erasmus manifesto

1. Project Manifesto
Erasmus Plus HAPPENS
(Project 2015-1-ES01-KA219-015795)
2015-2017
Who are we?
We are educators and lifelong learners from six European Union countries.
We all work as teachers and/or administrators in Primary Schools in the
European Union: namely in Barcelona, Spain; Athens, Greece;Radomsko,
Poland; Galway, Ireland; Cardiff,Wales and Salerno, Italy. We joined
together using the e-twinning platform via the European Union Erasmus
Plus Programme KA219 (forschools only) in early 2015 to work together
on a projectto improve the health and wellbeing of our schoolcommunities.
What is the rationale behindour project?
We wanted to develop a stronger,broader and more defined programme of
health and wellbeing education both for students but also for staff and
parents/guardians within the schoolcommunity in which we work. We felt
that by doing this, we would work towards keeping children in formal
education longer and preventing early schoolleaving. After forming, we
decided to focus on three main areas, which are also areas which have
been designated as key areas of funding within the European Union 2020
projectand they are:
· Physical Fitness and Sport
· Social / Emotional / Mental Health & Wellbeing
· Obesity/Nutrition, Sleep & Rest
What are the aims and goals of our project?

2. To increase the level of overall health and wellness in our school
community in order to reduce the levels of early schoolleaving and
increase the levels of engagementwith formal education.
· To reduce the level of obesityin our schoolstudents by increasing
the amount of healthy food and water they consume and increasing
the amount and variety of exercise the students get.
· To improve the overall quality and increase the amount of sleep and
rest the students and staff get.
· To teach students and staff to regulate their own levels of stress
using meditation, mindfulness techniques, self-evaluation and other
methods where they can reduce their overall levels of stress and
increase the variety and effectiveness of their coping mechanisms
for handling adverse situations.
What projects and activities will we engagein together to reach these
aims and goals?
A broad but well researched variety of projects and activities will be offered
to ensure the aims of our projectare accomplished. We intend to hold
three, week long sessions of training and professional developmentto
educate, empowerand prepare all staff to share skills and schemes ofwork
designed to target pupils, staff and parents in improving overall health and
wellness. We will hold lectures and practical sessions inall areas targeted
i.e. physical fitness,healthy eating, mental well-being during staff training
and cascade this information to our staff, pupils and families through
practical activities set in the classroom and through other forms of
communication i.e. schoolnewsletters, social media and our webpage.
EuropeanUnion Research thatguides our work:
Childhood Obesity Hub of Research:

3. http://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition_physical_activity/docs/childhoodobesity
_actionplan_2014_2020_en.pdf
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/280604/WHO-Europe-
Mental-Health-Acion-Plan-2013-2020.pdf
How will we know if we have been successfulin our aims?
Our projectis structured and thoroughly researched. Our baseline
assessmentallows us to access bothquantitative and qualitative data
during the life of the project. We have built in deadlines to ensure regular
monitoring of progress.All training and projectactivities are designed and
organised to share knowledge and educate our communities. Our
European Partnership and our schools will be happier, healthier and more
knowledgeable at the end of the projectand the outputs and data will
supportthis end game.
How will we share our results and celebrateour successeswithin our
own networks,countriesand further afield within the European Union
learning community?
As part of our project dissemination,we will promote the programme and
share the positive outcomes on our schoolwebsite, blog,school
newsletters and local press.Our staff and schoolcommunity will be
informed of the outcomes of the final survey at end of the projectto inform
them of the improvements.They will also be made aware of any areas that
still require attention. Parents and families will be encouraged to continue
working on the areas of physical fitness,social/emotional/mental well-being
and nutrition/sleep and rest to maintain and improve any gains made within
the project.
Our schools will engage with other schools within our own countries via our
National Agencies at national conferencesand e-Twinning seminars to
share in our projects successes.All of our projectresults and products will
be shared on the European Union National Treasure website so that other
schools and agencies may use the resources in their own institutions.