely used in
Europe.
Although English was the main language of communication
in the project, the children were encouraged to
share phrases and expressions in their own language
with their partners/pen pals in other schools.
There were some problems around the use of certain
phrases in English, which caused some difficulty/misunderstanding
to partners. The Scottish partner's use of certain
words and phrases, while understood in his educational
environment, lacked a certain subtlety when expressed
in writing and caused some delays and difficulties.
These matters were resolved by a more judicious
use of English and by explanatory text were necessary.
The content of some topics was simplified to assist
with translation.
(1) Catalonia was chosen because the local language
is a less widely known language, although Spanish
is also spoken. The membership of Catalan school
was encouraged by the Scottish co-ordinator who
saw similarities to his own country which would
be beneficial to his pupil group.
Although there was a fair number of staff with
English, the size of the Catalan school meant
that there were problems in the volume of translation
required.
There were also problems for individual children
who were native Catalan speakers, but were being
introduced to Spanish as well as English at a
very young age. There were a significant number
of children who had a different home language,
Arabic for example.
(2) The Swedish partners, although speaking a
less widely used language, had considerable command
of English and this lessened the need for translations.
(3) The Romanian partners also spoke a less widely
used language, but English was not a significant
language in the partner school, so problems of
translation existed.
This put a heavy burden on the few teachers who
had an appropriate command of English.
Determining
the work plan and time
Determining the work plan and time
The Scottish partner, as co-ordinating school,
drafted the initial proposal and then submitted
it to each partner by email for alteration and/or
approval. After receiving comments and amendments
a final plan of topic/work involved and the necessary
time scale was agreed and circulated among partner
institutions. The final draft was agreed by all
five partners after a meeting in Catalonia.
The Scottish partner was to be the main co-ordinator
for the whole project and was tasked with drafting
submissions for agreement by all partners. This
referred to annual reports and to the three annual
submissions seeking approval of the project from
National Agencies.
Target dates had to be adjusted to meet varying
term times and vacation periods.
The co-ordinators had to adjust the content to
match the requirements of the respective national
curricula.
Form filling
The Scottish co-ordinator encountered problems
when it came to filling in the EU forms. The UK
National Agency, The British Council, although
calling for submissions from educational establishments
on behalf of the EU, seemed singularly unaware
of the educational process taking place in Scottish
schools. A clear and concise submission listing
each topic, curricular area and outcome was returned
to the co-ordinator because it did not contain
explanations of every single detail of each and
every educational process and outcome contained
in the proposal.
The problem was resolved by supplying them with
an additional highly detailed 15-page document
appended to the required Joint Application Form,
on the rationale, the educational process, assessments,
evaluations, monitoring procedures and outcome
for our topics.
This level of detail was not required by the other
participants' National Agencies.
Budget issues
Given the 100% funding by the EU, and previous
experience obtained, there were no special problems
in drawing up the budget for the project proposal,
or in relation to the distribution of the budget
by partner.
The EU financial statements of the call for proposals
were carefully read, and the EU standards related
to travel and accommodation expenses and other
elements of the budget were adhered to.
Comments or recommendations
Though the proposal was prepared and presented
in time, taking in mind the deadlines of the call,
the Italian partners were unfortunately unable
to take part in the last year of our project,
because of a delay in submitting their proposal
to their national agency, which took them beyond
the final submission date.
More information:
Address:
Peter Quail
St Joseph's Primary School
Milngavie, Scotland
Tel 00 44 (0)141 956 1600
Fax 00 44 (0)141 955 1558
e-mail: pquail03@st-josephs.e-dunbarton.sch.uk,peter@pquail.com
Project URL: http://www.euro-kids.org
School website: http://www.euro-kids.org/scotland/stjoes/index.html
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