The third and final face-to-face meeting of our project, “Communicating and Learning Is Life-Changing”, took place at the Bilingual Junior High School in Wiener Neustadt, Austria from the 8th to the 12th of April 2024. It proved to be a fitting culmination to several years of hard work, cooperation and dedication from teams of teachers from the BJHS, the Hämeenlinna Lyseo General Upper Secondary School, Finland and the 6th General Lyceum of Trikala, Greece.
The meeting successfully achieved several major goals in this intensive week. Most importantly, the final classroom scenarios for Computer Sciences/STEM were presented for implementation by Leonidas Leventis representing our partner organisation, the SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF LIFELONG LEARNING (SAPLLe).
In addition, each team updated the others on their status regarding completion of targets set prior to the meeting and plans to meet all obligations under our Erasmus+ application document on time and prior to the end of the project. The teams discussed the challenges and results of project implementation to date and shared experiences and successful implementation strategies with each other.
Due to the relatively short time frame to implement these scenarios before the project deadline it was decided to begin implementation during the meeting by creating complementary mixed teams of teachers from all of the schools in order to implement several computer sciences scenarios with classes of students of the BJHS.
Later in the week the visiting teams were given the opportunity to shadow the BJHS teaching team during classes across the curriculum and to view and discuss the bilingual classroom experience of the teachers and students of the BJHS.
Finally, discussions were held regarding planning and implementing Erasmus+ open days and dissemination events in each of the schools prior to the project deadline date of the 31st of May 2024. A meeting debrief was held to round off the week and present the participants with their certificates of participation.
In addition to the work completed during this week there were many memorable activities undertaken. These started off on Monday morning with a welcoming ceremony presented by the 40+ teachers and the almost 300 students of the BJHS, a warm dance and musical welcome presented by the students. Speeches were given and students presented each visiting participant with some handmade gifts. That afternoon there was a walking tour of Wiener Neustadt guided by some of our students. Later in the week the visiting teams were invited to the City Hall to meet with the Councilor for Education and Sport as the representing the City Council of Wiener Neustadt, Mag. Philipp Gruber. Mag. Gruber officially welcomed them to our small city and presented each team with some gifts courtesy of the City Council of Wiener Neustadt.
Of course, there was a little time for some fun and culture as well. A visit to the beautiful lakeside town of Rüst located directly on the largest lake in Austria, Neusiedlersee, was quite a highlight. And it wouldn’t be a visit to Austria without a hiking afternoon up a mountainside. A steep hike up to the Herrgottschnitzerhaus followed by traditional Austrian cuisine and a cool drink was a pleasant way to stretch the legs of our participants. Not to mention the reward of spectacular views across the Vienna Basin at the end of a strenuous hike.
Our final evening together was spent relaxing and laughing together over a meal and some unexpectedly competitive ten-pin bowling at a local entertainment centre in Wiener Neustadt. A well-earned reward for our hard-working teams.
It was another extremely successful week of cooperation, meeting challenges and exchanging experiences and ideas across three cultures and three institutions. Suffice it to say, it has been another invaluable Erasmus+ opportunity coming too quickly to a close.
