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Wake up to Europe!
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

IES Guadiana is an educational centre located in a rural area, which receives students from lower-middle class families. Not long ago, the cultural concerns of our students were generally low, and traditionally the language level was quite low. However, the implementation of several projects related to foreign languages is paying off, and students are increasingly appreciating the importance of them. These programmes include the bilingual English section, which was implemented four years ago, and which involves the areas of Maths, Science and Technology. In addition, we have been carrying out a student exchange programme in recent years with a French school in which more and more students are participating every year. Not only has it contributed to encourage the study of the second foreign language but it has also increased the number of students enrolled in the subject. Furthermore, we were part of a Comenius Multilateral Partnership ("Youth without borders") during the school years of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, and we were host centre to a British Comenius assistant. In addition, several teachers are currently undertaking projects to exchange letters with British and French students, one of them through the eTwinning platform. Thanks to these programmes, which have been carried out at our secondary school, our students have started to be aware of the importance of foreign languages and the value of the cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe and they are trying to expand their cultural and educational horizons.It is in this context that we are faced with the need to become more proficient in foreign languages, learn new methods and ways of working in the classroom and strengthen the European dimension of our school. The team of teachers involved in this project can be classified into three different profiles: • Three language teachers (two English and one French) who want to improve their communication skills, learn new methods of teaching foreign languages and deepen their knowledge of the educational system of the United Kingdom and France through direct observation. • Two teachers who teach in the bilingual section (areas of technology and science). The aim of the teachers with this profile is to improve their communicative competence in English to get a C1 English level, to improve their teaching methods in the classroom according to the CLIL approach and to train in the use of ICT resources. • Three teachers whose objective is to obtain the necessary qualifications to join the bilingual section and thus increase the number of teachers and subjects that are part of it.To achieve these objectives, we have proposed different types of activities: English training courses in several European countries, courses focused on improving the methodology of foreign language teaching, training in CLIL and job shadowing in three different European countries: the United Kingdom, France and Denmark. In two of these schools we are already conducting joint projects. It is envisaged that most of the trips will be carried out during the summer. In those cases where it is not possible, they will be made in stages so as not to alter the correct operation of our school during the absence of the teachers involved.By taking these courses and job shadowing we will obtain real results, among which we can include: the improvement of communicative competence in English and French, a greater number of teachers participating in future European projects, higher use of the eTwinning platform by teachers and students, the incorporation of new teachers and subjects to the bilingual section, establishing links with European institutions to carry out joint projects in the future and integration of new working methods in the classroom, both in teaching foreign language and in CLIL.These results will have a clear positive impact on the different sectors of our educational field: teachers, students, education community and locality. The activities proposed in our project will allow our teachers to have a better linguistic and methodological education and they will feel more skilled to participate in other European projects in the near future. We are convinced that with more competent and motivated teachers, school failure will be reduced in our centre and the training and qualifications of our students will be improved since they will have more employment opportunities within and outside our borders, which will also have a positive effect on our region in the long term.

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