Report on the visit to Montenero di Bisaccia, in Italy, on 15-19 January 2017

BEFORE THE VISIT 

During the first year of the implementation of the European program Erasmus + entitled «No Early School Leaving by Sports, Musical, Theatrical, Artistic Activities » a visit to our partner school in ITALY took place by two teachers of our school.

Before the visit there were some discussions among the teachers regarding the general aims and objectives of the program, the benefits the students will derive from their participation in the program, as well as the difficulties they might encounter during the visit. A brief presentation of the visit schedule and some practical issues were also discussed.

The coordinating school, which was the host school as well, took the responsibility for organizing the visit and coordinating communication with the partner schools during the preparation. The communication was conducted via Email and via Messenger among the coordinators of each school.

DURING THE VISIT

The main purpose of the visit was acquaintance in person between coordinators and other teachers of the participating schools, as well as the design and plan of the activities which are going to take place by the end of the current school year (June 2017) including the next meetings.

More specifically:

1. Each school made a presentation regarding its profile and the area of its residence.
2. The dates for the next project meetings in Greece (March 2017) and Portugal (May 2017) were agreed. The number of the students from the other schools who will visit Greece is pending and is going to be agreed within the next days.
3. There were discussions on various details and on the dates of the organisation of a competition concerning the logo of the program which is initially going to take place in each school and secondly among all participating schools.
4. Details of conducting a survey according to the theme of the program were also discussed so as to have a view regarding the knowledge of students. The questionnaire will be prepared and completed under the responsibility of coordinators of each partner school.
5. A thematic unit was assigned to each school, more specifically music for Greece, art for Portugal, sports for Hungary and theatre for Italy and Turkey. Each school is responsible to organise, collect and present the final results of the activities which are going to take place in each school.
6. The partner schools decided on the actions carried out in Greece where students from all countries will present a song together, and then the students of each country will present a traditional song and dance and an original song.
7. The structure of the program's website which Hungary is going to develop was also discussed.
8. It was decided that Portugal will create an eTwinning Space.
9. Facebook groups were created for both teachers and students who participate in the program.
10. A Google account was created for file sharing between coordinators where the logo to be used in various program documents was posted.
11. Regular communication was decided between the participating schools

During our stay, colleagues from the host school welcomed us warmly and guided us in the school premises. The meetings mostly took place at the local library. The assistance we received from the people in charge of the European programs in the region was extremely important because it helped us understand the planning and organization of the program.

A visit to the neighboring town of Termoli also took place. The weather unfortunately did not help to engage in further actions.

During this meeting the situation that prevails in Turkey was also taken into consideration and how this affects the project as all countries expressed doubts about visiting Istanbul. The likelihood of not visiting Turkey was also suggested and we all agreed to reconsider it during the second year of the program and to visit ITALY instead.

AFTER THE VISIT

On our return to GREECE there was an internal programming session regarding the materialisation of the agreed actions whereas the material gathered from the visit will be published on the school website.