Partner schools

The Petrik Lajos Bilingual Vocational School, Budapest, Hungary (European Coordinator)

Our school is one of the oldest and biggest vocational schools in the country with 1200 students and
140-strong staff. We specialize in Chemistry, Environmental protection and Information Technology.
Our students are aged between 14 and 25. The students at general education are aged between 14
and 19. They prepare for their final exams and specialize in one of the 3 fields. Their final exam
subjects include History and Social studies, as well as Literature. We have been taking part in
Erasmus+ (formerly known as Comenius) for over 15 years. Our first projects focused on Chemistry
and Environmental protection but since 2013, we have shifted the focus of our projects to different
aspects of education, such as developing leadership skills (Training for LIFE: Leadership Initiative for
Europe), the study of Maths in everyday life (Maths Around Us) or defining the common cultural roots
through the study of folk-tale culture (Our Common European Tale). Although the Petrik Lajos
Bilingual Vocational School is specialized in Chemistry, Environmental Protection and Information
Technology, it is one of its most important priorities to provide its students a wide variety of learning
opportunities and nurture their talents in any possible way. The holistic approach in learning/teaching
is visible in many aspects of the school's curriculum. Our students attend many contests in various
topics and subjects. They always have very good results in various national exams. We always seek
new opportunities and possibilities with international partnerships to engage, motivate and challenge
our students. Our local curriculum consists of Arts as a compulory subject and students have 2
History lessons per week. Embedded into their History curriculum, they also study Social studies.
Our main motivation to join and realize this project is to give our students the possibility to further
study Arts, History and Social studies in a more relaxed and international environment. Sadly, in our
type of school, these subjects are often neglected but in our opinion, they are important part of
general knowledge and human intelligence. History and social studies are often seen as vague,
distant subjets by our students. We would like to bring these closer to them with this project, and
show them that their lives are directly influenced by the lives of their predecessors. We also want to
show them the lesser known albeit beautiful and interesting parts of our cultural heritage. Mr. Ádám
Szolnok, who also teaches Arts will be the coordinator and one of the participating teachers of the
project. He regularly organizes local history walks in the neighbourhood, which are very successful
among students. He will be aided by History and English language teachers and also Information
Technology teachers who will help with the website and the mobile app. The History teachers will
provide a broader historical context and the English teachers will help with the lingustic aspect of the
project.

Borugaard Gymnasium, Ballerup, Denmark

Borupgaard Gymnasium is one of the biggest high schools in Denmark. The school is situated close
to Copenhagen with institutions, museums and universities which can provide further information and
participate with academic aspects regarding this project. After attending the school for three years
the students can move on to universities and other educational institutions. From next school year the
school has 44 classes with 14 or 15 classes on each level. We end up having around 1200 students
and a group of staff with more than 100 teachers For many years the school has had an extensive
international focus and particated in different projects - mainly in Europe and China and South Africa.
But since 2017 in the United States too. We are member of the Danish group Bycirklen where
educational institutions and private and public companies work on projects between Wuxi in China
and three local boroughs north west of Copenhagen. This work consists for Borupgaard of student
exchanges between the school and Shibei Senior High school in Wuxi close to Shanghai. Besides
that we participate every second year in conferences in China with educational aspects and teacher
training. For the last five years we have been able to send graduating students from our school to
China in order to give them the opportunity to work as assistant teachers in English at our school
connection in Wuxi For years we have taken part in several projects like Nordic +, Comenius and
Erasmus + projects. Latest project were Math Around Us and Our Common European Tales In
respect of the above mentioned: A large part of the teachers of the school are involved in
international projects. We regard this project as a good way of giving our students the opportunity to
take part in a new European project. The last two Erasmus+ projects have given our students a great
opportunity to explore other parts of Europe but also at home in Denmark given them the chance to
learn how to meet people from other countries. Sometimes they are afraid of other nationalities in a
globalized world but mobilities can open up for new ideas. Best of all is to see the happy faces when
they after a week of hard work during a project have this smile on their lips. It was a tough week but
we ended up with great success! Karsten Faurholdt and Katrine Rasmussen - both International
coordinators. But a large group of teachers with experience from other international projects can take
over too. We have experienced teachers in the fields of history, social science and English but also
teachers with other subjects can contribute with good knowledge of city life in less known parts of the
city.

Vilnius S. Daukantas Gymnasiu, Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius S. Daukantas Gymnasium is one of the 20 best Lithuanian Gymnasium, according state
exams results. The school is situated in the center of Vilnius, close to historical places and districts
we planned to present in this project. Since 2009 the school has 24 classes every year, 6 in each
level. We have around 740 students and 60 teachers. The school society members always use
opportunity to take part in different projects : with other schools of Lithuania or international ones, like
Nord+ and Erasmus. Participating in projects gives to our students great chance to improve
communication and language skills, work in a team experience. We find the topic of the project very
interesting for ourselves. We consider it as challenge to look at the town we live from different point of
view and of course that is great possibility to show it to the students from other countries. Jurgita
Staliulionienė has a lot of experiences in coordinating international projects. Our city, Vilnius is the
capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 574,147 as of 2018. Vilnius is in the
southeast part of Lithuania and is the second largest city in the Baltic states and is known for the
architecture in its Old Town, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The Old Town of
Vilnius is the historical centre of Vilnius about 3.6 km2 (1.4 sq mi) in size. The most valuable historic
and cultural sites are concentrated here. The buildings in the old town-there are nearly 1,500-were
built over several centuries, creating a blend of many different architectural styles. Although Vilnius is
known as a Baroque city, there are examples of Gothic (e.g. Church of St. Anne), Renaissance, and
other styles. Their combination is also a gateway to the historic centre of the capital. There are 21
elderships in Vilnius, varying in size and population. Apart from the Old Town, there are several
elderships waiting to be discovered. With this project, we intend to introduce 2 of these to the wider
public.

Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Olimpiczykow Polskic, Dlugoleka, Poland

Our high school - "Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Olimpiczykow Polskich" is situated in Dlugoleka,
the second, next to Wroclaw village, which is in fact the suburbs of rapidly growing Wroclaw with its
detached or terraced houses in numerous housing estates around Dlugoleka itself. There are two
class units representing two profiles on each grade level: biologically - chemical and majoring in
social and history studies. The school is regarded to be the small one with 150 students and 21
teachers, and one of the undoubtful advantages of that fact is its friendly, family-like atmosphere. In
new regional environment both students and teachers have opportunity and suitable conditions to
learn new things. In this process, one of the most crucial things is the ability to motivate students to
learn foreign languages. Combining traditional class-oriented methods with the ones conducted
during the project is in our opinion the best strategy. First of all, owing to project exchanges students
break the language barriers, fight with shyness and fears to communicate with peers from other
countries. Secondly, they acquire still new, concept-oriented vocabulary and use it to speak in
everyday situations. Furthermore, international exchanges give students opportunity to develop not
only academical skills, but also cultural and personal ones. They are the basis to help young people
in acquiring some fundamental abilities and life competences. International projects are also best
opportunity to learn local habits, admire a variety of cultural traditions, pick up some interesting facts
about the region as well as meet local people. In this way, we believe that raising cultural awareness
is one of the greatest benefits of international exchanges. It does not only allow students to learn new
cultural or historical items, but teaches them tolerance and understanding differences. Finally, we
think that there are people who make up the crucial factor of international meetings. Meeting new
people lead to integration, making new friends, keeping in touch or even further private visits.
Therefore, shared activities allow students to close the gap of one another. Project participants
"seize the day" to learn about new places and gain new experience. From our side the person in
charge of the project will be Wioletta Pilarska. In case of her absence or any other need Ewelina
Anisimowicz will take over. We would like to present our region as the historic place with its
multinational and multicultural backgrounds.The history of the city dates back over a thousand years,
and its extensive heritage combines almost all religions and cultures of Europe. At various times, it
has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of Hungary, Habsburg
Monarchy, Prussia and Germany. Wroclaw became part of Poland again in 1945, as a result of the
border changes after the Second World War, which included a nearly complete exchange of
population.

Gobetti Marchesini Casale Arduino Vocational School, Turin, Italy

Our institution, the Gobetti Marchesini Casale Arduino Vocational School, is located in Turin (Italy)
and is specialised in the fields of chemistry, environmental protection and information technology with
1500 students and 140 teachers. The school staff too has got experience in management of
European projects. Our school is a public institution involved in the field of education of students,
aged 14-19. The mission of the school is to teach chemistry, biology and economic at professional
matters. About 12 - 15% of students are migrants and about 30% of them are at risk of social
exclusion.The Institute Gobetti Marchesini-Casale -Arduino (from now on GMCA) is a new
educational institution, born in 2016, after the decision of the Local Educational Authorities to unify
two old and historical schools of the city of Torino, the three most important schools whose corecurriculum
is teaching chemistry and marketing subjects (industrial chemistry, chemistry, biology,
bio-techonology). The management of the GMCA with a distributed and participate leadership has
improved the level of integration of two different but complementary curricula, and has bettered the
level of cooperation between the staff of two different organizations. The permanent process of
innovation in the field of ICT is one of the main challenges of the mission of the GMCA, so our school
could provde help and assistance to Petrik Lajos Vocational School in the development of the project
website and mobile app. An important part of the mission of the school is also to develop the social
capital (especially with the stakeholders of the school) through strong and frequent relationships with
the University and the academic research, with the Local Authorities and with industrial
organizations. We also aim to provide our students a holistic approach in education and focus on
such academic subjects as History, Social sciences and Arts. We strongly feel that such Erasmus+
projects as this one can give our teachers the opportunity to work in a non-formal way with their
students. Our teachers have a long and fruitful experience in the field of education and training and,
although our school is mainly concerned with chemistry, biology and economics, according to the
Italian national education plan, they also teach subjects like science and math, Italian literature,
history, social studies and law. The school provides a lot of activities and carries out Erasmus+
projects aimed at developing the abovementioned subjects and also arts and music, that we consider
essential to form good professionals and responsible citizens. The school staff has got also a good
experience in the management of European projects. Apart from the main touristic parts of our city,
Turin, there are many neighbourhoods worth discovering and showing to the public. We will aim to do
this with this project.

CENFIM, Amarante, Portugal

CENFIM - Vocational Training Centre for Metalworking Industry, was created in was created in
January 1985 in Portugal.. CENFIM is a non-profit organization acting at a national level with a
network of 13 regional Centres covering the whole country. CENFIM runs training courses for
Apprentices (Initial training mainly in dual certification) and for Workers (lifelong learning programs,
mainly modular training) and companies, in technical and management areas. Its connection with the
Companies of the sector is very strong and extensive, with whom it seeks to have a direct contact
through its regional training centers that are spread throughout the country. Starting in 1989 with its
first European project, CENFIM has participated in more than 100 Projects with over 200 partners in
different European Programmes such as Petra, Force, Euroform, Now, ADAPT, Youthstart, Connect,
Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates, EQUAL and Lifelong Learning Programme - Comenius, Grundtvig,
Leonardo da Vinci and actually, since 2014, in Erasmus+. Its participation has focused in several
areas, in the pedagogical, but also in technology and in new and innovative pedagogical approaches.
CENFIM has a specific Department with 7 staff members exclusively dedicated to issues related to
project management and international cooperation, which will guide internally the project activities
and ensure its monitoring. Besides this reference group CENFIM has in its staff, at the national level
with more than 150 internal employees, covering the fields of management, training, design,
coordination and monitoring of the training activity, administrative and financial support, as well as
experts in various technical and technological fields, who are often called to join group project works
based on the key areas of projects and activities where CENFIM is involved and committed. Our
motivation to join this project proposal is to have one more opportunity to motivate students and
reward their success, to develop students' transversal competences, especially in the socio-cultural
field and the perception of European transnationality and to deepen partnerships with entities with
whom we maintain an excellent relationship of trust and cooperation. We also believe that no matter
the nature and scope of the training institution, it is our mission to provide our lerners the opportunity
to try themselves in tasks and roles that are different to their training. This will contribute to them
becoming true European citizens. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and one of the oldest
in Western Europe, predating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris, and Rome by
centuries. Locally, Lisbon's inhabitants may commonly refer to the spaces of Lisbon in terms of
historic Bairros de Lisboa (neighbourhoods). There are famous ones, such as Barrio Alto or Alfama
but there are lesser known ones. We itend to show these during the project.