Erasmus+
Our Erasmus+ Project began in September 2019. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, we were granted an extension until August 2022.
We have links with schools in Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain. The project includes staff 'transnational visits' where we plan and evaluate our project and 'mobilities' which are trips with children.
What did we do?
21 - 25 October 2019 Transnational Meetings in Spain. Staff from all 5 schools met in Spain to plan our 2-year project and undertake joint training. Click here to find out what we did!
11 - 14 December 2019 UK staff visit to Grevena, Greece to undertake Risk Assessments. Click here to find out what we did!
27 - 31 January 2020 Mobility Visit to UK. Children and staff from all 5 schools will spend the week at The Beacon. Click here to find out more.
2 - 6 March 2020 Mobility Visit to Greece. Children and staff from all 5 schools will spend the week at 3rd Primary School Grevena, Greece. Click here to find out more about our visit to Greece!
December 2020 We're sharing Christmas messages between our schools. Listen to how we each share Christmas greetings in our own languages.
Staff continued meeting online and sharing themed events across our schools (and whilst remote learning) throughout the pandemic.
8 - 12 November 2021 Transnational Meetings in Italy. Mr Johnson and Mrs Billington spent the week in our Italian partner school with staff from each partner school. We planned how the project would continue and spent time learning about the various digital platforms each school uses for Remote and Blended learning. Click here to find out more about the visit and the local area.
27 March - 1 April 2022 Mobility Visit to Slovenia. Children and staff from all 5 schools spent the week at Osnovna sola, Planina pri Sevnici, Slovenia. Click here to find out more about out visit and the local area.
2 - 7 May 2022 Mobility Visit to Italy. Children and staff from all 5 schools spent the week at Instituto Comprensivo San Rocco, Faenza, Italy. Click here to find our more about our visit and the local area.
22 - 27 May 2022 Mobility Visit to Spain. Children and staff from all 5 schools spent the week at Andres Garcia Soler Primary School, Lorca, Spain. Click here for find out more about our visit and the local area.
8 - 11 June 2022 Transnational Meeting in Greece. Post-pandemic flight costs and availability across our countries led to us changing our plans, rather than our planned meeting at our partner school in Grevena, staff from all 5 schools met in Athens, Greece to review and assess the impact of the project. Click here for find out more about our visit and the local area.
Our project visits were put temporarily ‘on hold’ due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. We remained in contact with our partner schools, communication between us all became somewhat easier once schools across Europe were unexpectedly forced into establishing remote and blended learning facilities! Through the pandemic, children across all schools (both in school and at home) continued to undertake shared learning projects and celebrated special event days together.
In November 2021 staff Transnational meetings began again and between the end of March and the beginning of June 2022, we completed the delayed visits.
What are we learning about?
Our project will support children to learn about the local trades and cultures of each area, how the geography and history of the locality have influenced these and how technology could play a role in developing them into the future.
Who was involved in the project?
All children at The Beacon (between 2019 and 2022) were involved in the project in some way as we celebrated this super opportunity to learn about our European partners' schools and localities over the two years.
Our grant funding from the EU enabled us to take 6 children and two staff on each mobility (visits where children from all 5 schools meet for a week). As an inclusive school, all parents and carers had the opportunity to put their child’s name forward for a mobility visit.
Our grant funding from the EU also covered costs two staff to attend each Transnational Meeting. The funding also covered costs to allow Risk Assessment Visits to countries where there wasn’t a Transnational Meeting prior to the Mobility visit. Because of the pandemic, we had to change our plans and fewer staff were able to visit than we’d planned. Over the duration of the project, 7 staff have made at least one trip abroad.
In the school year 2019 - 2020, 7 children from Y6 visited Grevena, Greece on the Mobility visit. Between March and May 2022, 6 children from years 5 and 6 visited our partner schools in Slovenia, Italy and Spain on the Mobility visits. Over the duration of the project, 25 children have visited one of our partner schools.