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Description
"Education is a relationship" is a project in which institutional cooperation will be established between two local governments Lublin and Reykjavik and 8 primary schools: 5 from Lublin and 3 from Reykjavik. The motto of the project is good school relations, and the project itself is an invitation to a discussion over changes in thinking and acting at school. The project will focus on three pillars: communication at school, developing students'' social competences and the school space. The project activities are a study visit to 3 schools in Reykjavik, an educational conference in Lublin, joint Polish-Icelandic Think-tank team for "Friendly School" Recommendations and 5 educational workshops. The activities aim to improve the quality of education by increasing the knowledge, skills and experience of school staff in the selected areas. The recipients of the planned activities will be the staff of 5 schools in Lublin, as well as pupils and their parents, who will be actively involved in the process of talking about a school. Representatives of these schools will take part in a study visit to Reykjavik, 20 people in total, but thanks to implementation workshops at a later stage of the project, a total of 150 teachers will be trained in these schools. At the same time, students from these schools will participate in a virtual visit to Reykjavik thanks to a video that pupils from Reykjavik schools will record for them to tell them about their schools. For our children it will be a visit without a visit, and a starting point for a discussion with teachers about school: how to communicate, how to learn and how to create a common space. The study visit will be the basis for developing Recommendations, which will present solutions of problematic areas in the project. The Recommendations will be a signpost in the process of changing schools participating in the project. As part of the dissemination process, they will also be available to other schools.
Summary of project results
The idea of the project was created as a result of the analysis of surveys with representatives of selected primary schools, in which the need to strengthen the knowledge and experience of school staff in the field of shaping good relations and developing students'' social competences was expressed. From the conversations with potential participants of the project, it appeared that one of the main problems of a Polish school is large atomization of school community, disturbances in peer-peer relations resulting from, among others, focusing on virtual world, problems with communication on the student-teacher-parent line or unhealthy competition and the widespread grade-orientation at schools.
The main goal of the project was to strengthen the knowledge, competences and experience of school staff in construction friendly environment at school and strengthening students'' social competences.
Four activities were carried out as part of the project: 1. study visit to two schools in Reykjavik, 2. development of recommendations in the areas concerned, 3. implementation workshops in schools and 4. conference disseminating the project results.
These activities were designed in such an order that a study visit in Iceland was a starting point (base) for work over recommendations, which later gave ground for implementation workshops art schools. Final conference ws to disseminate the project results. The main result of the project are recommendations entitled Recommendations on builing a friendly shool environment (Friendly School). Recommendations have been prepared in three problem areas, i.e. communication at school, social competences of students and shaping the school space, and they are a kind of signpost to support schools in the process of change.Each of the schools participating in the project underwent a greater or lesser transformation as a result, but it should be remembered that the simplest and fastest visible effect of the project is the change that has taken place in school spaces, thanks to the rearrangement of some spaces or the creation of cozy corners to build better relationships at school.
Changes in the field of improving communication at school or more effective shaping of students'' social competences are changes that will be visible rather in the longer term, as they are associated with a change in long-used practices and habits.
The expected long-term effect is primarily better relationships at school, both through improved communication between student-teacher-parent and a positive, integration-friendly change in the school environment. The recommendations were placed in the project tab on the website of the Lublin City Hall.
As part of the dissemination activities, a dissemination conference was organized at which, among others, good practices and inspirations from Iceland and Poland were shared with representatives of many other schools from Lublin and may influence changes in their institutions. The event was held under the honorary patronage of the Embassy of Iceland in Warsaw. Additionally, implementation workshops were carried out in 5 schools in Lublin.
Summary of bilateral results
Having a partner from Donor State institutions is a very valuable contribution to the implementation of the project, especially in the field of education. It allows you to look at your own, so far used, methods from a completely new perspective. This type of partner, especially from Iceland which has a diverse educational strategy than in Poland, guarantees unique and innovative solutions. Ceratinly, not all methods and suggestions can be implemented directly, some solutions cannot even be rooted due to cultural differencies and national mentality. Nevertheless, they always bring a novelty that allows you to break the existing pattern. In the case of this project, the choice of the partner and his rich experience and great competence in this area allowed for good understanding of the issues raised in the project. Both partners are satisfied with the implementation of the project. Island partner also expressed its good opinion in an official letter, thanking the Leader for very good implementation of the project. Good cooperation and memories from the current project give hope for the continuation of joint activities, at the moment they have not started any talks yet, but they are open to joint activities.