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Slow down, Move your body, Improve your diet, Learn for life, and Enjoy school time
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Slow down, Move your body, Improve your diet, Learn for life and Enjoy school time (S.M.I.L.E.) is a project designed with the aim of helping reduce the percentage of early school leavers in secondary schools in Europe and at the same time of stimulating the acquisition of adequate knowledge, skills and competences in order to cope with the requirements of a knowledge-based society. To attain these goals six European schools and a university have joined forces and cooperated to plan a specific educational path for students aged 14-18 (about 350 altogether) based mainly on the pedagogical use of sport and physical education flanked by innovative teaching methods (CLIL and active learning) and ICT to involve pupils in school life and build significant ties with the learning community at large. The required creation of modules for student-centred active lessons also provides an incentive for teachers to update their teaching methods getting closer to students' changed channels of information and modes of learning. Further innovative aspects include the use of: eTwinning for a parallel project on European citizenship to enhance the sense of belonging to the EU; social media as educational tools; peer education and counselling; constant monitoring and data analyses by the partner university. The specific objectives of the project are to: - attract pupils to school; - raise pupils' potential to connect them to learning and active citizenship; - improve pupils' school performance; - make pupils accept rules and respect themselves and others; - make pupils cooperate;- enhance students’ awareness of being EU citizens; - develop pupils' ability to plan, think critically and be creative; - implement up-to-date teaching strategies and exchange good practices. To reach these objectives a set of motivating activities based on sports (traditional, non-traditional, popular, individual, team ones) and the use of pupils' friendly ICT tools such as social networks have been devised taking into account the importance of attracting pupils towards learning through what they like and enjoy doing instead of obliging them to stick to modes of learning far from their reality and from the requirements of a fast moving and changing knowledge-based society. The products envisaged are appealing and engaging for young learners. They stimulate creativity and are useful means to make pupils feel important and responsible towards their European peers since what they will produce may be used as a model in other schools or may serve to persuade peers all over Europe to go on studying and engage more intensively in developing their potential. Another important aspect of the project are the transnational learning activities for both students and teachers. Six meetings are planned to give the participants the opportunity to attend overview classes, share ideas directly, exchange good practices, work together in European teams and feel active citizens of that supranational entity called the European Union. As a result the project as a whole will infuse enthusiasm and will be fun for young learners. The project's outcomes will be spread through the dissemination efforts of all member schools aiming at contributing to raising awareness on the prevention of early school leaving and the improvement of school performance. Sustainability will be an overarching priority as well: the methodological approaches adopted will continue to be implemented after the end of the project and sports clubs will be organised in each school; the ties established at local, regional, national and European level will be maintained and reinforced.

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