1. TUDOR ARGHEZI THEORETICAL HIGHSCHOOL,
CRAIOVA, DOLJ
1st Newsletter of the Grundtvig Partnership
“NO MORE TEARS” 2010-2012
YEAR 2010 N 1 November
Newsletter coordinators:
Teachers:
Manafu Georgeta-project coordinator
Popescu Oana-learner
Student:
Melinescu Andreea-learner
School year 2010-2011
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2. 1st Newsletter of the Grundtvig Partnership
“NO MORE TEARS” 2010-2012
YEAR 2010 N 1 November
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Grundtvig project „No more tears”is a learning partnership
aimed at adults which is implemented by four partners at the
European level:
• The Seyhan School Inspectorate- Adana, Turkey
• The Adult Centre of Monterroso – Monterroso, Spania
• The „Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool- Craiova, România
• Institut für die Förderung von Mehrsprachigkeit, Interkulturellen
CONTENTS
Kompetenzen und Gleichbehandlung IFMIK- Viena, Austria.
1.THE PROJECT
“No MORE tears” Grundtvig educational partnerships are intended to promote
projects of cooperation between at least three European agencies
2.PROJECT
OBJECTIVES AND
working in the field of education for adults, in the broadest sense of
STRATEGY
the term, and eager to give a European dimension to their educational
3DESCRIPTION activities.
PARTNER NO. 1
The purpose of this project is to minimise the
4.DESCRIPTION occurrence of violence at school and in family behaviors by
PARTNER NO. 2
means of a thorough collaboration between the school and
5.DESCRIPTION the parents, as well as to provide training to
teachers/parents/students in conflict mediation and in the
PARTNER NO. 3
6.DESCRIPTION promotion of an assertive behavior. Family will have an
PARTNER NO. 4
important part within this project. Qualified studies show
7. ACTIVITIES
that 54% of aggressive young people come from families
experiencing permanent arguments and serious, repeated
8. 1 ST MEETING IN
ADANA conflicts. A sound, stable family environment will give the
9. ARTICLES child balance and security, which is why we will be using
informal training methods to enhance the parents’ ability to
communicate and solve conflicts. One of the social and
educational issues we have identified during these last few
years is physical and verbal abuse on the part of school
children when relating to their family and peers. We will be
able to identify, compare and analyze methods and examples
of good practice in conflict mediation that each partner
school uses. We will make beneficial experience exchanges
and give examples of good practice in order to reduce
violence and we will jointly elaborate a schedule and a training
material for teachers, parents and students within the
framework of the project .During the first year we will make
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3. case studies and will design activities meant to identify the main factors which bring
along family and school violence, while debating on a number of methods used to
prevent violence and solve conflicts. During the second year we will design the
training material and will hold peer-parents, peer-students and peer-teachers
consultations concerning "The reduction of family and school violence”.
The project will be a bridge between all the partners who will share their
culture.
The Grundtvig project „No more tears” has the national identification
number GRU-10-P-LP-25-DJ-TR and the project number LLP- Project 2010-1-TR1-
GRU06-16423 2 and is implemented at a county level by the following highschools
/schools/institutions:
• The „Traian Vuia” School Group
• The „Elena Cuza” National College
• The „Gheorghe Chiţu” National Economic College
• The 29th „Nicolae Romanescu” General School
• The „George Bibescu” School Group
• CEDRU (The excellence center for the development of human resources)
• The „St Mina” Special School
PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY
Objectives: promotion of examples of good practice by sharing our experience in reducing
school and family violence with other schools from other countries; professional development
of the staff involved in education (teachers, parents, managers); promotion of the
cooperation between various organizations involved in adults’ education throughout Europe;
promotion of the cooperation between informal and formal education systems from various
countries; development of innovative practices in adults’ education; elaboration of useful
educational devices for all European institutions providing formal and informal education: a
manual, DVD-s containing movies and other presentations, a Project blog, a chat on the
reduction of school and family violence and on adult education; improvement of linguistic,
computer, inter-cultural skills on the part of both parents and students; enhancement of the
development of mediation skills for parents, students and teachers, by holding peer-parents,
peer-students and peer-teachers consultations concerning "The reduction of school and
family violence”; consolidation of the relationships between school, the parents and the local
community; case studies aimed at identifying the main factors which bring along violence
between students and teachers; promotion of a set of measures that can be taken in order to
reduce school violence; open to diversity and presenting the basics of democracy; democratic
decision making and social responsibility, basic social and emotional abilities; promotion of
tolerance and responsible behavior, with no physical or verbal abuse neither within the family
nor at school.
SUBJECTS AND PROBLEMS TO BE ADDRESSED: since the development of a child’s
personality is 70% influenced by family, and so is school integration, we will train teachers
and parents in order to ensure a safe environment at home and at school, with no violence. We
will address issues such as violence in the family and schools, the violence caused by media
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4. and also internet, experience exchanges, solving conflicts, social responsibility, open to
diversity, democratic ABC.
APPROACHES: parents, teachers and students will be involved in all the activities that this
project will contain, such as informal education, trainings, seminars, publications, web pages,
brochures, workshop, conferences, symposiums.
DESCRIPTION OF PARTNER NO. 1
Seyhan District National Education Directorates is responsible for the central
administration of all aspects of education and related services in Seyhan district of Adana.
The Directorate’s main areas of responsibility are in pre-school, primary, post-primary and
special education; the youth service; the promotion of community relations within and
between schools; and teacher education. The Directorate also aims to ensure that children,
through participation at schools, reach the ,highest possible standards of educational
achievement. The Department also promotes personal well-being and social development for
adults, so that they gain the knowledge, skills and experience to reach their full potential as
valued individuals.
At present, the Education Department of Seyhan can be categorized into three
(three) different entities viz.
(1) Department of Education (Pre Primary and Primary)
(2) Department of Education (Secondary Education)
(3) Department of Adult Education.
Seyhan Provincial Directorate of National Education has great potential of teachers.
Therefore there is also great potential for taking an active role in this project and
implementing best practice findings, creating common idea on solving the problem of Violence
which will benefit the whole region which has 858 schools. Economic life reflected the social
life, seasonal worker immigration to the region started with the planting of the cotton. Our
city started to take intensive immigration from the years 1970 especially from the Southeast
cities of Turkey. The 38.6% of the people who have come to Adana with immigration are from
the Southeast Anatolian Region citizens. 61,4% are the people who have come from East and
other cities. Generally,the reason of the problems come from:
-Non planned urbanization,
-Immense piled population,
-Being a ghetto,
-Unhealthy life,
-Low education,
-Insufficient employment and enormous unemployment.
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5. DESCRIPTION OF PARTNER NO. 2
The “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical H igh School is situated in the South-Western part
of Romania in the city of Craiova. This is an under-privileged area from a social and economic
point of view. There is a large number of unemployed and retreated people, and the
proportion of active population versus retreated people is 0,7 by 1.According to a research of
the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies,
Oltenia, our area, is the sixth out of eight regions according to its
RIP (raw internal produce) for each inhabitant and to the density
of the businesses which are run here. Olternia is the last on this list
as for the surface and the number of businesses. Our pupils are
part of the middle class and they come from Craiova’ s
neighborhoods, as well as from other villages of Oltenia. The
“Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical High School provides a primary, a secondary and an upper study
system, but 7,33% of them are students enrolled at the Maximum Security Penitentiary. They
present a high risk of social exclusion;they are aged and have learning difficulties. The
students’ parents have modest social backgrounds, and most of them don’t have access to any
means of information.We’ve identified among the parents the need to be trained, to talk, to
express their opinions about their problems and we would like to find solutions to this need.
School is the first, most important factor, but it cannot work alone. It needs the family, the
community, and the entire society in order to support and guide students in growing up. We
wish to get involved in this partnership because we are aware of the fact that school success
is strictly related to how active their parents are in providing them with a good education.
Parents and schools should work together to help students achieve as much as they can in
their school life.
One of the social and educational issues we have identified during these last few years
is physical and verbal abuse on the part of school children when relating to their family and
peers. Schools and community groups are increasingly under pressure to respond to a lot of
social issues and anti-social behavior members of our team are all involved in different
activities aimed to reduce school violence. They are trainers, managers, one teacher
responsible for a specific committee within our school and another member of this
committee. We will promote:a European cultural space, responsibility, tolerance, openness to
dialogue.
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6. DESCRIPTION OF PARTNER NO. 3
IFMIK is an NGO located in Vienna, Austria. Our institute offers different courses for
students, parents and adult learners. Most of our courses are language courses for German,
Hungarian and English but also psychology, seminars etc.. Our colleagues are well trained
trainer with pedagogical diploma, but learning new methods is always very important for them.
There is a tendency in a modern society that busy parents devote less attention to their
children and in many cases it leads to problematic contacts between
parents and their children. Parents would benefit a lot because
during the meetings they express the opinions that they need new
knowledge in psychology
We want to take part in the European cooperation project
because: Participation in project motivates students to learn, parents to support their
children more and teachers to use new methods and with this project they can feel more near
to the European Community and understand the other nationalities more.
The aims of participation:
-parents’ motivation
-teachers’ development
Many of our students are migrants an so at risk of social exclusion.
DESCRIPTION OF PARTNER NO. 4
Adult Centre of Monterroso – Lugo - Spain. Educative activity with internal students in
Penitentiary Centre whose educative necessities are oriented towards a social re-education
We work with students from about 50 nationalities, with real problems of social integration
and special difficulties in languages, in the line to develop the program of multicultural
education in coordination with the Penitentiary Centre of Monterroso.
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7. THE ACTIVITIES WE HAVE HELD BETWEEN AUGUST AND
OCTOBER
• Each partner designed its own project information board;
• An implementation team has been assigned in each country based on criteria all four
partners have agreed upon;
• The partners designed and applied questionnaires to test the level of violence and
interpreted the results;
• Each institution made multimedia presentations of its traditions, culture, country and
specific activity;
• Ms. Georgeta Manafu deisgned the project blogspot:
http://grundtvigprojectnomoretears.blogspot.com/
1 ST MEETING IN ADANA
• The „Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool was represented at the first
transnational meeting in Turkey by three staff members and one learner. They
presented:
• The project blogspot designed by Ms. Georgeta Manafu. The aprtners discussed means
of posting entries on the blogspot;
• Multimedia presentations of the „Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool, of the town
and the country, of the national cultures and traditions, as well as a review of the
Romanian educational system;
• The interpretation of the questionnaires applied on students, teachers and parents to
test the level of violence in the Dolj county;
• The activities we have held between august and october.
• The schedule of the project meeting included: the presentation of the partner
institutions, a visit to the Seyhan school inspectorate and to a state-funded faculty,
multicultural soirees, workshops on the reduction of school and family violence.
• The project partners were assigned different tasks to complete for the time between
November and February.
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8. SOCIAL AND CIVIC SKILLS
Ms. Georgeta Manafu, Tudor Arghezi HIGH SCHOOL
• Tolerance is a social, ethical and religious term applied to a group or an individual, defining
respect for other people’s freedom, thoughts, behaviour, or any opinion, whatever nature
it may have.
• Tolerance means respecting, accepting and appreciating the wealth and diversity of our
world, cultures, means of expressing ourselves as human beings. It is encouraged by
knowledge, an open spirit, communication, freedom of thoughts, faith and conscience.
• Tolerance means a harmony among all differences. It is not merely an ethical obligation; it
is also a political and legal necessity. Tolerance is a virtue that makes it possible for peace
to exist and makes a peace culture replace the war culture.
• Education must be directed towards tolerance; this is a reason why systematic, reasonable
methods of teaching tolerance must be promoted, by making use of any cultural, social,
economic, political and religious sources of intolerance which may lead to violence and
exclusion.
• Civic skills are based on democracy, justice, equality, citizenship, civil rights related to
the way in which they are expressed in the European Union’s Chart of Fundamental Rights
and in international declarations, and to the way in which they are implemented by
different local, regional, national and international institutions all over Europe.
• Social skills have to do with social and personal welfare, which involves understanding the
way in which individuals can have a good mental and physical health, by using different
resources for themselves, their family and their social environment, as well as an entire
set of knowledge about how this can contribute to a healthy lifestyle
• Being empathic means showing understanding, friendship and respect towards other
people’s feelings, and proving to be interested in what they think, say or do.
• Negotiation is another social skill and it implies the ability to identify common objectives,
to express one’s arguments clearly, to try to understand the others’ attitudes, to look for
solutions and to make some compromises.
• Leadership means to communicate your feelings and thoughts in order to justify your
decisions; to encourage those around you; to use rules and values in order to get positive
results; to be able to make the others believe in you, in your abilities and in your honesty.
• Teamwork: work with the others; put in ideas and effort, take tasks and achieve them;
encourage your team mates; solve conflicts for everyone’s sake.
• Cultural diversity: learn how to work with people of a different ethnic origin, whose
education or belief are different from yours’. Accept the fact that people are different
and only make an opinion on someone based on their behaviour, not on stereotypes. When
necessary, help the others integrate.
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