Start The Change present at Erasmus days “School in Change -giving voice to students’ projects”
On the 14 of October, the Start The change Portuguese team organized an online event – School in Change: Giving voice to the student’s projects – in the scope of the ERASMUS DAYS. It was a very interesting session that counted with the presence of students, professors, and many more education professionals.
In the first part of the session, the project and project’s objectives, partners, and activities were presented. The audience was made aware of the reason why this consortium is promoting Start the Change, namely, it was explained that the project aims to give more voice and participation possibilities to the students and provide teachers with support on topics related to diversity, participation, and volunteering. Furthermore, it was also communicated that it aims to support students in building their identity and social skills while reinforcing the importance of higher visibility of intercultural, volunteering topics in the school curricula.
After, the materials developed by the consortium were also presented, including the Handbook “The Voice of Children – Creating space and starting the change” and the Comparative Report “Student Voice as the Token of Quality School”. The professors present at the event seemed very enthusiastic and curious to explore these manuals and implement some of the activities with their students.
Then, it was time to give the “stage” to the students of the Loureiro School, from Oliveira de Azeméis, one of the Portuguese schools involved in the Start the Change activities. The students used their time in the spotlight to discuss the project ideas that they will implement during this school year. Some of the ideas include a student’s podcast, playing music during class breaks, volunteer actions, and many more creative plans for the school’s projects.
At the end of the event, the audience got to explore one of the activities of the Start The Change Handbook called “The Feelings Inspectors” and share their opinions about the session. Words like “Inspiring”, “Interesting” and “Innovative” were used by the participants to describe the event so we can say that the session was a success!
Author: Maria Antunes
